Federal officials have accused Russia of using unwitting right-wing American influencers in its quest to spread Kremlin propaganda ahead of the 2024 presidential election. On Wednesday, the Justice Department charged two employees of RT, the Russian state media broadcaster, in a scheme to secretly fund and direct the production of social media videos that racked up millions of views.
The RT staffers, named in the indictment as Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act. They’re accused of funneling nearly $10 million to an unnamed Tennessee company that contracted with online influencers with big audiences. “The company never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers its ties to RT and the Russian government,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Wednesday.
Details in the indictment match Nashville, Tennessee-based Tenet Media, including its website description: “a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.” Tenet was founded in 2022 by Lauren Chen, a conservative Canadian YouTuber, and her husband, Liam Donovan, whose X profile describes him as president of Tenet Media. Chen hosts a show on Glenn Beck’s BlazeTV and is a contributor to right-wing activist group Turning Point USA. She wrote opinion pieces for RT in 2021 and 2022.
According to the indictment, the Tennessee company’s founders worked with Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva — who they knew were Russian — to recruit influencers to make videos that were published across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and X. The indictment says its nearly 2,000 YouTube videos amassed more than 16 million views, which tracks with public statistics on Tenet Media’s YouTube channel. Chen and Donovan didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The charges against Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva come as U.S. intelligence officials say foreign efforts aimed at swaying the outcome of the election are escalating. On Wednesday, the government seized 32 internet domains connected to a separate Russian influence operation, while Iran has recently been accused of trying to hack both the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns.
What sets the RT operation apart from many other interference efforts is that it appeared to reach a real audience, thanks to the recognizable names attached. “Buying authentic influencers is a far better use of funds than creating fake personas, because they bring their own trusting audiences and are actually, you know, real,” wrote Renée DiResta, the author of Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality, about how online influencers spread propaganda and rumors, in a post on Threads.
https://www.npr.org/2024/09/05/nx-s1-5100829/russia-election-influencers-youtube
Comment: Rather than just relying on bogus accounts and bogus personas to further their influence operations, this indictment details efforts to use real social media influencers to assist those efforts. It’s an ingenious plan, but nothing new. US propaganda efforts have inserted content to target audiences through foreign reporters for decades. This plan just moved this technique into the social media era and supercharged it. I’m still impressed. As i said back in 2016, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, you magnificent bastard, I salute you. The co-founders of Tenet Media probably knew exactly what as going on. The influencers could have been fellow travelers, but were most likely useful idiots. They were paid $100,000 a week to say what they pretty much were saying all along and produce some videos. The RT project kept them moving in the right direction, suggested guidance as to the content produced and amplified that content with $10 million dollars. That indictment is linked below.
In a second DOJ action, 32 internet domains established and used by the Russian government to further its influence operations worldwide were seized. This Russian operation was codenamed Doppelganger. I’ve done such infrastructure building in support of my own intelligence collection operations. It’s a lot of hard work. I could actually give the Rooskies some pointers on how to do this more securely, but I won’t. The linked affidavit in support of seizure warrant details the methods used to establish these domains, the people involved reaching up to the Russian Presidential Administration, as well as the planned activities and objectives of Doppelganger.
I first wrote of the Russian concept of reflexive control and Russian influence operations in the 2016 election back in December 2016. That led to one hell of a discussion on the old Sic Semper Tyrannis site. Some refused to believe that Russia would engage in such things. Subsequent open source studies, bipartisan Congressional investigations, the DOJ indictments of the ISA and the GRU 12, along with several others since then, have shown that Russia did and does engage in a sophisticated, clandestine influence operation, but it’s effectiveness is still a mystery. However, many nations, most politicians and businesses of all sizes continue to engage in some kind of influence operations so, I guess, we all figure they work to some extent.
What do we do about it? First we have to admit that Russia, China, Iran, others and the US will continue to do these various influence operations, just as all these nations will continue to conduct intelligence collection operations. Second, we continue uncovering these operations and publicize them. That negates their potential effectiveness and can even work against the objectives of those operations. Kudos to the LE and IC for shining a light on these operations. Keep it up.
TTG
https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1366266/dl
The indictment is a bit late and way short of what is needed. DOJ is slow when playing whack-a-mole against the Kremlin’s attempts to shovel scheisse down American throats. Garland and Wray need to step up their game.
leith,
The collection of intelligence to create these indictments is not easy. That takes a lot of time and careful effort.
Leith,
They are busy with J6 trials but now that Hunter is resolved they can get on with running damage control for the defenders of democracy.
TTG –
You’re right of course. DOJ can’t just lock people up or even indict them without evidence. The FBI needs to collect that evidence, which can take time.
Meanwhile it’s still whack-a-mole. More nefarious schemes from the Kremlin, from Peking, from Tehran are already going on and more are in the works. So collect evidence and do more indictments where you are able. But be proactive. Retaliate! Let loose the CyberCom attack hounds.
“DOJ can’t just lock people up or even indict them without evidence.”
Indict them without evidence?
Yes, the DoJ can and the DoJ does.
It just makes very sure that those it seeks an indictment against are foreigners who do not reside in the USA.
That application for an indictment can be as evidence-free as the DoJ likes, for the simple reason that the allegations are never going to see the inside of a court.
So all it needs is a grand jury willing to sign off on that application.
I find these stories fascinating…
-It is worth noting that the sums involved are ridiculous in an age when every advertising gimmick costs billions of dollars. I don’t mind believing that the Russians are stingy, but in this case they’re really playing for keeps.
-All countries do it one way or another. A long time ago we used to hire intellectuals and movie stars – the useful idiots – technology has evolved, that’s all! Kravchenko’s story (1946-47) ‘I chose freedom’ has been exposed. It’s a great CIA influence operation. The book is available in pdf and is still worth reading. And it’s still intelligence, or rather, double intelligence means.
