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Russia Increases Effort to Sway US Vote09/06 06:24
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Russia has long sought to inject disinformation into U.S.
political discourse. Now, it's got a new angle: paying Americans to do the work.
This week's indictment of two Russian state media employees on charges that
they paid a Tennessee company to create pro-Russian content has renewed
concerns about foreign meddling in the November election while revealing the
Kremlin's latest tactic in a growing information war.
If the allegations prove correct, they represent a significant escalation,
analysts say, and likely capture only a small piece of a larger Russian effort
to sway the election.
"We have seen the smoke for years. Now, here's the fire," said Jim Ludes, a
former national defense analyst who now leads the Pell Center for International
Relations at Salve Regina University. "I don't wonder if they're doing more of
this. I have no doubt."
According to prosecutors, the two employees of RT, a Russian outlet formerly
known as Russia Today, funneled $10 million to the U.S. media company, which
then paid several popular right-wing influencers for their content -- in one
case $400,000 a month. Two of those influencers said they had no idea their
work was being supported by Russia.
Intelligence officials and private analysts say Russia's disinformation
campaigns are designed to cut off American assistance to Ukraine, clearing the
way for a rapid Russian victory after more than two years of bitter conflict.
In the presidential race, Russia supports Donald Trump as the candidate
perceived as the least supportive of Ukraine, intelligence officials say. Trump
has openly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested cutting funds to
Ukraine and repeatedly criticized the NATO military alliance. On Thursday,
Putin wryly claimed he was pulling for Vice President Kamala Harris to win.
A secondary goal of Russian disinformation, officials have said, is to
increase political polarization and distrust as a way of eroding American
confidence in democracy.
This summer, intelligence officials warned that Russia was using unwitting
Americans to spread its propaganda by adapting it to fit existing social
debates within the U.S. Instead of creating new conflicts, Russia has found
success by identifying and exaggerating existing divides, tailoring
disinformation accordingly. When successful, Russia can get Americans to spread
its talking points for free, without them even knowing their source.
When an Ohio train derailment caused massive environmental damage last year,
Russian voices tried to steer the debate with anti-government posts that were
quickly reposted by American users. Some U.S. websites picked up the Russian
propaganda and reposted it without attribution.
Earlier this year, Russian state media and networks of fake accounts began
to amplify claims about immigration on platforms used by Americans.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Russian state media claimed without
evidence that the virus was the product of U.S. bioweapons experiments and that
the U.S. maintained biological laboratories in Ukraine. English-language posts
soon started showing up on American social media sites.
Four years later, the conspiracy theory still reverberates on far-right
message boards.
"What if Covid was created in a Ukraine biolab, and the War has been to keep
that a secret?" a poster wrote last week on X, the platform formerly known as
Twitter.
The company hired by RT was identified as Tenet Media by two of the
right-wing content creators it paid -- Tim Pool and Benny Johnson. Both men
said on social media Wednesday that they had no knowledge of Tenet's
relationship with RT and that if the allegations are true, they are victims.
Pool posted that no one told him what to say in his podcast and condemned
Russia: "Putin is a scumbag."
Pool has a long history, however, of espousing pro-Russian, anti-Ukrainian
views as well as conspiracy theories about Democrats and American democracy.
On one podcast, he said "criminal elements" within the U.S. government were
directing the war against Russia and said Ukraine was the real enemy.
"Ukraine is our enemy, being funded by the Democrats," Pool said. "Ukraine
is the greatest threat to this nation and to the world. We should rescind all
funding and financing, pull out all military support, and we should apologize
to Russia."
Trump said on Truth Social that the case amounted to "election interference"
by federal prosecutors, who he said were "resurrecting the Russia, Russia,
Russia Hoax, and trying to say that Russia is trying to help me, which is
absolutely false," with the last word in capital letters.
Trump's comments referred to concerns about Russian meddling in the 2016
election, when groups linked to the Kremlin used social media networks and paid
ads on Facebook and other platforms to support Trump. Russia also sought to
help Trump in the 2020 election.
China and Iran have mounted their own campaigns to use social media to shape
American views. Iran covertly supported protests over the war in Gaza and was
recently accused of trying to hack into the campaign systems of Trump and
Harris, his Democratic opponent.
Russia, however, remains the chief threat, intelligence officials maintain.
During a briefing last month with reporters, an official with the Office of
the Director of National Intelligence said Russia was increasingly trying to
cover its tracks by "outsourcing its efforts to commercial firms to hide its
hand, and laundering narratives through influential U.S. voices." The official
was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of
anonymity.
Russian officials have repeatedly bragged about their abilities to shape
American views despite U.S. government efforts. RT editor-in-chief Margarita
Simonyan, who has been sanctioned over her ties to the Russian government,
detailed how Moscow tries to hide its fingerprints from American intelligence.
"We create many sources of information that are not tied to us," Simonyan
said recently on a Russian talk show. "While the CIA tries to figure out that
they're tied to us, they already have an enormous audience. This is how we
chase each other. It's actually fun."
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