TAMPA, Fla. — Federal law enforcement officials appear to be investigating members of the Uhuru Movement in St. Petersburg for alleged connections to a Russian government official who prosecutors say directed U.S. political groups in a campaign to sow political divisions, spread pro-Russian propaganda and interfere in U.S. elections.
St. Petersburg police executed search warrants Friday morning at multiple locations, including the Uhuru House at 245 18th Ave. South.
The search warrants appear to be related to an indictment that was unsealed Friday against a Russian national, who is accused of working with the Russian government and intelligence services in efforts to interfere in U.S. politics.
Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, who lives in Moscow, worked with others in Russia in a years-long “foreign malign influence campaign against the U.S.,” according to federal prosecutors. He worked with American political groups to enflame political divisions and spread misinformation, prosecutors said.
The indictment refers to a group in St. Petersburg as “U.S. Political Group 1,” though it does not name the Uhurus specifically. At a news conference Friday, authorities declined to name the group or say where they had served three federal warrants this morning. However, St. Petersburg police confirmed Friday morning that federal agents served a warrant at the Uhuru House.
Uhuru leaders held their own news conference after a law enforcement press briefing on the indictment.
“We can have relationships with whoever want to make this revolution possible,” said Eritha “Akile” Cainion. “We are in support of Russia.”
Ionov is the founder of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, an organization funded by the Russian government.
In May 2015, he paid for the leader of the St. Petersburg group to travel to Russia to discuss future political cooperation, prosecutors said. For the next seven years, Ionov “exercised direction and control over senior members” of the St. Petersburg group. He used their leaders to foster discord in the U.S., spreading pro-Russia sentiments “under the guise of a domestic political organization,” prosecutors said.
In September 2015, the indictment alleges, Ionov again paid for the leader of the St. Petersburg group to attend a “Dialogue of Nations” conference in Moscow. When he returned to Florida, the leader made clear to group members that Ionov’s organization was an instrument of the Russian government and that they “did not disturb us.”
A week later, in an email discussion, the St. Petersburg group’s leaders wrote that it was “more than likely” that the Russian government was using Ionov’s organization to sew division within the U.S.
He also interfered in local elections. This included in 2016 funding a “four-city protest tour.” The tour supported a “Petition on Crime of Genocide Against African People in the United States,” which Ionov directed the group to submit to the United Nations.
In 2017 and 2019, Ionov “monitored and supported” two candidates in St. Petersburg political campaigns, who are referred to in the indictment as unindicted co-conspirators. Before the 2019 primary election, Ionov wrote to a Russian government official that he’d been “consulting every week” on St. Petersburg candidate’s campaign. When the candidate advanced to the general election, a Russian Federal Security Service officer wrote to Ionov that “our campaign is kind of unique,” according to the indictment. He also wrote “are we the first in history?”
Ionov later sent additional details about the election to the officer, referring to the candidate “whom we supervise.”
Ionov maintained a relationship with the St. Petersburg group until March of this year, according to the indictment.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early this year, the group repeatedly hosted Ionov by videoconference to discuss the war. During the meetings, Ionov falsely stated that anyone who supports Ukraine also supported Naziism and white supremacy, prosecutors said.
In a report to the Russian Federal Security Service, Ionov wrote that he had enlisted the St. Petersburg group to support Russia in the “information war unleashed” by the west, prosecutors said.
The indictment also alleges Ionov similarly controlled two other American political groups, one in California and the other in Atlanta.
He is charged with conspiring to have U.S. citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government.
“The facts and circumstances surrounding this indictment are some of the most egregious and blatant violations we’ve seen by the Russian government in order to destabilize and undermine trust in American democracy,” David Walker, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Tampa field office said during the noon news conference.
Located at 1245 18th Ave. South in St. Petersburg, the Uhuru House is the headquarters for the International Uhuru Movement. The group is part of a “worldwide organization, under the leadership of African People’s Socialist Party, uniting African people as one people for liberation, social justice, self-reliance and economic development.”
The Uhurus have a history of being critical of city leaders and the police department.
On Friday morning, 12th Avenue S and 18th Avenue S were closed off by multiple St. Petersburg police cars and multiple rows of caution tape. The pan African flag at the Uhuru house was blowing in the wind.
On July 7, police arrested 19-year-old Kenny Jay Raymond, who they said had launched a flamethrower at a Pan-African flag outside the house. In his arrest affidavit, Raymond said he hated socialists and seeing the “ugly flag” on his drive to and from work.
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