-When it comes to influence, the question is: does it work? The political opinions that clash are so clear that these influencers can only reinforce an already formed opinion, not change sides. If it really does work, we’d better start worrying about the mental health of our citizen-voters.
D74 –
When Kravchenko published his book, ‘I Chose Freedom’ in 1946, the CIA did not exist. And by the way everything he said in that book about the communist Gulags, the Holodomor, the purges & show trials, the 1939 Hitler/Stalin rape of Poland, etc were all true. They were confirmed by hundreds of other sources. They happened. Stalin was a monster. Kravchenko won his libel case against the French communist newspaper that defamed him at the urging of the Soviet Union. There was no influence op other than the one mounted by the Kremlin to try to defame him.
leith,
End of 1946, CIA.
For the trial in Paris in 1947, a quote from French Wikipedia:
Historian Irwin M. Wall also points out: “Kravchenko did not act alone. Top State Department and CIA officials were involved in the trial […]”.
It would be interesting to compare the book published in New York in 1946 and the French translation of 1947, as the text has been rewritten.
If I may say so, the influence operation works, and works well in your case, if the facts support the narrative. The monstrous USSR used to give rods aplenty to be castigated.
D74 –
CIA birthday was 18 September 1947.
Kravchenko’s book was first published on 1 January 1946:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/129794577-i-chose-freedom—the-personnal-and-political-life-of-a-soviet-
Irwin Wall also said at the time of Kravchenko’s libel lawsuit that “By reputation the most Stalinist communist party in Western Europe belongs to the French.”
Your belief that communism is a good thing has been dis-proven by history. You seem to believe Stalin farted nothing but love and kindness and has been misrepresented by us evil westerners. In fact, Stalin was a mass murderer of the Russian people.
leith,
“Your belief that communism is a good thing ” and so on:
Very surprising, mistake.
LeaNder,
I’m going to disappoint you: I don’t think anything.
Brussels frames us in a web of rules and standards. We have lost our sovereignty to distant, unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats. What you see is shadow theater.
Brussels frames us in a web of rules and standards. We have lost our sovereignty to distant, unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats. What you see is shadow theater
Or Kabuki maybe, in our case here?
https://youtu.be/rY3Sgkjm6zQ?t=115
Relevant since 2015 the East StratCom Task Force with its Flagship EUvsDisinfo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_StratCom_Task_Force
Doppelgänger reports:
https://www.disinfo.eu/doppelganger-operation/
Meanwhile France has his own Disinfo Agency Virginum founded in 2021:
https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/summary_rrn_campaign_cle0c86d6.pdf
d74, what’s your opinion on Macron’s choice?
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/france-ukraine/
Barnier? Safe pair of hands. Good choice by Macron.
Barnier has a quite undeserved reputation as the man who ditched Brexit. In fact the House of Commons ditched Brexit quite satisfactorily without needing much assistance from abroad, the inimitable (thank God!) Johnson putting the finishing touches to the disaster.
Ancient history. More recently Barnier stood for the last Presidential election, ostensibly on an anti-immigration platform that might have fooled some but didn’t fool many. He got a not particularly flattering write-up from an Englishman living in France at the time:-
“Barnier, a superannuated politician of 70, last a minister 26 years ago, was exiled to Brussels 22 years ago where he has accumulated a fortune in untaxed emoluments and most recently ran the Brexit negotiating team for the EU, making himself notorious in Britain where he is currently taken more seriously as a prospective presidential candidate than in France itself.”
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/michel-barnier-s-doomed-presidential-bid/
The word “fissiparous” had to be invented specially for the purpose of discussing the French political parties. French politics is difficult to get a hold of for the outsider and even more difficult for the French. Think of it, LeaNder, as the will o’ the wisp that flickers untamed above the swampy sludge that is the European political scene. Who better than Barnier, the ultimate Eurocrat, to assist Macron, the ultimate swamp critter, in Macron’s eternal quest to tame it?
I think it shows how gullible many on the far right are. As some of us know, if it sounds too good to be true, it frequently isn’t. It also shows that US counterintelligence is getting better and that is a good thing.
gullible? alt spelling; QAnon (also maga, far-out right). a case study in “there’s a sucker born every minute”… and a scam-artist every half-hour – operating as agent for some sort State. folk flock to consume their fondest prejudices as entertainment.
Ked,
If you like your do doctor, you can keep…. ivermetcin is just horse medicine; safe and effective, fine people ….. gullible
That is correct.I believe that american counter-intelligence is close to a war footing,if not already there.
Thank goodness the DOJ saved us from news about the communist Chinese government having planted an agent in NY Governor Houchul’s office:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fbi-arrests-former-aide-new-york-gov-kathy-113349966
Extra thanks for doing like Mueller’s crack legal team and only changing “conspiracy “, otherwise that indictment would have to say that on date “x” the accused did the following…. oh, and they charged them after they left the US. Now the campaign material for Russia Collusion 2 Election Boogaloo can be released to the clown world media for dissemination to the faithful.
Fred,
DOJ gave us the news about the Chinese spy in the NY governor’s office. Where do you think it came from? DOJ also indicted 7 Chinese hackers operating as part of the APT31 Hacking Group in Support of China’s Ministry of State Security’s Transnational Repression, Economic Espionage and Foreign Intelligence Objectives. That was in March 2024. Not that long ago Iranian hackers broke into Trump’s campaign. The DOJ/FBI is on to them, too.
