American influencers complicit in Russian media funded propaganda campaign
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Two Russian nationals, who work under Vladmir Putin, transferred millions of dollars to an American company to pay right-wing influencers to push specific narratives.
On Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, it became known to the public that two Russian nationals, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva—who work with the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin—transferred millions of dollars to an American company that paid right-wing influencers, “for videos pushing narratives favorable to the Kremlin, U.S. prosecutors,” according to CBS news. Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva are both based in Moscow and have been charged with “conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act” after a New York indictment was unsealed. This came after there were numerous allegations that Russia may have been attempting to interfere in the United States 2024 election earlier in the year.
Furthermore, it has been reported that Afanasyeva grew frustrated that the paid right-wing commentators were not “sharing enough of Tenet's videos or promoting the company.” Thus, prosecutors have stated that she began to create fake personas and joined a Discord server where she directed creators to “share at least one of the company's videos per day.”
Before the allegations, the pair worked for Russian Today, also known as RT. This company is funded and controlled by the Russian government. Federal prosecutors recently revealed that RT was working on numerous projects, some of which included, according to CBS News, “funneling $10 million through a series of shell entities to a Tennessee-based company launched in 2023 that publishes videos on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and X, formerly known as Twitter.”
The indictment states that “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 to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine." While the company has not been confirmed as Russia Today or in the indictment itself, prosecutors have described that the language used to refer to the company that pays these influencers is the same description on Tenet Media, the media outlet based in Tennessee that is indicated in the case.
The website consistently amplifies six right-wing internet personalities from YouTube channels to podcasts with millions of followers. CBS News states, “Dave Rubin, who has more than 2.4 million YouTube subscribers; Tim Pool, a podcast host with more than 1.3 million YouTube followers; and Benny Johnson, whose YouTube channel has nearly 2.4 million subscribers.” The Justice Department explained that from October 2023 to August 2024, RT transferred $9.7 million to Tenet from shell companies. This total represents 90% of its bank overall deposits.
Due to these suspicious money transfers in such large sums, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the Justice Department “…will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country's free exchange of ideas to covertly further its propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing."
Stay informed on this issue, which may prove to be important in this upcoming presidential election.