Feds target Russian use of US right-wing commentators in $10 million disinformation campaign

MANHATTAN (CN) — The Department of Justice announced a sweeping indictment Wednesday against two employees of RT, a media outlet controlled by the Russian government, who supposedly funded a widespread disinformation campaign using U.S. right-wing influencers.

According to the 32-page indictment unsealed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, Russian nationals Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva were involved in the “funding and direction of a Tennessee-based online content creation company” designed to “shape public opinion in ‘Western audiences’” to the benefit of the Kremlin.

The company, referred to as “U.S. Company-1” in the indictment, describes itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.” It’s the same slogan championed by Tenet Media, a right-wing content brand that employs prominent conservative commentators like Tim Pool, Laura Southern, Dave Rubin and others.

Statements from the company’s talent on Wednesday confirmed that Tenet is the company referenced in the indictment.

Federal prosecutors say Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva used multiple fake personas to publish social media content through Tenet that touched on controversial issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation and foreign policy.

“While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine,” prosecutors say in the indictment.

Evidence accompanying Wednesday’s indictment shows the goals of the so-called “guerilla media campaign in the United States” via an internal company document. 

According to the memo, the campaign’s target audience is “supporters of traditional family values” and “white Americans, representing the lower-middle and middle class.” The campaign sought to push polarizing cultural tropes such as “privileges for people of color, perverts, and disabled” and “threat of crime coming from people of color and immigrants (including new immigrants from Ukraine),” per the document.

Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva purportedly dumped nearly $10 million into Tenet as one of several “covert projects” from RT designed to influence American politics and culture. According to the indictment, the commentators were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per month. At least one, suspected to be Rubin based on listed follower counts, was paid a six-figure signing bonus by the company.

Prosecutors believe the commentators had no knowledge of Tenet’s true funding, however. Several have already released statements suggesting they are victims, not perpetrators, in the supposed scheme.

“A year ago, a media startup pitched my company to provide content as an independent contractor,” Benny Johnson, one of the commentators, posted to Twitter. “Our lawyers negotiated a standard, arms-length deal, which was later terminated. We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme. My lawyers will handle anyone who states or suggests otherwise.”

Pool wrote in a statement of his own that he and the “other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims.” He maintained he had full editorial control over his show, which he claimed was merely licensed to Tenet.

But the defendants had substantial editorial control over other Tenet content, prosecutors say. According to the indictment, Afanasyeva requested that Tenet commentators blame Ukraine and the United States for the March 22 terror attack on a music venue in Moscow, which killed more than 100 people and injured hundreds more.

“I think we can focus on the Ukraine/U.S. angle,” Afanasyeva wrote in a Discord message to a Tenet founder, per the indictment. “[T]he mainstream media spread fake news that ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack yet ISIS itself never made such statements. All terrorists are now detained while they were heading to the border with Ukraine which makes it even more suspicious why they would want to go to Ukraine to hide.”

The founder confirmed the following day that one of Tenet’s commentators would be “happy to cover it.”

Unlike the commentators, Tenet’s two co-founders — conservative media mainstay Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan — supposedly knew the source of the company’s funding. Prosecutors claim that they worked together with Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva to deceive two of the commentators into joining Tenet.

Tenet never disclosed to its viewers that it was funded and directed by RT, according to prosecutors, nor did it or its founders register with the attorney general as an agent of a foreign principal. The company didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva face charges of conspiracy to violate FARA and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Still at large, the pair could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Follow @Uebey

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