TTG,
I must have missed the write up on Chinese info operations here, the NYT, and the rest. Did they charge them with conspiracy too, and wait for them to be outside the US first? “The DOJ/FBI is on them! I’m so relieved. Hopefully not on them like those 51 Intelligence professionals…..
Fred,
They were never in the US and they were charged with “Conspiracy to Commit Computer Intrusions” and “Wire Fraud Conspiracy.” You can read the indictment yourself.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1345141/dl?inline
TTG,
They were never in the US. Imagine that, US jurisdiction is everywhere on earth. Is that like Brazil with X and the UK with “disinformation”?
Fred,
They’re hackers. They didn’t have to physically be here to commit cybercrimes/cyber-espionage. Much like Musk not having to be in Brazil to do his X business in Brazil.
TTG,
“Conspiracy ” but not any crime with evidence to prove it.
Fred,
the conspiracies are crimes. The indictment gave examples of specific hacks of US targets and how they were done.
TTG,
They are “conspiring” but haven’t done anything?
Fred,
Read the indictment. It chronicles over a decade of hacking activity by those indicted as part of APT 31.
“One influencer was paid $400,000 a month, a $100,000 signing bonus and an additional performance bonus in exchange for four videos a week.”
The news is a dying business. I know some Tubers can rake in the dough, but how can you take $400k a month and not ask yourself where is this money coming from for the art of owning the libs? If these people are “unwitting” victims of Russian intelligence ops they probably sold their opinions before.
“these people” are quite witting… will sell for anybody. whores of the Info Age (w/ apologies to traditional whores)
TTG,
Should AIPAC be shut down since it is an influence operation being run by a foreign government to shape the hearts and minds of the American people?
James,
AIPAC is run by Americans with American money. doesn’t mean I like them, but that’s a whole different kettle of fish.
I’m confused: if the reason for AIPAC’s existence is to promote the interests of a foreign government then isn’t AIPAC an agent of a foreign government, and should it not be forced to register as an agent of a foreign government?
In which case the fact that AIPAC is “run by Americans” is as an irrelevancy, just as much as the argument that it is run “with American money”.
Yeah, Right,
You can definitely argue that AIPAC should register under FARA.
Not even necessary, according to this indictment.
Note that RT is NOT a defendant in this indictment (Galland isn’t silly enough to do that, because he knows that if they were then RT would be sending its lawyers to swarm all over this indictment).
What the DoJ has indicted are two employees of RT for allegedly working on behalf of Putin’s government.
So any office-holder in AIPAC is now vulnerable to an indictment from the DoJ for violating FARA, and the fact that they are employed by an organization that is not itself registered under FARA is immaterial.
All that would be required is an allegation that those AIPAC employees are taking money from (saying) Israel Hayom and that’d be enough to “prove” that they were acting for a foreign government.
Yeah, Right,
RT is already sanctioned. For AIPAC office holders, the key is taking money from foreign governments. AIPAC is a great ally of Israel, but doesn’t appear to take money or direction from Israel. There’s plenty of pro-Russian, pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian commentary in the US by US citizens. Those citizens are in no danger from FARA.
TTG: “RT is already sanctioned.”
That makes no difference as far as the FARA Act is concerned, so I have no idea why you bring that up.
You can most certainly run foul of the FARA Act for acting as an unregistered agent of a friendly government.
Just ask Michael Flynn.
SANCTIONS have nothing to do with FARA – though they might have relevance in accusations of fraud – so you bringing that up is a complete red herring.
Yeah, Right,
So with this indictment, written as it was, DOJ shut down a Russian influence operation without risking any of the discovery traps you mention. Clever.
TTG [here]: “For AIPAC office holders, the key is taking money from foreign governments.”
TTG: [Responding to James]: “The US FARA law doesn’t specifically deal with sources of funding. It focuses on taking direction from a foreign entity.”
There are two TTG’s commenting here, is there?
Yeah, Right,
The key is taking direction, not taking funding, but if they took money from foreign governments, they’d be hard pressed to deny they were taking direction. As long as they are funded only by US citizens, it’s difficult to prove they’re taking direction from a foreign entity.
TTG: “As long as they are funded only by US citizens, it’s difficult to prove they’re taking direction from a foreign entity.”
In the case of AIPAC officials it would be extremely easy to prove they are taking directions from the Israeli government.
All it would take is an FBI sting operation where a FBI undercover agent poses as the personal representative of one Netanyahu, Benyamin and the DoJ would have video evidence of AIPAC officials falling over themselves to jot down the talking points that they are asked to regurgitate.
The FBI runs sting operations all the time – it is their favorite party trick – but they never, ever run them against AIPAC.
That would be a very fertile field to till, and I just can’t put my finger on why the FBI refrains from doing so.
Tis’ a mystery to me.
Yeah, Right,
Colonel Lang often addressed this very point. AIPAC has very important and powerful friends in high places. It’s going to take some brave souls to break this. I agree with you that it should be broken.
“Americans” with dual citizenship.
This is the thing about the US FARA law is it requires foreign agents to register but never actually specifies the criteria that makes one a foreign agent.
The much maligned Russian FARA law, on the other hand, is very clear – if you get more than 20% of your funding from outside the country then you have to register.
Which means that unlike the US law, the Russian law can’t be applied differently to different people. But of course the Russian Rada has not been captured by a foreign power the way the US congress has been, so they have no need for that sort of flexibility.
James,
The US FARA law doesn’t specifically deal with sources of funding. It focuses on taking direction from a foreign entity. Taking money from those foreign entities is just a strong indicator that one is taking direction from those foreign entities.
TTG,
That is my objection. You can trace funding to prove where it came from, but you cannot prove AIPAC is “taking direction” from Israel. AIPAC can say “It’s just a coincidence that we always want to do what Israel wants” and nobody can prove that they are, or are not, taking direction from Israel.
