https://sputnikglobe.com/20240905/political-witch-hunt-us-activists-go-to-trial-in-florida-accused-of-acting-as-russian-agents-1120019974.html
Political Witch Hunt: US Activists Go to Trial in Florida, Accused of Acting as Russian Agents
Political Witch Hunt: US Activists Go to Trial in Florida, Accused of Acting as Russian Agents
Sputnik International
The four activists are associated with the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement with locations in the US cities of St. Petersburg and St. Louis.
2024-09-05T02:34+0000
2024-09-05T02:34+0000
2024-09-05T02:34+0000
analysis
scott ritter
jeremy kuzmarov
omali yeshitela
russia
ukraine
federal bureau of investigation (fbi)
fbi
kremlin
political censorship
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Four activists who have been accused of “illegally” acting as Russian agents to somehow help the Kremlin create political discord and interference in US elections will go to trial in Florida on Tuesday, CBS News reported. The four activists are associated with the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement with locations in the US cities of St. Petersburg and St. Louis. One of the activists is Omali Yeshitela, 82, whose organization focuses on Black empowerment and reparations for slavery.An attorney for the 82-year-old activist said that while the civil rights group shared many goals of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, they were not acting under the Kremlin’s control. The judge handling the case said it is unrelated to claims of Russia interfering in the 2016 US presidential election. All four activists have pleaded not guilty.Jeremy Kuzmarov, a managing editor of Covert Action magazine, the author of several books on US foreign policy, joined The Final Countdown on Wednesday to discuss the US government’s continued attacks on dissidents and independent thinkers in the states. Writing about the attack for Green Left, Yeshitela said that at 5 AM on Friday in July of 2022, about 30 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and police in armored vehicles used flash-bang grenades and broke down the door of his home. At the same time, other Uhuru Movement leaders also had their homes raided. Yeshitela said that the FBI agents did not show him any warrant, and said the raid was connected to the indictment of a “Russian man who is in Russia who was supposedly spreading ‘Russian influence’ in the US.»“With assault rifles pointed at my chest, they forced me out of the house along with my wife Ona Zené Yeshitela, a critical leader of our movement,” said the activist, who acknowledged traveling to Russia and other countries for conferences. “Even though we were not formally under arrest and faced no charges, they handcuffed us and told us to sit on the curb, which we refused to do.”It was not until nine months after they raided their homes that the US DOJ announced indictments against the civil rights leaders.Prosecutors wrote in the 2023 indictment that Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov engaged with the four defendants “for years” and urged them to make pro-Russian statements while paying for their travel. He also allegedly paid for two unsuccessful political campaigns for St. Petersburg City Council and a protest tour to raise awareness of the genocide against African people in the US. The total amount of payments to the defendants seems to be at least $10,000, according to a report from the New York Times.Jill Stein, an American physician, activist, and politician as well as the US Green Party’s nominee for the 2024 US presidential election, said the “attack on the Uhuru Three is fundamentally an attack on free speech, on our right to oppose endless wars and economic oppression abroad.” She added that the attack was on “our right to oppose the cost of these endless wars at home, namely economic austerity and the war on democracy.»The US Department of Justice began a broad criminal investigation into US citizens who have worked with Russian state television networks, according to a report released last month.Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who is a critic of US foreign policy and Dimitri K. Simes, Russian TV Channel One presenter and founder of the US-based think tank Center for the National Interest, had their homes searched by FBI agents. Charges have not been made against either men. However, electric equipment was seized from Ritter, while Simes said agents removed artwork from his home in Virginia and froze multiple bank accounts.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230420/ridiculous-election-discord-case-meant-to-quiet-ukraine-pushback-restore-us-cold-war-climate-1109677467.html
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240904/us-slaps-sanctions-on-rossiya-segodnya-media-group-1120019219.html
russia
ukraine
2024
Mary Manley
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Mary Manley
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Mary Manley
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uhuru, civil rights, political persercution, freedom of speech, free speech, american authoritarianism, american witch hunt, american journalists, independent media, independent journalists, alternative media, mainstream media, biased government, russia today, russia government, russian interference, political interference
uhuru, civil rights, political persercution, freedom of speech, free speech, american authoritarianism, american witch hunt, american journalists, independent media, independent journalists, alternative media, mainstream media, biased government, russia today, russia government, russian interference, political interference
The activists, who fight for the rights of Black people and others in the US, have been accused of trying to “sow division” in the US because they oppose US policy regarding the war in Ukraine.
