On September 4, the US Department of Justice officially announced the indictment against two Russian agents, through whom the Russian Federation financed a propaganda network in America, with the aim of influencing the outcome of the upcoming US elections. This network of propagandists was on the extreme right of the political spectrum, with an unequivocal populist provenance.

The above network was complex and consisted of executives of the Tennessee-based online media project Tenet, funded by a Russian front company registered in Canada, who were aware that they were receiving money from Russia, as well as popular commentators who were unaware of the sources. of financing.

The commentators primarily spread misinformation through YouTube and Twitter, but their main content was in video format, that is, the journalists ran their own podcasts, reports the Radar.nova.rs portal.

Tenet's Dark Role

According to the media, the founders of the "Tenet" company are Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan, both Canadian citizens, who were directly involved in the Russian operation and who were in direct contact with the Russian agents, Konstantin Kalashnikov and Yelena Afansieva, officially employed by "Russia". today" from which they received instructions.

Among the commentators who were paid by Russia, the most prominent are Benny Johnson with 2,39 million followers on YouTube and 2,7 million on X. Next on the list were Tim Poole with 1,37 million YouTube followers and 2,1 million X followers as well as David Rubin with 2,45 million YouTube listeners and around 1,5 million X followers.

Of course, in a similar context should be mentioned the owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, who repeatedly shared the content of the commentator Tenet from his official profile, starting in 2022.

A concrete example of the propaganda narratives that Russia has placed through "Tenet" is the order of Russian agent Afanasieva to spread the claim that after the terrorist attack in Moscow in March of this year, for which the Islamic State of Afghanistan claimed responsibility, that Ukraine and the United States were behind the attack.

A cheap venture

What is very interesting about the whole propaganda operation is that the sums of money invested were not astronomical. In the published indictment of the US Ministry, it is about a sum of about 10 million US dollars, which is a drop in the sea of ​​finances in the US media market. According to the estimates of the famous American economist, originally from the Soviet Union, Konstantin Sonin, the direct costs of a one-day war in Ukraine for Russia amount to about 500 million dollars, while the annual budget of "Russia Today" is about 300 million dollars.

This, as analyzed by the media, indicates two things. First, that big actors can buy a few million followers on YouTube or X is a relatively cheap undertaking, similar to the "better price" model, and second, the Russian disinformation network in the US must be much more widespread than revealed, unlike social benefits and investment in provincial infrastructure in their own country.

Healing the divisions in American society, the only antidote to propaganda

The conclusions that can be drawn from the available information are as follows. In the Kremlin, they will be satisfied with the eventual victory of Trump, because they are convinced that he will be more focused on internal than on external issues. Russian propaganda is working towards his victory. Furthermore, Russian propaganda is no more rigid than Soviet propaganda, it can equally spread radical right and radical left narratives, although the right is more prevalent.

Last and most importantly, as the media reports, Russian propaganda does not invent the problems facing American society, it only inflames them.

These findings imply that the only lasting way to combat foreign propaganda in the United States is to heal the divisions in American society.