The US lost in Afghanistan. It will lose to Russia and continue losing because the goal is to print money, not to actually win. If anyone does not understand this game by now there is likely no hope for them in this life of ever understanding how things actually work.
D.C. and their friends print money. They take the money. Average Americans pay for it through inflation and higher taxes. If the people start wising up D.C. floods the country with illegal aliens and ballots for all.
SINCLAIR BROADCASTING *NEWS SCRIPT* REPEATERS: “THIS IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TO OUR DEMOCRACY”-
https://youtu.be/T50pLTvwO80?feature=shared
PATRICK MONG,
When Sinclair took over the local stations, they made all the news broadcasters read statements praising their new bosses. It was sad watching the news personalities I watched for years being forced to read those statements. They were like hostages.
TTG,
What stopped employees from leaving?
I’m curious as to the wider implications of this indictment.
It isn’t a secret that investors often take on a stake in media companies for the purpose of influencing the editorial content of that media company.
This is true of domestic investors and it is true of foreign investors: they are used to being listened to, and they definitely are not used to their employees telling them to butt out when they interfere in the workings of companies that they have invested in.
This indictment would seem to me to put any and all foreign investors in media companies at risk: any hint of attempting to buy influence in such companies would make them vulnerable of being indicted under the FARA Act.
Yeah, Right,
They’re taking money from sanctioned entities. It’s illegal.
TTG: “They’re taking money from sanctioned entities. It’s illegal.”
Then why weren’t they charged with a crime?
Read the indictment. The only people indicted are the two Russians: nobody at Tenet Media is charged with any illegal activity.
Yet the only material outcome of this indictment is that Tenet Media is now closed for business and will certainly never reopen.
Mission accomplished, I suppose.
Yeah, Right,
Why weren’t they charged with a crime? Maybe that indictment is sealed. Maybe they decided to cooperate with the FBI in exchange for no charges. And as you said, maybe the DOJ is satisfied with shutting down Tenet Media.
TTG: “And as you said, maybe the DOJ is satisfied with shutting down Tenet Media.”
I am quite confident that is the true intent of this indictment.
Mission accomplished, Tenet Media is no more, and so this will now quietly be shelved and no further action will be taken against anyone.
Because the “action” has already been followed to its desired conclusion.
TTG: “Maybe they decided to cooperate with the FBI in exchange for no charges.”
No, sorry, that argument doesn’t hold water: read the indictment, which insists that “Founder-I and Founder-2” had committed a criminal act.
If a deal had been agreed between them and the FBI then the indictment would have – at worse – remained completely neutral with regard to their actions.
You don’t do a deal with the FBI and *then* see the FBI defaming you in its indictment.
When, exactly, did that ever get smart?
Yeah, Right,
That’s a fairly common ploy in federal indictments.
It is also a VERY common ploy in federal indictments to ensure that the only defendants actually indicted are the only alleged conspirators who are guaranteed never to step foot on US soil.
Robert Mueller learnt that hard lesson when he made a terrible blunder of indicting not just a baker’s dozen of Russian individuals but also indicting their parent company “Internet Research Agency”
That company immediately lawyered up and demanded discovery from the DoJ, at which point Mueller immediately folded like a cheap deck chair, bringing RussiaGate 2.0 to a screeching halt.
Garland isn’t about to make the same mistake with RussiaGate 3.0
Yeah, Right,
As I said, this indictment DOJ shut down a Russian influence operation without risking any of the discovery traps you mention. Sounds clever to me.
TTG: “Sounds clever to me.”
It sounds very sinister to me, because this can be used to shut down ANY free-speech platform that is voicing opinions that the DoJ does not like and wants silenced.
Think about it: doesn’t matter what that platform is, doesn’t matter what their content is, doesn’t matter who they are.
None of that matters: simply find a Grand Jury willing to issue an indictment alleging that “RT employees” were directing those online advocates and they are instantly deplatformed.
Doesn’t matter if that allegation is untrue.
Doesn’t matter if the DoJ has zero evidence to back up that allegation.
Doesn’t matter at all, because the DoJ knows for an absolute fact that the only defendants in that indictment will never set foot on US Soil.
Meanwhile, their American “unindicted co-conspirators” have NO recourse to clear their name, even though they are actually the target of this abuse of process.
They are simply deplatformed, they have no avenue to contest that act, and then Garland (and you, apparently) go around hi-fiving how very cunning the DoJ has been in stifling opinions in the USA.
Thin edge of the wedge, TTG. Thin. Edge. Of. The. Wedge.
Think about it: if DoJ wanted to shut YOU down they could do exactly the same thing.
How, exactly, would you contest that, since you aren’t *actually* the defendant named in that indictment?
Answer: you can’t. You’d simply be deplatformed, and you’d have no way of doing anything about it, even if you had done nothing wrong.
Yeah, Right,
Then it behoves influencers, content providers and those who just run a simple blog to do their due diligence and ensure they are not taking direction or money from Moscow, Beijing or Tehran. It’s not that hard to do as long as you’re not exceedingly gullible or greedy.
TTG: “As I said, this indictment DOJ shut down a Russian influence operation without risking any of the discovery traps you mention.”
Recent history shows that when the DoJ “falls into the discovery trap” they instantly appeal to the judge to dismiss the case.
Robert Meuller, I’m looking at you, bub.
As in: the DoJ had absolutely nothing to back up the allegations that they made in RussiaGate 2.0.
Nothing. At. All.
And that’s precisely why Meuller folded: he was misusing the American “justice system” to stitch up individuals who were not guilty of the allegations that were contained in the indictment, and this was only found out BECAUSE he fell into that “discovery trap” by making an error by indicting their company as well as the employees.
