• Military
• WMD

• Intelligence Menu               

• Systems
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Imagery
• Links

• Homeland Security
• Space

African People's Socialist Party (APSP)

On July 29th, 2022, at 5am in the morning, the FBI stormed the home of Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People's Socialist Party in St. Louis, Missouri. Yeshitela stated that the agents deployed flash grenades, carried automatic weapons, damaged the property of his neighbors, handcuffed him and his wife. Agents refused to show him a search warrant and absconded their cell phones and other devices in their home and destroyed as much as they can. That same day, the FBI invaded two sites of the APSP-led Uhuru Movement, the Uhuru Solidarity Center in St. Louis and the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, Florida. The FBI also raided the APSP’s radio station, Black Power 96.3 FM, and reportedly detained a prominent APSP leader.

The African People’s Socialist Party was targeted because it has relentlessly fought for the liberation of Africa and African people for the past 50 years. The FBI’s excuse for its operation is that the APSP, by exercising its free speech rights about the war in Ukraine, was spreading “Russian propaganda.” They exercised their free speech to disagree with the American government on the Ukraine war. They were spreading Russian propaganda. They said that Russia talked them into doing reparations forums when they've been doing it for 50 years. It happened to Malcolm X here, the Black Panther Party Panther 21, Tupac Shakur's mother, Fannie Shakur, defended the Panthers. They said they wanted to blow up Botanical Gardens, they were acquitted. This has happened throughout history, WEB Dubois, Marcus Garvey. Millions of African people in the 1960s struggled for basic human rights as well as economic and political power and faced the effects of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program which carried out assassination, political imprisonment, slander and harm.

“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. “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.”

“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. “As today’s announcement demonstrates, the Criminal Division is committed to eradicating foreign malign influence from the U.S. political system and helping ensure the integrity of our elections.”

“Today’s announcement paints a harrowing picture of Russian government actions and the lengths to which the FSB will go to interfere with our elections, sow discord in our nation and ultimately recruit U.S citizens to their efforts,” said Acting Assistant Director Kurt Ronnow of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. “All Americans should be deeply concerned by the tactics employed by the FSB and remain vigilant to any attempt to undermine our democracy. The FBI remains committed to confronting this egregious behavior and ultimately disrupting our adversaries and those who act on their behalf.”

“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 for the Middle District of Florida. “We thank our partners at the FBI for their tireless investigation of these events and their commitment to ensure justice is done.”

A federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, returned a superseding indictment 13 April 2023 charging four U.S. citizens and three Russian nationals with working on behalf of the Russian government and in conjunction with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to conduct a multi-year foreign malign influence campaign in the United States. Among other conduct, the superseding indictment alleges that the Russian defendants recruited, funded and directed U.S. political groups to act as unregistered illegal agents of the Russian government and sow discord and spread pro-Russian propaganda; the indicted intelligence officers, in particular, participated in covertly funding and directing candidates for local office within the United States.

A jury on 12 September 2024 convicted Omali Yeshitela, 82, Penny Hess, 78, Jesse Nevel, 34, all of St. Louis, and Augustus C. Romain Jr., 38, of Atlanta, of conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government. The defendants were charged in the superseding indictment on April 13, 2023.

According to evidence presented at trial, from at least May 2015 until July 2022, Yeshitela, Hess and Nevel agreed to act on behalf of the Russian government within the United States. Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a resident of Moscow, was the founder and president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), an organization headquartered in Moscow, Russia, and funded by the Russian government. Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel were leaders of the African People's Socialist Party (APSP) or components thereof. Augustus C. Romain was a high-level leader of the APSP who, in November 2018, left and formed a Georgia-based group called the Black Hammer. Ionov's influence efforts were directed and supervised by Moscow-based Federal Security Service (FSB) officers, including indicted defendants Aleksey Borisovich Sukhodolov and Yegor Sergeyevich Popov.

