WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration seized Kremlin-run websites and charged two Russian state media employees, its most comprehensive attempt yet to push back against what it sees as Russian attempts to spread disinformation before the presidential elections in November.

The measures, which included charges, sanctions and visa restrictions, were an attempt by the US government to quell a persistent threat from Russia just weeks before the November election, which American officials have long warned could sow discord and cause confusion among voters. Washington has said Moscow, which intelligence agencies say favors Republican Donald Trump, remains the biggest threat to elections while the FBI continues to investigate an Iranian hacking attack this year that targeted the Presidential campaigns of both political parties.

“The message from the Department of Justice is clear: We will have zero tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic systems of government,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

In a criminal case announced by the Justice Department, two employees of Russia’s state-owned media company RT are accused of secretly funding a Tennessee-based content creation company with nearly $10 million to post English-language videos on social media platforms such as TikTok and YouTube with messages favoring Russian government interests and agendas, including about the war in Ukraine.

The nearly 2,000 videos posted by the company have been viewed more than 16 million times on YouTube alone, prosecutors said.

The two defendants, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, are accused of conspiracy to launder money and violating the law on the registration of foreign agents. They are at large. It was initially unclear whether they have lawyers.

The Justice Ministry said the company had not disclosed that it was funded by RT and that neither it nor its founders had registered as representatives of a foreign principal, as required by law.

Although the company is not named in the indictment, it is a Tennessee-based content creation company with six commentators and a website that describes itself as “a network of heterodox commentators focused on Western political and cultural issues.”

This description fits Tenet Media, an online company that hosts videos from well-known conservative influencers Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and others.

Johnson and Pool both responded with posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, calling themselves “victims.” Pool called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “scumbag” and wrote, “If these allegations turn out to be true, I and the other personalities and commentators have been deceived.”

In his post, Johnson wrote that he was asked a year ago to provide content for a “media startup.” He said his lawyers negotiated a “standard remote contract that was later terminated.”

Tenet Media’s shows have featured high-profile conservative guests in recent months, including RNC co-chair Lara Trump, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake.

In another move, authorities announced the seizure of 32 internet domains used by the Kremlin to spread Russian propaganda and weaken global support for Ukraine. The websites were designed to look like authentic news sites, but were in fact fake. The fake social media personas looked like they belonged to American users.

While the Justice Department did not disclose which candidate the campaign was specifically targeting, internal strategy documents released Wednesday make it clear that Trump and his campaign were the intended beneficiaries.

The propaganda project proposal states that one of its goals is to ensure victory for a candidate who is not currently in power and to increase the percentage of Americans who believe the U.S. has done too much to support Ukraine. President Joe Biden has strongly supported Ukraine during Russia’s invasion.

The names of the candidates and their parties are blacked out in the documents released by the Justice Department.

Intelligence agencies have previously accused Russia of launching a massive foreign influence and interference campaign on behalf of Trump during the 2016 election and of attempting to use disinformation to interfere in this year’s election. The new moves demonstrate the depth of US concern and suggest that legal action will be taken against those allegedly involved.

“Today’s announcement underscores the lengths some foreign governments will go to undermine American democratic institutions,” the State Department said. “But those foreign governments should also know that we will not tolerate foreign malign actors intentionally interfering in and undermining free and fair elections.”

The US State Department announced that it would take action against several employees of Russian state media outlets, classifying them as “foreign missions” and offering a cash reward for information leaked to the US government about foreign election interference.

It also said that the media company Rossiya Segodnya and its subsidiaries RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly and Sputnik would be added to the list of foreign missions. They would then have to register with the US government and disclose their real estate and personnel in the US.

In a speech last month, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Russia remained the biggest threat on election integrity, accusing Putin and his proxies of “targeting specific groups of voters and voters from swing states to manipulate the results of the presidential and congressional elections.” Russia, she said, is “out to co-opt unsuspecting Americans on social media to spread narratives that serve Russian interests.”

She struck a similar tone on Thursday when she said at an event hosted by the Aspen Institute in Washington that the threat from foreign influence was more diverse and aggressive than in recent years.

“More diverse and more aggressive because there are more actors involved from more countries than ever before, operating in a more polarized world than ever before, and it’s all driven by more technology and accelerated by technologies like AI, and that’s what we’ve uncovered with the law enforcement actions we’ve taken today,” she said.

Much of the concern about Russia revolves around cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns aimed at influencing the November election. Tactics include using state-run media outlets like RT to spread anti-American messages and content, as well as networks of fake websites and social media accounts that amplify the claims and feed them into Americans’ online conversations. Typically, these networks take up polarizing political issues, such as immigrationCrime or the war in Gaza.

In many cases, Americans may have no idea that the content they see online either originated from or was amplified by the Kremlin.

“Russia is taking a whole-of-government approach to influencing elections, including the presidential election,” an official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said during a news conference this summer. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under rules worked out with that office.

Kremlin-linked groups are increasingly hiring marketing and communications firms in Russia to outsource some of the work of creating digital propaganda while covering their tracks, the officials said during the news conference.

Two of these companies were subject to new US sanctions announced in March. Authorities say the two Russian companies created fake websites and social media profiles to spread disinformation about the Kremlin.

But the ultimate goal is to get Americans to spread Russian misinformation without questioning its origins. People trust and are much more likely to publish information they believe comes from a domestic source, officials say. Fake websites Designed to mimic US news outlets and AI-generated social media profiles are just two methods.

Messages left with the Russian embassy were not immediately answered.

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Associated Press writers Dan Merica and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Ali Swenson in New York and Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.