Well, gosh, that company then sent lawyers and said “game on, Bob”. At which point Meuller claimed an injury and limped away.
Yeah, Right,
Mueller only dropped the charges against two of the indicted entities. Concord Management and Concord Consulting both were charged under the same indictment as 13 Russian individuals and the Internet Research Agency. Lawyers for those two were trying to obtain info on classified sources through discovery, a clever tactic I might add. The indictment against the ISA and 13 Russians still stands.
TTG: “The indictment against the ISA and 13 Russians still stands.”
Too funny.
DoJ can safely leave indictments against IRA and its employees “standing” because the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” of 2017 bans them from entering the USA (“SEC. 16. 33 USC 1232c. PROHIBITION ON ENTRY AND OPERATION”).
Pretty sweet racket, am I right?
It is the legal equivalent of someone shouting “I’ll murder da’ bum!!!” same in the knowledge that his buddies are holding him back.
The reason why Concord Management and Concord Consulting were dropped from the indictment was because they weren’t subject to CAATSA and, therefore, could send their lawyers to the USA to say “Bring it on, big mouth”.
Mueller could play a brave game against the people and entities that you name precisely BECAUSE he knew they were prevented from doing the same.
Yeah, Right,
Concord Management and Concord Consulting would not respond to legitimate subpoenas while using the court system to gather intelligence on DOJ sources and methods. Even if the Concord Management and Concord Consulting principals (Prigozhin) showed up for a trial, DOJ would have had to decide whether to reveal those sources and methods or drop that evidence. Since Prigozhin was not going to show up, DOJ wisely declined to reveal those sources and methods.
The indictment can be found here:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1366266/dl
Still reading my way through it but the first few paragraphs are …. disturbing.
Paragraph 2 states that “RT and its employees” indulged in laundering “through a network of foreign shell entities, to covertly fund and direct U.S. Company-I” [a.k.a. Tenet Media]
Paragraph 3 states that ….”U.S. Company-I [Tenet Media] never disclosed to its viewers that it was funded and directed by RT.”
Pardon me? Don’t those two paragraphs contradict each other?
Did RT launder its money to deceive Tenet Media, or did it not?
And if they did (as DoJ so insists) then why would Tenet even know this was “RT money”, which means that they would have been in no position to “disclose” something of which they were unaware?
Anyway, back to Paragraph 2….
Paragraph 2: …”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.”
Whhhhaaaaaaaaaat the heck? What does that even mean?
That is a definition of “rabble-rousing”, is it not? How can rabble-rousing violate the FARA Act?
Indeed, how can even a effort to sell a concerted narrative (which the DoJ does not allege, remember) to the US PUBLIC be a violation of the FARA Act?
This needs to be stressed: the FARA Act makes it illegal to lobby the US Government on behalf of a foreign government without first registering as an agent of that foreign government.
Which is great, as far as it goes. But the important point is that this relates to lobbying of THE US GOVERNMENT, it does not apply to influence peddling to the US public.
This is nonsense, and the very thin edge of a very big wedge.
“And if they did (as DoJ so insists) then why would Tenet even know this was “RT money”?
They took direction from RT personnel. They knew it was RT, but didn’t want the public or the government to know. It’s all spelled out, quotes to that effect from wiretaps or whatever are included in the indictment.
TTG, I’m looking at the indictment again (yes, I have taken the trouble to read it) and nowhere in the “spelling out” is there a quote to the effect that they knew the people they were “taking direction from” were Russian employees of RT.
What is “spelt out” is that they knew they were dealing with individuals who were Russian e.g. there is a quote “”So we’re billing the Russians from the corporation, right?”
Riiiiight. One would think that the owners of Tenet would talk directly to major investors in Tenet, and would hardly fail to notice the accents.
Nothing criminal in that: there are 140million Russians, and I don’t believe the USA has got around to slapping sanctions on all of them. Not yet, anyway.
Where is the evidence that the owners of Tenet knew that those Russian investors were employees of RT?
Yeah, Right,
From the first page of the indictment:
“KALASHNIKOV,AFANASYEVA, Founder-I and Founder-2 worked together to mask U.S. Company-1’s true source of funding – i.e., RT – by falsely portraying to Commentator-I and Commentator-2 that U.S. Company-1 was sponsored by a private investor named “Eduard Grigoriann.” In truth and in fact, Grigoriann was a fictional persona.”
The two Tenet Media founders worked under contract with RT in 2021 and 2022 until the Russian invasion and sanctions kicked in. They knew what they were doing.
In the indictment: “KALASHNIKOV,AFANASYEVA, Founder-I and Founder-2 worked together to mask U.S. Company-1’s true source of funding – i.e., RT”
That is very clearly an ambit claim that the DoJ knows they can not substantiate.
Easy enough to demonstrate: “KALASHNIKOV and AFANASYEVA” are listed as co-defendants, whereas “Founder-I and Founder-2” are not, even though according to DoJ (and, therefore, your good self) they are all four guilty of the same crime.
It sometimes pays to read between the lines in these things, TTG.
Yeah, Right,
Unindicted coconspirators.
TTG: “Unindicted coconspirators.”
E.x.a.c.t.l.y.
Garland is alleging that the Russian Government directed RT to direct two of its employees to engage in a criminal conspiracy with the two owners of Tenet Media to do… something illegal…
So Garland has the opportunity to indict RT and to indict those two RT employees and to indict those two Telenet Media founders, which would ENSURE that the case goes to trial and he has an opportunity to prove his case in court.
At which point he would be a Big Goddam Hero and the Russian Government won’t just be accused of interfering in US elections but actually CONVICTED of that heinous crime.
And….. he does none of that.
