WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has charged a Russian oligarch linked to the Kremlin with violating U.S. government sanctions, and disrupted a cybercrime operation that was launched by a Russian military intelligence agency, officials said Wednesday.
Highlights
- The Biden administration has charged a Russian oligarch linked to the Kremlin with violating U.S.
- government sanctions, and disrupted a cybercrime operation that was launched by a Russian military intelligence agency, officials said Wednesday.
- The actions came as the Justice Department said it was accelerating efforts to track down illicit Russian assets.
- The indictment against Konstantin Malofeyev, a Russian media baron and founder of Russian Orthodox news channel Tsargrad TV, is the first of an oligarch since Russia’s war with Ukraine began in February.
- The two sanctions charges each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
- The Justice Department also announced they had taken down a botnet — a network of hijacked computers typically used for malicious activity — that was controlled