Imposing Sanctions on Actors Supporting Kremlin-Directed Disinformation Efforts

The United States is today designating two individuals and two entities for providing services to the government of Russia in connection with a foreign malign influence campaign.

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is designating Russia-based Social Design Agency (SDA) and Company Group Structura LLC (Structura) as well as their founder and CEO, respectively.  Structura and SDA have implemented, on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation, a network of over 60 websites that impersonated genuine news organizations in Europe, then used bogus social media accounts to amplify the misleading content of the spoofed websites.

Today’s action reflects our continued efforts to counter the Kremlin’s malign influence operations.  We will continue to expose Russia’s ongoing efforts to mislead audiences through state-directed deception campaigns.  The United States remains committed to deterring and disrupting the Kremlin’s repeated attempts to undermine democracy.

These designations follow prior U.S. Department of the Treasury actions that have highlighted and disrupted Russia’s global malign influence campaigns, which have included U.S. election interference, efforts to subvert democracy in Moldova, destabilization activities in Ukraine, and the operation of outlets controlled by Russian intelligence services, among others.  Today’s Treasury action was taken pursuant to Executive Order 14024, as amended.  For more information on today’s action, see Treasury’s press release.