The ONLY indictments he unseals are for the ONLY two people who are guaranteed not to present themselves.
He DOESN’T indict RT, who would most certainly lawyer up and demand discovery from the DoJ.
He DOESN’T indict the two owners of Tenet Media, who would undoubtedly lawyer up and demand discovery from the DoJ.
Nope. The only people he indicts are the only two people he knows for a fact will never, ever set foot inside US soil to seek their day in court in order to put the DoJ evidence to the test.
And you can’t see that this is…. ahem…. a somewhat suspicious replay of RussiaGate 1.0 and RussiaGate 2.0?
YT,
Radio Free Rurope. Radio Marti, I’m sure there are more, not including the National Endowment for Democracy.
As a school kid back 1970s, our fourth grade class went on a fieldtrip @ to our local TV station. The studio production manager provided our class with a tour in the *Manufacturing Process of TV News*
As part of the tour, students participated in mock-up recorded news broadcasts. We would sit in the news anchors chair, cameras rolling, reciting lines of news script from the teleprompter….fun time and eye opening experience for a fourth grader.
TTG – they seem to have the problem of influencers addressed in France. My bolding:-
Regulation of influencers’ activities in France
Since 9 June 2023, a law regulates the activities of commercial influencers in France. The text defines influencers as individuals or legal entities who “for a fee, communicate to the public by electronic means content intended to promote, directly or indirectly, goods, services or any cause whatsoever”.
The new provisions apply to influencers, regardless of their location, as soon as they address a French audience. French influencers who live outside of the EU must designate a legal or natural person in Europe. This ensures the compliance of their contracts with French law and facilitates the response to requests from the authorities.
https://www.europe-consommateurs.eu/en/shopping-internet/influencers.html
“Or any cause whatsoever” must cover promoting policies for payment from politicians, inside or outside France, and from any government or government body inside or outside France.
Might be simpler, though, if the influencers merely declared any and all payments or payments in kind they received and left it to their readers to decide whether that devalued their advice. Would that cover the cases you’re looking at?
I found this on Paul Street’s Substack and it well summarizes my thoughts on this thread’s topic — a topic I find as stupid as it is absurd. If you continue at the link from where Street leaves off here he has some good text as to how there isn’t any one single unified “America” at present. Far from it. A million or so heavily armed goons in combination with another million or more police does not a nation make.
————————-
https://open.substack.com/pub/paulstreet/p/weimar-media-weimar-dems
Excerpt:
Also on N“P”R yesterday, the happy talk show host Scott Simon interviewed an elite liberal academic and author who explained that Russia is “at it again,” creating “social and political divisions” in the USA during an election season. Right, as if right-wing Russian propaganda (in which I myself have regrettably participated in[1]) could magically create the sharp rifts that radiate across the savagely class-, race-, ethnically-, regionally-, politically-, culturally-divided and hyper-polarized “United” States. As if Russian propaganda has created a society in which the capitalist “One Percent” owns more wealth than the bottom 90 percent and two-thirds of the population lives from paycheck to paycheck. As if Russian propaganda produced the United States’ stark racial segregation and inequality and racist mass incarceration. As if dastardly thought-manipulators in Moscow have generated the sharp social and cultural divisions of race, class, gender, religion, nationality, ethnicity, education, and region (city versus country, coasts vs. interior). As if Russian agents turned Hillary Clinton into a transparently elitist and demobilizing agent of neoliberal capitalism in 2016. As if sneaky Putin nefariously devised the archaic US Minority Rule electoral, party, and governance structure that captures, encourages and deepens such divisions.
—————————
Do you need help vomiting? This may be just what you need. Specifically — scroll down to the collection of Christmas photos and don’t forget to read the small print which tells you who sent the card. I include a very perceptive paragraph from the opening of St Clair’s essay. Why didn’t I think of it? It’s obvious in retrospect.
Wanna know the most encouraging statistic I’ve ever read concerning the homicidal nightmare that is “America?”
See if you know which of the following 4 categories won in all the Presidential races for many decades into the past with the single exception of 2020 when The Mummy was installed at 1600 Transylvania Ave, Washington DC.
The answer is A.
Election Voting Categories:
A) Didn’t Vote ⬅️ (largest category except once in 2020).
B) Voted for Republican Candidate
C) Voted for Democratic party candidate
D) Voted for a third party candidate
——————————————————
Scroll down to Xmas photos. Try not to either die laughing or choke on your last meal.
It’s pure unadulterated fascism, not to mention monumental stupidity and inhumanity.
Ain’t that America Something to See? | Jeffrey St Clair.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/09/06/roaming-charges-116/
“A country that tolerates the routine shootings of its own school children as the cost of doing business in our weird notion of a “free society” is unlikely to feel any empathy for Palestinian children killed by the weapons we sell Israel. Violence is our chief export; indifference to the bloodshed is our national characteristic.”
2020
Biden: 34% (won), Didn’t Vote: 33%, Trump: 31%
2016
Didn’t Vote: 40%, HRC: 29%, Trump: 28% (won)
Is it correct, as NZZ the conservative voice from Zurich, Switzerland, claimed recently the one and only Cherry Blossom King admitted finally much to the disdain of some sections of his MAGA universe (Larry Johnson?? smoothie aka Andrei Martyanov??) he had indeed lost the election in 2020?
LeaNder,
Yes, he admitted he lost by a whisker on a recent podcast interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCbfTN-caFI
TTG:
Do you KH think will survive tomorrow’s debate?
Will it make Sports Illustrated top ten of the 21st century?
