NEW YORK, November 19. /TASS/. The Russian Community Council of the USA has announced the temporary suspension of its activities due to intelligence agencies’ probe, the organization wrote in a statement on its website on Thursday.
"The Russian Community Council of the USA is announcing the temporary suspension of its activities. The decision to suspend activities comes after a year of active and nation-wide FBI measures directed at over 300 Russian community members, from students to seniors, including some members of the Community Council," according to the statement.
"According to multiple accounts of community members who were questioned by the FBI, federal agents appear to be searching for violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and the federal statutes relating to it," the Council noted.
According to the intelligence agencies paid special attention to the contacts of compatriots with representatives of the Russian diplomatic mission in the United States, the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Roscongress Foundation, the Russian Geographical Society and the coordinators of the Immortal Regiment movement.
The Council stressed that it is "an informal organization that never engaged in any political activities, nor did it possess, receive, or give out any financial resources."
"Given the scope of the FBI’s probe, the activities of the Community Council will remain suspended as a precautionary measure pending further clarification of FARA-related statutes by appropriate U.S. authorities. Suspended activities will also include the 7th Russian Community Forum, which was previously slated for 2022," the Council said.
Earlier, the Daily Beast information portal reported, citing sources, that FBI, which is conducting the probe into the activities of the Council, had already interviewed dozens of people associated with this organization and conducted searches in homes and offices. According to the version posted on the portal, the FBI does not rule out that the Community Council can be used by the Russian side as a "soft power" to spread influence. When asked by TASS to clarify whether the statements in the Daily Beast were true, an FBI representative declined to comment saying only that the agency’s common practice was not to confirm or deny the existence of any specific investigations.".