3 Russian Citizens Charged With Evading US Sanctions, Recruiting US Citizens to Act as Agents

Three Russian citizens -- legislator Aleksandr Babakov and two staff members, Aleksandr Vorobev and Mikhail Plisyuk -- were charged with conspiring to use a Russian agent in the U.S. without proper notification, violate U.S. sanctions and commit visa fraud, DOJ announced. The indictment is cited as being the work of Task Force KleptoCapture -- the U.S.'s interagency task force charged with enforcing recent sanctions action following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

From 2012 through at least 2017, the trio allegedly operated an "international foreign influence and disinformation network to advance the interests of Russia," DOJ said. Babokov, the legislator, and Vorobev, his chief of staff, and Plisyuk, another staff member, used a Russian nonprofit -- the Institute for International Integration Studies -- to affect U.S. policy via staged events, propoganda and the recruitment of American citizens.

The indictment alleges that Babakov, Vorobev and Plisyuk contacted at least one member of the U.S. Congress to travel to a conference in Yalta to benefit the supposed Prime Minister of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov -- an individual placed under U.S. sanctions in 2014 relating to the occupation of Crimea. DOJ said the congressperson did not accept the offer. The trio also allegedly submitted fake visa applications looking to travel to the U.S. for vacation when they really went to hold meetings with U.S. policymakers. The visa applications were denied.

In all, Babakov, Vorobev and Plisyuk are charged with one count of conspiring to have a U.S. citizen act as a Russian agent in the U.S. without telling the attorney general, one count of conspiring to violate and evade U.S. sanctions, and one count of conspiring to commit visa fraud. The charges carry a maximum sentence of five years, 20 years and five years in prison, respectively.

“The indictment alleges that a high-ranking Putin-aligned legislator and his closest staffers, all three of whom are sanctioned, engaged in a global campaign to influence and gain access to U.S. elected officials,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said. DOJ “will not hesitate to prosecute those who seek to covertly influence the American political process and evade U.S. sanctions.”