This is a weird list. #3 wouldn’t make my top 20. The “Rumble in the Jungle” is missing entirely, a travesty imo. Jack Nicklaus winning the Masters at age 46 in his come from behind win over Greg Norman was maybe the most exciting sports event I ever saw in my life. Completely unexpected. My wife and I were beside ourselves talking to the TV set. Neither of us were particularly golf fans but..
Joe Montana is missing from this list too. If he wasn’t the finest QB in human history then I quit.
————————————-
https://web.archive.org/web/20140104002640/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/cover/news/1999/12/02/awards/
SI’s Top 10 Sports Moments of the 20th Century
1. The 1980 Olympic hockey team stuns the Soviet Union en route to winning the gold medal, Feb. 23, 1980
2. The Giants’ Bobby Thomson smashes “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World” to win the NL pennant, Oct. 3, 1951
3. Mark McGwire belts homer run No. 62 to break Roger Maris’ single-season record, Sept. 8, 1998
4. Muhammad Ali TKO’s Sonny Liston in the seventh round to win the heavyweight title, Feb. 25, 1964
5. Bob Beamon shatters the long jump world record at the Mexico City Olympics, Oct. 18, 1968
6. North Carolina State upsets Houston on a last-second shot to win the NCAA basketball title, April 4, 1983
7. Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes, May 6, 1954
8. Michael Jordan sinks the title-winning shot in the 1998 NBA Finals, June 14, 1998
9. Secretariat wins the Triple Crown with a record 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes, June 9, 1973
10. Don Larsen pitches the first perfect game in World Series history, Oct. 8, 1956
F&L,
I really don’t know how Harris or Trump will do tomorrow. It can go any number of ways based on so many variables.
Of all those sports moments, I only remember one of them. I was a patient on Ward 44 of Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu to witness the Miracle on Ice. The entire ward broke out in extended, wild cheering when we won. It was a great experience.
TTG:
Yes that was epochal. I saw it in a bar filled with former US servicemen. Off the charts in electricity. I rarely watch hockey but couldn’t look away. Absolute pandemonium in the bar after victory.
F&L _
You’re forgetting Rocky Marciano, the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world. 49 fights, 49 wins, 43 by knockout. He had a right hook like a freight train; a dozen of those KOs were in the first round. My Dad and I and uncles and cousins used to see him on Gillette’s Friday Night Fights. I tried emulating his style in boxing smokers when I was a young Pfc; but I didn’t have his granite jaw so I ended up on my keister.
Nothing from before 1950 in that list of sports events from the 20th century? No Joe Lewis? No Babe Ruth?
Leander:
Ru just held regional elections. If Telegram and it’s translation feature work for you, check out the comments here. Another example of the triumph of “Didn’t Vote.”
——————————————
https://t.me/cprfkam/486
☄️ The Kamchatka regional branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation does not recognize the results of the elections in Kamchatka.
🖥 Blatant coercion of public sector employees and uncontrolled remote electronic voting. This is a farce, not an election.
💬 CPRF Kamchatka Live
F&L……chillier dude and abide
The postcards are a message to those who seek to cancel christian traditions nothing else.
What is disappointing is the lack of Hanukkah cards with Jews holding thermite pretzel sticks.For that extra crunch.
OT admittedly, but it would be good to have a thread where you say what the end state looks like. And who wins. But not including comments from TTG, Fred, F&L, keith (USA), English Outside (for Balance) and Yeah Right since they are … uninteresting at this point. This would draw out the fact that denizens are all about the cage match. But not about statecraft – or the War.
drifter,
Go ahead and offer your opinion. English Outsider has come close. I just don’t know how or when it will end.
Doctor Ifter:
My opinion isn’t wanted? Ok. Here it is anyway. Although I can’t foresee the actual end state (obviously) I am of the opinion that the overriding goal of the US security/deep state is to have long wars. Winning them or losing them in the classical board game sense is beside the point. So think Afghanistan, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq etc. Long and drawn out and apparently futile to those stuck in the old fashioned “win – lose” framework. If this brief 15 second observation of Assange’s helps, very well.
——————————————————-
Assange on the real goals of Afghanistan war.
To wash money out of the tax bases of US and Europe and into the transnational security apparatus and therefore an endless war suits those requirements.
https://youtu.be/-5Ti92b_Kz8
Russia is defending their border. Same thing the US or China would do if a rump state ON THEIR BORDER started acting up. Get that s%$#T off the Russian border. Putin said he would defend it over and over. He finally reached f*&^ it level. It will be removed from the Russian border one way or another. If Mexico started getting long range weapons just like Ukraine SAME OUTCOME. Rump states get their asses handed to them. I guess Ukraine thought they were some special case? They are not. They will get off the Russian border. I said this from day one. COL Lang, God Bless him but he was 100% wrong on this entire situation.
babelthuap,
Russia is doing a crappy job of defending her borders. she allowed Ukraine to send troops into the Kursk area, has allowed her naval base of Sevastopol to be make near useless and can’t defend against low, slow drone attacks on her energy infrastructure deep within Mother Russia. Her airfields are better protected by the US refusal to allow Ukraine to use our weapons on russian targets than her own A2/AD network.
TTG,
Yes indeed. Instead of “reflexive control” that gets them 32 internet domains (out of a few billion) and ‘influencers’ with less impact than Dylan Mulvaney they should have done like China and groomed them young. Feinstein’ driver, Fang Fang and Swallwell, the “aid” to the Governor of NY and all those efforts with Walz. Not to mention all the Confuscious Institutes on campus. Remember all,the “China virus” outrage?
TTG,
You just can’t help yourself any more than the people still active in the federal government. An infiltration of conservatives huh? LOL. And what of the socialism that your party is always promoting? What of the Chinese infiltration of the liberal/democrat govt of NY? Of democrat congress critters? The woke dick choppers, race baters, hamas supporters and various other social rot and decadence? All democrats. The democrats are compromised far more by russian and chicom BS than c0nservatives – partly because they are the key to the future given the political leanings of the teachers’ unions and that sort of thing.
