US charges RT employees over alleged election influence

Justice Department officials said the two employees used shell companies and fake personas to pay $10 million to an unnamed Tennessee company to produce online videos aimed at amplifying political divisions in the United States.

The US Treasury and State departments also announced actions targeting RT, including the network’s top editor, Margarita Simonovna Simonyan.

American officials said Russia’s goal is to exacerbate US political divisions and weaken public support for American aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia.

“We will be relentlessly aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by Russia and Iran, as well as China or any other foreign malign actor, (to) interfere in our elections and undermine our democracy,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland stated.

The FBI separately sought court permission to seize 32 internet domains it said were part of Russia’s foreign influence effort.

RT responded with ridicule, telling Reuters, “Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT’s interference in the US elections.”

RT ceased operating in the United States after major television distributors dropped it following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russian lawmaker Maria Butina told Reuters that Moscow does not think it matters whether Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris wins the Nov. 5 election.

“The only winner of the US election is the US private military industrial complex,” added Butina, who spent 15 months in US prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent.

Moscow has repeatedly stressed it has not meddled in the upcoming US election.

The criminal indictment charged the two RT employees, Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, with conspiracy to violate US money laundering and foreign agent laws. Both are based in Russia and remain at large, American officials say.

Authorities said the RT employees worked with two foreign nationals in the United States, who set up a company that recruited prominent conservative commentators to post regular videos on topics like immigration and US politics.

Though the company is not named in the indictment, details provided in court filings match up with Tenet Media, a Nashville-based company that has posted nearly 2,000 videos to YouTube in less than a year.

The indictment’s description of a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues” matches Tenet’s own promotional wording on its website. In addition, Tenet’s incorporation date of Feb. 19, 2022, filed with the Tennessee Secretary of State matches the date mentioned in the indictment.

The company paid $8.7 million to the production companies of three of the online stars it recruited, according to the indictment. The company’s founders also received more than $760,000.

The commentators, who were not named in the indictment, did not know they were paid by RT, the Justice Department announced.

In one instance, the indictment said, Afanasyeva asked the company to produce a video that would blame Ukraine and the United States for a mass shooting at a Moscow music venue, the Justice Department said, even though Islamic State had claimed responsibility.

A company founder responded that one of the commentators is “happy to cover it”, added the indictment.

Benny Johnson, one of the commenters who has worked with Tenet, said in a statement he is disturbed by the indictment and added it “makes clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme”.

Tim Pool, another commenter, also said he and the other influencers “were deceived and are victims”. He added no one else had editorial control of his broadcasts.

The Justice Department has not charged Tenet executives with wrongdoing. However, it alleges that the company failed to disclose that it was funded by RT and its executives never registered with the Justice Department that they were acting as agents of a foreign government.

The Justice Department has previously warned that Russia remains a threat in the election and appears to be favoring Trump over Harris.

US intelligence assessments found that Moscow tried to help Trump in 2016, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton, and in 2020 when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Moscow has denied the allegations.

After the charges were announced, Trump posted on social media that the Justice Department was working to defeat him in the election.