Putin jokingly supports Harris as US charges Russia with more election interference

WASHINGTON − A day after federal prosecutors shut down an alleged Russian disinformation mill that funneled millions of dollars to a web of fake news sites and a conservative Tennessee media brand, Vladimir Putin joked that his country actually favors Vice President Kamala Harris in the November election.

"She laughs so expressively and infectiously that it means that everything is fine with her," the Russian president said to laughs of his own at a forum in the eastern port city of Vladivostok.

Putin and other members of his Kremlin circle have often responded to Western accusations of misinformation and espionage with sarcasm.

On Wednesday, after Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Russian state news outlet RT had secretly funded a $10 million network of social media influencers, podcasts and fake news sites in the U.S., RT responded that "Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT's interference in the U.S. elections."

More: Russia wants Trump back in White House. Iran doesn't. Let the election hacking begin.

So it was on Thursday, that when asked how he felt about Harris, Putin told an interviewer that − just as he had earlier claimed to favor President Joe Biden − "we will do the same, we will support her."

Harris' laugh has long been a subject of ridicule for former President Donald Trump and his allies. Last month, Trump veered from the script during a speech in Pennsylvania to say Harris "has the laugh of a lunatic."

The 'Doppleganger' plot

Wednesday's indictments charged two Russian employees of the RT network with conspiracy to launder money and to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Garland said the Russian operation was known as Doppelgänger" − meaning "double" or "lookalike" − and involved fake news sites that pushed Russian propaganda to U.S. audiences.

In translated Russian documents the Justice Department filed alongside the indictments, authors of the alleged operation describe their intention to help an opposition U.S. political party that is sceptical of American aid to Ukraine. Prosecutors blacked out the identities of the parties and candidates named in the documents, and overlaid them with euphemisms including "U.S. Political Party A" and "U.S. Political Party A Candidate."

"It makes sense for Russia to put a maximum effort to ensure that the [U.S. Political Party A] point of view (first and foremost, the opinion of [Candidate A] supporters) wins over the U.S. public opinion," one document says.

The document describes the project's goal as "to secure victory of [U.S. Political Party A]...at the US Presidential elections to be held in November of 2024."

Russia, Iran, China

Officials have long warned of election interference by Russia, China, and Iran. Trump said his campaign was successfully hacked this summer by Iranian agents.

Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller investigated interference in the 2016 election and charged Russians with hacking Democratic computers and releasing embarrassing information about nominee Hillary Clinton. Mueller did not find evidence of coordination between Trump and Russia.

“The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,” the Mueller report said.

In 2020, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee backed a U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump.

While the Kremlin has repeatedly denied meddling in U.S. elections, the late Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was accused by the U.S. of running Russian "troll farms" targeting American voters, boasted in 2022: "We have interfered, we are interfering and we will continue to interfere."

Asked about Putin's comments and the indictments at the White House on Thursday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told the Russian president to lay off.

"The only people who should get to determine who the next president United States is, is the American people, and we would greatly appreciate it if Mr. Putin would, A, stop talking about our election, and B, stop interfering," Kirby said.

Putin told the audience in Vladivostok, "Ultimately, the choice is up to the American people. And we will respect that choice."

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kamala Harris' laugh is polarizing for some. One fan? Vladimir Putin