St. Pete Uhurus Indicted As Russia Accused Of Influencing FL Elections

Updated: 4:43 p.m., Tuesday

TAMPA, FL — Four members of a St. Petersburg political group have been indicted on federal charges that accuse them of working to interfere with local elections, spread pro-Russia propaganda and disseminate misinformation about Western political views.

A federal grand jury in Tampa returned a superseding indictment Tuesday charging the St. Petersburg residents and three Russian nationals with trying to subvert U.S. election campaigns on behalf of the Russian government.

Prosecutors claim the U.S. citizens and Russian agents carried out a "malign influence campaign" over several years at the direction of the Russian Federal Security Service, the Russian executive body charged with national security and counterterrorism.

From at least November 2014 until July 2022, Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a resident of Moscow, recruited members of political groups in the United States. Those groups included the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement (collectively, the APSP) in Florida, Black Hammer in Georgia and a political group in California (referred to in the indictment as U.S. Political Group 3) to participate in the influence campaign and act as agents of Russia in the United States.

Local indicted defendants are:

• Omali Yeshitela, a U.S. citizen living in St. Petersburg and St. Louis, Missouri, who served as the chairman and founder of the APSP;
• Penny Joanne Hess, a U.S. citizen living in St. Petersburg and St. Louis who served as the leader of a component of the APSP;
• Jesse Nevel, a U.S. citizen living in St. Petersburg and St. Louis who served as a member of a component of the APSP; and
• Augustus C. Romain Jr., aka Gazi Kodzo, a U.S. citizen residing in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Atlanta, who served as a leader of the APSP and a founder of Black Hammer in Georgia.

According to Tuesday's indictment, the Russian intelligence officers recruited, funded and directed U.S. political groups to act as illegal agents of the Russian government with the intent of sowing discord and spreading pro-Russian propaganda, said investigators.

U.S. prosecutors have accused the indicted Russian intelligence officers of covertly funding and directing candidates for local office, including elections in St. Petersburg.

Related:

• Ties To Russia's FSB Defended By St. Pete Uhuru Leader
• Russian Misinformation Campaign Linked To FL Uhuru House: Report
• County Funding Revoked For Uhuru-Affiliated Radio Station In St. Pete

Among other illegal activities, the indictment accuses Ionov and Moscow-based FSB officers, including indicted defendants Aleksey Borisovich Sukhodolov and Yegor Sergeyevich Popov, of conspiring to directly influence democratic elections in the United States by secretly funding and directing the political campaign of Eritha Akilé Cainion, who ran for the St. Petersburg City Council District 7 seat in 2019.

Prosecutors said Popov referred to this effort on behalf of the FSB as “our election campaign,” and Ionov referred to the candidate as the “candidate whom we supervise.”

During a news conference on Aug. 1, 2022, members of the St. Pete Uhuru House denounced the investigation into Ionov.

Cainion called the charges against Ionov and the investigation into his relationship with the Uhurus “a propaganda campaign against Russia” by the U.S. government and an attack on her group.

“They are attempting to attack this organization. They are attempting to isolate the Black power movement,” she said. “We can have relationships with whoever want to, whoever we see fit to make this revolution possible. We will have a relationship with them. We unite with any force that is willing to unite in our anti-colonial struggle.”

Ionov and Popov intended to extend the interference plot beyond the 2019 local election cycle in St. Petersburg, and discussed the “USA Presidential election” as the FSB’s “main topic of the year.”

"The federal allegations about potential Russian interference are troubling. It is important to underscore that the city of St. Petersburg does not support, condone or tolerate any foreign government engaging in activities to undermine or influence our elections,” Mayor Kenneth T. Welch said. “The investigation is in the purview of our federal law enforcement agencies, and we will be monitoring the process going forward."

Yeshitela, Hess and Nevel are also charged with acting as agents of Russia in the United States without prior notification. If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

“Russia’s foreign intelligence service allegedly weaponized our First Amendment rights — freedoms Russia denies its own citizens — to divide Americans and interfere in elections in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, in a statement.

“The department will not hesitate to expose and prosecute those who sow discord and corrupt U.S. elections in service of hostile foreign interests, regardless of whether the culprits are U.S. citizens or foreign individuals abroad," Olsen said.

“Efforts by the Russian government to secretly influence U.S. elections will not be tolerated,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, in a news release.

“The prosecution of this criminal conduct is essential to protecting the American public when foreign governments seek to inject themselves into the American political process,” said U.S. Attorney Roger B. Handberg of the Middle District of Florida in Tampa.

Investigators said one focus of Ionov’s influence operation was to create the appearance of American popular support for Russia’s annexation of territories in Ukraine.

For example, in May 2020, Ionov sent a request he said was from “Russia, the Donetsk People’s Republic" — an apparent reference to a Russian-occupied region in eastern Ukraine — to Yeshitela and members of other U.S. political groups to speak out in support of the independence of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, a Russian-backed breakaway state in eastern Ukraine, according to the affidavit.

Investigators said Ionov later touted to the FSB that Yeshitela’s video-recorded statement of support was the first time that “American nonprofit organizations congratulated citizens” of the occupied region.

Ionov’s use of the APSP to promote Russian propaganda relating to Ukraine continued after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to investigators. On the day Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Ionov emailed Nevel an “Urgent Message” which contained pro-Russian talking points in support of the invasion, said the affidavit.

Ionov, Sukhodolov, Popov, Yeshitela, Hess, Nevel and Romain are charged with conspiring to have U.S. citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government within U.S. borders without notifying the U.S. attorney general, as required by law. If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison.