The United States has indicted and imposed sanctions on Russian state media executives and restricted the activities of Kremlin-linked broadcasters, accusing Moscow of a large-scale campaign to influence the presidential election.

The Justice, State and Treasury Departments announced coordinated measures on Wednesday to “aggressively counter” the alleged operations.

Attorney General Merrick Garland accused state broadcaster RT (formerly Russia Today) of paying a Tennessee company $10 million to “create and distribute content to a U.S. audience containing hidden messages from the Russian government.”

RT chief Margarita Simonyan was one of ten people sanctioned for alleged attempts to “damage public trust in our institutions.” RT denied involvement.

Mr Garland said Moscow wanted to ensure a “preferred outcome” in the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the Russian program was aimed at “reducing international support for Ukraine, strengthening pro-Russian policies and interests, and influencing voters here in the United States.”

Meanwhile, a Treasury Department official said RT and other Russian state media had launched a “shameful campaign to secretly and unwittingly recruit American influencers to support their malign activities.”

The Biden administration’s response so far includes:

• Charges against two Moscow-based RT executives – Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27 – for paying content creators on U.S. soil to serve up “pro-Russian propaganda and disinformation” to U.S. audiences;
• Sanctions against two companies and ten individuals, including Simonyan, RT editor-in-chief, for “activities aimed at destroying public trust in our institutions”;
• Restricting visa issuance for employees of Kremlin-backed media outlets;
• Seizure of 32 internet domain names used to spread “covertly AI-generated hoaxes” on social media targeting specific demographics and regions in the United States;
• Classifying Rossiya Segodnya and five of its subsidiaries (RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly and Sputnik) as “foreign missions” with an obligation to report information about their personnel to the US government;
• A reward of $10 million is being offered for information on hackers linked to the Russian group “Russian Angry Hackers Did It” (RaHDit).

Much of the Kremlin’s disinformation efforts are directed and funded by RT, Kirby said.

“RT is no longer just a propaganda arm of the Kremlin,” he said. “It is being used to advance covert Russian influence operations.”

The state media company mocked the US government’s accusations, saying in a statement to the BBC: “The year 2016 has called and wants its clichés back.”

“Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT’s interference in the US elections.”

The charges against Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva do not name the Tennessee-based content creation company that hired them.

But the description in the court filing that it is “a network of heterodox commentators focusing on Western political and cultural issues” corresponds to the self-description on the website of a media outlet called Tenet Media.

Tenet posts thousands of English-language videos on social media and promotes well-known right-wing commentators Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Dave Rubin as its “talents.”

The company was contacted for comment.

US authorities warn that since Russia’s efforts in 2016, more and more foreign opponents have tried to interfere in the country’s elections.

In June, a group of hackers with ties to the Iranian government managed to penetrate Donald Trump’s campaign and leak internal documents.

A month later, the Justice Department announced the seizure of two domain names and the search of nearly 1,000 social media accounts operated by Russian actors in an effort to “build an AI-powered social media bot farm to spread disinformation.”

Researchers have also uncovered a growing Chinese influence operation aimed at infiltrating and influencing political conversations on U.S. social media.

Chinese President Xi Jinping promised at a summit with President Joe Biden last November that his country would not interfere in the US elections.

Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said on Tuesday that the U.S. could “absolutely expect that foreign adversaries would seek to undermine Americans’ faith in our democracy … and sow partisan division.”

“And that is why it is up to all of us not to allow our foreign opponents to succeed.”

Eight years ago, Russia conducted a sophisticated campaign that included hacking the Democratic National Committee and leaking stolen documents to Wikileaks with the intent of damaging Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Many Democrats argue that the operation contributed to Trump’s ultimate victory in November.

US politicians and intelligence officials have now concluded that the operation was ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In 2018, 12 Russian military intelligence officers were charged with orchestrating the attack and federal arrest warrants were issued against them.