US says three Russians offered congressman a free trip as part of a propaganda and disinformation ca

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

(CNN)Federal prosecutors in New York on Thursday unsealed an indictment charging a member of Russia's legislature and two of his staffers with orchestrating a propaganda and disinformation campaign targeting US lawmakers.

Aleksandr Babakov, deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma, and his staffers Aleksandr Vorobev and Mikhail Plisyuk, were charged with conspiring to act in the US as an unregistered foreign agent, conspiring to violate US sanctions and conspiring to commit visa fraud.

As part of the alleged scheme, in 2017, prosecutors said the men allegedly violated US sanctions laws by seeking to recruit at least one US businessman and at least one congressman with an all-expenses paid trip to attend a conference in Yalta, an area in Russian-controlled Crimea, for the benefit of Sergey Aksyonov, a Russian placed on the US sanctions list following Russia's annexation of Crimea.

The congressman, who was not identified, did not accept the invitation, the indictment said.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/14/politics/us-lawmakers-russians-duma-propaganda/index.html

[Budi]

1. Who was on the July 4th trip to Russia?

[pazzyanne]

2. This is what I found in a Hill article:

"The GOP lawmakers, Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Thune (S.D.), John Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.) and John Hoeven (N.D.), and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), spent July 4 in Moscow’s U.S. Embassy, NPR reported. {mosads}"

[Budi]

3. Yup. They're ALL Big Business & Oil Brokers too.

I hope this whole bunch is on that list.