DOJ Indicts Two RT Employees, Seizes Dozens of Internet Domains
“These websites were designed to appear to American readers as if they were major U.S. news sites, like the Washington Post or Fox News, but in fact they were fake sites.”
I wrote earlier today that the administration started laying the groundwork to blame Russia for the 2024 election.
Well, the DOJ indicted two employees from RT (formerly Russia Today) and seized dozens of internet domains.
RT, formerly known as “Russia Today,” is a state-controlled media outlet funded and directed by the Government of Russia. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, RT was sanctioned, dropped by distributors, and ultimately forced to cease formal operations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. In response, RT created, in the words of its editor-in-chief, an “entire empire of covert projects” designed to shape public opinion in “Western audiences.” One of RT’s “covert projects,” as described herein, is its funding and direction of a Tennessee-based online content creation company (“U.S. Company-I “).
Over at least the past year, RT and its employees, including KOSTIANTYN KALASHNIKOV, a/k/a “Kostya,” and ELENA AFANASYEVA, a/k/a “Lena,” the defendants, have deployed nearly $10 million, laundered through a network of foreign shell entities, to covertly fund and direct U.S. Company-I. U.S. Company-I publishes English-language videos on multiple social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube. Using multiple fake personas, AFANASYEVA edited, posted, and directed the posting by U.S. Company-I of hundreds of videos. Many of the videos published by U.S. Company-I contain commentary on events and issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics related to domestic 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.
Since publicly launching in or about November 2023, U.S. Company-I has posted nearly 2,000 videos that have garnered more than 16 million views on YouTube alone. U.S. Company-I never disclosed to its viewers that it was funded and directed by RT. Nor did U.S. Company-I or its two founders and principal executives (“Founder-I ” and “Founder-2”) register with the Attorney General as an agent of a foreign principal, as required by law
The government claims the Russians used the 32 internet domains “to engage in a covert campaign to interfere and influence the outcome of our country’s elections.”
The filings allege that Russian President Vladimir Putin and others in his inner circle told “Russian public relations companies to promote disinformation and state-sponsored narratives as part of a campaign to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election.”
Garland added at the press conference: “These websites were designed to appear to American readers as if they were major U.S. news sites, like the Washington Post or Fox News, but in fact they were fake sites. They were filled with Russian government propaganda that had been created by the Kremlin to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro-Russian policies and interests, and influence voters in the United States and in other countries. Internal documents of the Kremlin described the content as, ‘bogus stories disguised as newsworthy events.’ This malign influence campaign has been referred to as ‘doppelganger.’”
Notice how no one mentioned Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
But the indictment shows the right has a grifter problem since the alleged company and people in the indictment include influential people..
Yikes…
I won’t pretend this is shocking, but it should open up some eyes. https://t.co/77O9z5faoZ
— AG (@AGHamilton29) September 4, 2024
So just to clarify because I think it’s important to note:
The indictment alleges that the founders of the company, Lauren Chen and her husband, intentionally deceived the influencers mentioned below (seemingly Dave Rubin and Tim Pool) regarding the source of the funding. https://t.co/CuJz7SPkP2 pic.twitter.com/o5q4joyBlt
— AG (@AGHamilton29) September 4, 2024
When they were trying to sign the influencers who recognized some red flags, the fake person they sold as the main investor in France set up a meeting but mistakenly tried to show up to it at the Moscow time for meeting. Then googled the time in Paris. pic.twitter.com/kY267wRFfu
— AG (@AGHamilton29) September 4, 2024
The Russian agents were eventually not only suggesting content (like blaming the March 2024 ISIS Moscow Concert attack on Ukraine and the US), but also posting stuff themselves on Tenet Media platforms. pic.twitter.com/e1D2XAblYa
— AG (@AGHamilton29) September 4, 2024
Statements from Benny Johnson and Tim Pool are consistent with the indictment claims that Chen and her handlers intentionally deceived the commentators about who was funding the company. pic.twitter.com/q0v3Q7TuYW
— AG (@AGHamilton29) September 4, 2024
But we all know that the administration wants us to think Russia is trying to help Trump win in November.
As I said before, the administration will use these indictments and allegations to “prove” Russian influence or use them as breadcrumbs, leading to accusations of collusion!
If Trump loses, Harris will brag that the Democrats stopped Russia and Trump.
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Comments
Yeah, that will do it, not the millions of illeagals, murder, mayhem and $6 gallon milk
Gas is down to $3.00 a gallon where I live.
President Joe Biden inherited from President Trump a Strategic Petroleum Reserve of 638 million barrels when he took office in January 2021. However, first in response to rising gasoline prices, and then as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Biden announced the most aggressive SPR drawdown in history to temporarily lower consumer prices.
At its low point in July 2023, the SPR was drawn down by 288 million barrels, although some of that was due to congressionally mandated sales. Since then, the Biden Administration has made a few purchases to put oil back in the SPR.
But, as of the week ending July 19, SPR levels had only risen 27.7 million barrels from the low point. That is only 9.6% of the oil that was removed from the SPR.
Today, the SPR is still 260.6 million barrels below the level it was when Joe Biden was inaugurated. The SPR remains over 40% below the level it was when Joe Biden took office, and it will remain at approximately that level through the election.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Fact-Checking-the-Biden-Administrations-SPR-Narrative.html
Wonderful.
Now, address the patently idiotic stifling and hindering of domestic fossil fuel production by the Biden-Harris Administration, that has massively contributed (on top of the Dhimmi-crats’ standard, obscene spending profligacy) to grocery and agricultural commodities inflation of 30%-plus, over the past 3.5 years.