In May 2015, Ionov invited Yeshitela to Russia for an all-expenses paid trip to "communicate on future cooperation." Prior to this trip, Hess relayed a request to Ionov to ensure that Yeshitela would be able to meet with an "official representative of the Russian government." According to subsequent email communications, which were shared with Hess, Nevel and Romain, Yeshitela explained that it was "clear" that Ionov was an instrument of the Russian government. In these same communications, Yeshitela further explained that Ionov represented "a method by which the Russian government is engaging the U.S. and Europe in serious struggle" by utilizing "forces inside of the U.S. to s[o]w division inside the U.S." In a subsequent meeting, at which Hess and Nevel were present, Yeshitela explained that Ionov would only provide resources for actions that would support Russia's efforts to "undermin[e] the U.S."

Acting under Ionov's direction, the defendants took several actions within the United States. For example, in August 2015, Ionov requested that Yeshitela, Hess and Nevel draft and publish a petition to the United Nations charging the United States with actively committing genocide against African people. When Hess resisted, Ionov insisted that the APSP had to publish the petition because Ionov and his Russian backers were "not exactly Black to demand it for ourselves." Hess subsequently drafted and published the requested petition, which Ionov promoted in Russian media.

In January 2016, Ionov provided a $12,000 guarantee letter to fund a four-city tour to promote the genocide petition that the APSP had published at his direction. Yeshitela and Hess oversaw the tour and reported information about the tour to Ionov. After the tour, Yeshitela explained in an APSP meeting that the APSP had "developed a relationship with forces in Russia who are involved in their own struggle with the US."

In 2017, and again in 2019, Ionov attempted to influence local elections in St. Petersburg, Florida, on behalf of the FSB, although there is no evidence that he succeeded in doing so. For example, in July 2017, Ionov reached out to Nevel —who was a candidate for Mayor in St. Petersburg — to offer support, including "campaign finance." In 2019, Ionov regularly reported to the FSB concerning an election for local office in St. Petersburg, referring to one candidate as the candidate "whom we supervise." And, in January 2020, FSB Officer Popov directed Ionov that the United States' 2020 Presidential election was the FSB's "main topic of the year."

In April 2020, Ionov invited Nevel and Yeshitela to speak at a conference to promote the right of self-determination for Russian-backed secessionist movements in eastern Ukraine. Shortly thereafter, Yeshitela provided a video-recorded statement of support for the Russian-backed secessionist group. Ionov reported to the FSB concerning these activities.

For example, in May 2020, Ionov allegedly sent a request he stated 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 make statements in support of the independence of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, a Russian-backed breakaway state in eastern Ukraine. Ionov later allegedly 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 allegedly continued after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022, Ionov allegedly emailed Nevel an “URGENT MESSAGE” which contained pro-Russian talking points in support of the invasion. Thereafter, throughout March 2022, the APSP repeatedly hosted Ionov via video conference to discuss the war, during which Ionov falsely stated that anyone who supported Ukraine also supported Naziism and white supremacy, and Yeshitela and another APSP member allegedly made statements of solidarity with the Russian government.

In late February 2022, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ionov complained to FSB Officer Sukhodolov concerning Russia's failure in the information war surrounding the invasion. Sukhodolov directed Ionov to "join in" in the information war. Ionov then directed Yeshitela and Romain to engage in demonstrations at a social media company headquarters in California to demonstrate against suppression of pro-Russian viewpoints. Ionov paid for Romain and three other members of Black Hammer to fly to California to conduct the demonstration, and Yeshitela directed members of the APSP located in California to conduct a similar protest a few days later. After the Black Hammer demonstration, Romain messaged Ionov: "This is great! That was fun! Who we attacking next? With more time I can get a bigger crowd."

In May 2022, at Ionov's direction, Romain demonstrated at a media company in Atlanta, Georgia, to celebrate Russia's "Victory Day." In June 2022, at Ionov's direction, Ionov demonstrated at the Georgia state capitol in support of Russia. During the demonstration, Romain stated that he was "not ashamed to say that the Black Hammer Party has relationships with the Kremlin," in reference to Ionov.

Each defendant faced a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A sentencing date had not yet been set.