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The Justice Department on Wednesday announced several steps to push back against Russian efforts to sway U.S. politics ahead of the 2024 election, including the indictment of two Russians accused of illegally funneling $9.7 million into a Tennessee media company. The founders of the unidentified company, widely reported to be Tenet Media, knew their funding came from “the Russians,” as they called their patrons, the unsealed indictment said. High-profile far-right influencers hired by the company, including Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and Dave Rubin, said they were unwitting “victims” in the alleged scheme.
Who said what
The indicted Russians, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva — both employees of state broadcaster RT — used fake identities and shell companies to pay the Tennessee company to “pump pro-Russian propaganda and disinformation across social media to U.S. audiences,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said. “The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power engages in political activities or seeks to influence public discourse,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference.
“Disinformation experts have long struggled to measure the effectiveness of Russian influence campaigns,” The New York Times said, but the indictment said the videos put out by the company, “most of which support the goals of the Russian government, have gained 16 million views on YouTube.” Garland said the goals of those videos, and a broader Russian-run influence campaign called “Doppelganger,” included “amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Russian interests, particularly its ongoing war in Ukraine.”
What next?
“The investigation is ongoing,” Garland said. Legally speaking, as long as Pool, Rubin and the other influencers “claim to be duped by these awful Russians, they’re in the clear,” Marcy Wheeler said at Emptywheel. Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, if caught and convicted, could face two decades in prison for money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.