The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
US officials said Russia's goal is to exacerbate US political divisions and weaken public support for American aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia.
The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on ANO Dialog, a Russian nonprofit that helps run the Doppelganger network, as well as the editor-in-chief of RT, Ms Margarita Simonyan, and her deputies. The United States was caught flat-footed in 2016 as its spy agencies learned about Russian efforts to influence the vote on behalf of Trump and were late in warning the public. In subsequent elections, US intelligence officials more aggressively called out Russian, Chinese and Iranian efforts to influence US elections.
The officials say that RT has spread disinformation through bots and other means, but that they are looking more closely at how the Kremlin and its spy agencies influence the election. Mr Garland said the videos were “often consistent with Russia’s interest in amplifying US domestic divisions in order to weaken US opposition to core Russian interests, particularly its ongoing war in Ukraine”. The Tennessee company, he said, never disclosed its ties to the Russian government.
Critics of the US moves said the indictments raised free speech issues and the possibility that the Biden administration was trying to censor pro-Russian commentary. Mr Christopher Wray, the FBI director, said the fake news sites had been seized by the government as of noon.
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