MidPoint: Are Russian influence agents operating in local politics?

New federal criminal charges against Alexandr Ionov, a fugitive Russian national, allege a malign foreign influence operation in St. Petersburg, FL elections. Noted national security journalist Marcy Wheeler, aka @emptywheel, and Prof. Golfo Alexopoulos, Dir. of the Russia Institute at the University of South Florida discuss the larger geopolitical implications of these criminal charges and their historical precedents.