That said, it is true that the larry johnsons of the world will go down on their knees for just about any pro-russia swinging dick with a good anti-US story to tell. Those crafty russians and chicoms have found a way into the heads of the malcontents, weaklings and imbeciles of our society regardless of where they fall on the liberal/conservative spectrum. That is what a good psy-ops team does. You know that 🙂
More respect for us readers, please. We already get enough disrespect from the autocrats in DC, like Graland, Wray, Mayorkas, et al.
Eric — one of the main things that stood out to me in this account of AG Garland’s recent revelations is how they didn’t even mention the several US Intelligence agents/assets who have broadcasted nonstop in ways which could be interpreted as pro-Russian and anti-US/Western. You named one — Johnson from CIA and State Department. McGovern, Ritter, and several others who are former intelligence or military officers. Now why do you think the AG of the United States didn’t even mention that? Rhetorical, no need to answer, and unlike you I fully support and respect their right to speak freely without calling them commies or socialists, but do you think perhaps it is a bit embarrassing?
F&L,
First, I also fully support and respect those guys’ right to gas off about whatever they want to, including supporting Russia, Hamas, terrorists, Chicoms…..whoever. I fully support and respect my, or anyone else’s, right to assess said gassing off as I see fit.
I don’t think it’s embarrassing. These are marginal characters and they’re retired. Ritter is totally discredited by his out of control penchant for underage girls, for which he has been convicted twice. LJ? four years at CIA with a Latin American focus.
Besides, Garland’s effort was about a political hit against Trump and active conservative candidates and big league influencers. It shouldn’t be taken as a serious national security effort.
Eric Newhill,
This indictment and the separate seizure of 32 domains have nothing to do with Trump or any other conservative candidates. Nor is the DOJ going after the big time influencers. These cases are all about Russian influence operations and their attempts to use these influencers for their own goals. Those influencers are most likely innocent, yet gullible, victims.
TTG,
LOL the FBI didn’t get warrants to collect the comms of the “Russians ” and every podcaster and their guests? Have you forgotten about ambassador Downer and all the rest? Papadopoulus who? Riggggght.
Fred,
The FBI obviously got some of the comms between the two Russians and Tenet Media. It’s quoted in the indictment.
TTG,
The goodness the FBI didn’t “get some comms” on Americans not employed by Tenet media. Like guests on a podcast. At least the FBI gets to pump out leaks before the election. But it looks rather obvious that there was never an attempt to arrest any Russian.
Fred,
The FBI did get comms of those two Tenet Media executives talking with the two Russians. Some of those conversations are in the indictment. Beyond that, I’m not sure what they got. That would require a FISA warrant, wouldn’t it?
That was an unsealed indictment, not a leak. I can’t believe you swallowed that bullshit about a leak.
TTG,
The article open with, “Federal officials have accused Russia of using unwitting right-wing American influencers in its quest to spread Kremlin propaganda ahead of the 2024 presidential election.”
Right wing = conservative is specifically mentioned.
TTG,
How many times has a FISA warrant been denied? Approaching zero percent.
Fred,
When I was working interagency projects, the FBI was having a difficult time getting FISA warrants and they often didn’t get them without going back and reworking the requests several times. Some they never got approved.
F&L,
Don’t feed the troll.
TTG — I think you’ll find the short video clip here very interesting. The fly-like buzzing and whining of the drones that nearly kill this fighter is extremely eerie. In the comments they complain, for good reason, about the lack of anti-drone small arms.
———————————————
https://t.me/dva_majors/51982
Extremely tense video. Kupyansk direction, they write to us:
🖋”Hello, just wanted to share some footage.
Guards Motor Rifle Regiment 1486. We were riding a quad bike and were blown up by a mined toe, or something like that. Maybe this will be useful for someone as an experiment.”
✨ The boys then battled an FPV drone that was circling overhead, which shows how important semi-automatic shotguns that fire pellets are.
Tenet media summed up and disposed of….russians????….Chinese sum cha more likely
Early life and education
Lauren Yu Sum Tam[10] was born in Ontario, Canada, and spent much of her childhood in Hong Kong. She attended university in the United States, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Middle Eastern Studies, and Arabic.
Following the indictment, YouTube terminated Tenet Media and other channels run by Chen. Prior to its removal, Tenet had around 316,000 subscribers.[19] Tenet influencer Tayler Hansen announced on September 5 that the company had shut down.[20]
mcohen,
Chen may have been ripe for taking direction from Beijing as well as Moscow. Perhaps further investigation is warranted.
I noticed that Tenet influencer Tim Pool changed his view on Ukraine 180 degrees once he found out about the RT money and direction. He went from declaring Ukraine as our greatest enemy to calling for full support for Ukraine.
TTG: “I noticed that Tenet influencer Tim Pool changed his view on Ukraine 180 degrees once he found out about the RT money and direction. ”
Ahem, found out that DoJ was alleging the involvement of RT money and direction.
TTG: “He went from declaring Ukraine as our greatest enemy to calling for full support for Ukraine.”
Having DoJ sniffing around your business model and growling in a very intimidating manner would tend to do that.
Yeah, Right,
Sure he’s scared shitless. Maybe he knows he was taking direction from Moscow rather than just speaking his own mind and panicked. I think he was overcompensating unnecessarily. Even DOJ said the influencers were clueless as to what Moscow was doing at Tenet Media.
TTG: “Sure he’s scared shitless. ”
The only point on this topic that we can agree on.
Where we differ is in the reason for his panic.