So? Gas has been doing this ever since Biden took office… falling to aaaaaaalmost $3 before spiking again. Over and over again. You respond to someone talking about millions of illegals, crime, and $6 milk with “bUt gAS iz cHEep!”
You’re a moron.
Just say nyet.
“These websites were designed to appear to American readers as if they were major U.S. news sites, like the Washington Post or Fox News, but in fact they were fake sites.”
I find it strange that I cannot find anywhere in the indictment (or the article) a list of these “misleading” domain names — or even a single one — referenced. Unless I have missed something in my search, though I don’t think so.
Yeah, I’d like to see a list of these domains, assuming they exist.
With Garland at the helm, I wonder.
If the DOJ is involved, RT must have published something truthful.
California is also trying to influence the 2024 election, but the Dems aren’t complaining about that.
And yet WAPO and the NYT regularly print misinformation they’ve been directed to regurgitate by the US government, and that’s OK?
How about Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty? Is that an illegal operation for which foreign governments can indict American citizens?
Sorry, but this country has no leg to stand on when it comes to criticism of other countries interfering in our affairs. It lost the high ground a long time ago.
BTW, misinformation is countered with the truth. But this country has also burned through any trust sensible people once had in it. Today, if government says something, it’s presumptive lie until proven otherwise.
All the way down to “The sky is blue.”
Notice how no one mentioned Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
Because, so far, this is just battlespace prep. The attack happens later.
If we want to make an issue of foreign ‘interference’ using false/misleading information then how about we include suppression of true information to that as well as apply this domestically? At least slap down the EU when they attempt to go after X b/c they gave a platform to DJT. Call the Ambassadors of every EU Nation to the WH and read them the riot act in front of the press then throw out five diplomats of each EU Nation. I suspect the bureaucracy of the EU, ‘rogue’ or not would be hearing from the National Leaders of their Nations if that was the baseline with more significant penalties to follow any further attempts to ‘interfere’ in US domestic politics or inhibit basic Constitutional rights of US Citizens.
You mean treat actions against the United States as acts of war (or close thereto)?
How uncivilized of you! That’s not Who We Are™!
I’m old fashioned I suppose..
I wish they had this level of concern with the sitting president having financial ties in Ukraine
Among myriad other states and actors.
There have been times that I have had to go to foreign news site to get information which was being suppressed here. Assange comes to mind and a few times I looked at Russian media. It is damning that we have to go to such extremes. With all media we must credibility.
Over the past couple months, I have grown amazed at the ease at which I can search for “tough” content on the Russian Yandex that I absolutely cannot find from “domestic” search engines, even the ones that advertise themselves as “liberated,” like DuckDuckGo and Brave.
Example: Try to find a video of the segment where Jimmy Kimmel does a troll “man on the street interview,” asking random people whether they approved of Obama having “pardoned the sequester and sent it to Portugal.” The video that ends with a brain-dead black woman answering, “I don’t know nuthin, I just voted for him because he black.” (Ooh, that’s embarrassing to the narrative!)
There’s plenty of information in that snippet to feed any search engine. You won’t find it… until you use Yandex.
They are actually sending a warning to both zucks and musk
The American media is designed to mislead readers and provide false information on behalf of the DNC so when are those indictments coming?
The crackdown on civil liberties in the US intensifies…..
Of course I’m hugely skeptical of anything and everything this DOJ says at the moment. But, reading sources I trust on X – like Ron Coleman and Will Chamberlain – it seems that the ‘Tenet Media’ allegation concerning Lauren Chen and her husband is – ahem – problematic. They have some big-name conservative influencers/commentators like David Rubin and Tim Pool, for instance, that have taken money from Tenet. Now, it appears Rubin and Pool and others were victims of this scheme. Still, it’s not a great story you want to have to mange this close to the election….
….which is EXACTLY why the indictment came out today, IMO.
https://twitter.com/stclairashley/status/1831462756706660529
Not the first time the DOJ indicted non-existent Russian….with regards to an election.
This is all a complete joke. I watched as much as I could of the press conference but I could feel my IQ points draining away as Merrick Garland droned on, in his semi-RFK voice, about one of the dumbest things I have heard in a long time. It was retarded. And his toadie, Christopher Wray, sat there next to him looking like Tampon Tim did in Komrade Kamala’s softball, set-up “interview” with Dana Bash.
All I could think of while I was watching it was that those two pieces OS – Garland and Wray – had better be living their destructive lives out in prison cells very soon. They are ultimate scum. And trying to pull this retarded crap, that doesn’t even fool the most credulous 8 year old …
again its projection
WHEN OBAMA TRIED TO GET NETANYAHOO defeated back during his ( obamas) presidency etc
IF the dems are sooooo worried
then why do they want mail in votes????
THATS 1000X WORSE THAN ANY PROPAGANDA the ussr /china could put out there in cyberspace
Already making excuses in case their Communist bitch loses
I’d love to see this same aggressive investigation and prosecution from DOJ with regard to the myriad Chinese and Iranian agents whom the vile, gullible and stupid Dhimmi-crats have allowed to infiltrate the Biden-Harris Administration, DoD, State Department, and the staffs of sundry prominent Dhimmi-crat officeholders.
But, we can’t have that, because it would make the Dhimmi-crats look bad.
What odd timing. It’s almost like the DOJ was directed to do this by Democrats as a backup excuse when Kamalalala Ding Dong loses. We will then get another 4yrs of Russia Russia Russia
You are precisely correct.
This is a “LOOK! A SQUIRREL!” attempt by DOJ to divert attention from their own election interference.
How much more fake are the sites in question than the typical US media reporting fake news?