2024-09-05 00:44:57
Two months before the presidential election, the United States government is continuing its efforts to neutralize Russia’s destructive activities on its territory. The works are much more sophisticated than in 2016, richly endowed and going all the way back to the Kremlin, according to official documents.
Sanctions, confiscation of online residences, indictments, but above all communication information to address this issue: the American authorities draw, on Wednesday September 4, the contours of the largely hidestine online war that Russia will have announced, to influence the opinion of foreign public authorities .
Two Russian nationals, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, and Elena Afanasieva, 27, were indicted in New York for conspiracy to commit money laundering and violation of foreign embassy laws. According to the court, which has access to their communications, these two employees of the RT channel – the government’s foreign propaganda tool – set up from Moscow, with pseudonyms and the use of front companies, a clever financial circuit , to the tune of ten million dollars, to produce content in the United States.
To do this, they concluded an agreement with the platform in Tennessee, which receives regular shipments (thirty in total, between October 2023 and August 2024), mainly from the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
Appearing as a victim
According to the summary of the file released by the Department of Justice, this company published almost 2,000 videos of November 2023, on all available media (TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube). On YouTube, they have received 16 million views. These videos are said to cover various topics linked to American news (increase, immigration) and foreign policy.
“If the views shown in these videos are not clothes, note the summary, Most of them are part of the goals openly by the Russian government and RT – to increase internal divisions in the United States. » After an attack in a mall near Moscow in March, one of the two employees asked one of the company’s founders to blame Ukraine and the United States.
The company in question, in Tennessee, is not named in the charging document, but it is Tenet Media, founded by Lauren Chen and her husband, Liam Donovan. Tenet Media presents itself on its site as “A network of heterodox commentaries focused on Western culture and political issues”. He wants to bring together the top stars under one roof, such as Tim Pool, host of the “Culture War” podcast, or Benny Johnson, host of the “Benny Show”.
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