democratization efforts, weaken U.S. partnerships with European allies, undermine Western sanctions, encourage anti-U.S. political views, and counter efforts to bring Ukraine and other former Soviet states into European institutions.
12. In 2018, pursuant to Executive Order 13661, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in consultation with the U.S. Department of State, listed seven Russian oligarchs and 12 companies they own or control, 17 senior Russian government officials, including the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL, and a state-owned Russian weapons trading company and its subsidiary, a Russian bank, as specially designated nationals. OFAC sanctioned the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL for being an Official of the Government of the Russian Federation. In sanctioning these entities, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin announced:
The Russian government engages in a range of malign activity around the globe, including continuing to occupy Crimea and instigate violence in eastern Ukraine, supplying the Assad regime with material and weaponry as they bomb their own civilians, attempting to subvert Western democracies, and malicious cyber activities. Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government's destabilizing activities.
THE DEFENDANT'S ACTIVITIES ON BEHALF OF RUSSIA
13. As detailed below, the FBI's investigation has revealed that BUTINA, the defendant, was working in the United States at the direction of the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL.
14. The FBI's investigation has further revealed that BUTINA and the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL took steps to develop relationships with American politicians in order to establish private, or as she called them, "back channel" lines of communication. These lines could be used by the Russian Federation to penetrate the US. national decision-making apparatus to advance the agenda of the Russian Federation.
15. The FBI's investigation has also revealed that BUTINA and the RUSSIAN
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