More on Russian Influence Efforts

 Many posts have analyzed how foreign governments try to influence American politics and policy. Russia and China are prominent influencers.

They are still at it in 2026

Steven Lee Myers and Dustin Volz at NYT:

Even as President Trump pursued a thawing of relations with the Kremlin this week, a covert Russian influence operation targeted the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Texas, James Talarico, by spreading a fabricated claim of misconduct.

Several groups of researchers who track Russian disinformation operations attributed the claim to Storm-1516, a covert group that in 2024 peddled a similarly unfounded accusation against Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee.

The attack followed a flurry of Russian posts on social media in recent weeks and provided the latest indication that Moscow is once again targeting an American election with online influence operations. In recent weeks, Russia has ramped up those efforts, according to a U.S. official familiar with classified intelligence assessments on the matter.

Most of the Russian content so far, spread by bot networks around the world, has targeted Democratic candidates, especially in closely contested Senate races that could determine control of Congress in Mr. Trump’s remaining two years in office. Still, the intelligence assessments do not specify that Russia is explicitly seeking to harm one political party more than the other, the official said.

“I characterize it to people as kind of same old, same old,” Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on Wednesday, referring broadly to Russian efforts so far this campaign. The Russians are “throwing everything out there to generate a sense of chaos and anarchy” in the voting process, he added.

Mr. Himes said Russia was focused “in a bipartisan way” on trying to harm American politicians who had been supportive of Ukraine.

 

Russia, Russia, Russia

 Many posts have analyzed how foreign governments try to influence American politics and policy. Russia and China are  prominent influencers.

Julian E. Barnes, Dustin Volz and Steven Lee Myers at NYT:

Less than three weeks from elections that could shift the balance of power in Congress, more signs are emerging that Russia and other foreign governments are once again seeking to influence American voters.

An online influence operation backed by the Russian government has been stepping up its attempts to sow division in the United States and inflame tensions around Israel as a political wedge issue, according to a new study by an independent company that tracks digital threats and foreign propaganda campaigns.

The influence operation known as Doppelgänger has created a flood of social media posts pushing themes of how bipartisan support for Israel is collapsing, according to Alethea, the threat intelligence company.

Doppelgänger is run by Russia’s Social Design Agency, a public relations firm. Both the U.S. government and the European Union have imposed punitive sanctions upon it.

On Wednesday, X, the social media platform, announced it had banned 13,000 accounts linked to three separate influence operations connected to Iran, Russia and China. The platform said the fake accounts amplified “content about U.S. politics, targeting candidates and public figures across the political spectrum.”

Michael Sinkewicz FOXBusiness:

President Donald Trump's decision to waive new sanctions on Russia is drawing sharp criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike, with several prominent GOP figures warning that the move could embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin as Moscow continues its war against Ukraine.

Trump signed an executive order Friday waiving key Russia-related sanctions and tariffs under the Graham Act, legislation he signed into law last month aimed at increasing economic pressure on Moscow.

The law, backed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., authorized tariffs of up to 100% on certain goods imported into the United States from major buyers of Russian oil and gas.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley reposted FOX Business' reporting on Trump's executive order, calling the president's decision a potentially defining moment.

There are certain decisions that will go down as history-defining moments. This is one of them. It's a terrible misjudgment of Putin, who has made it clear he wants to destroy the West. We shouldn't help him do it.

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) October 17, 2026

Gutting the Diplomatlic Corps

Many posts have discussed federal employment and bureaucracy.

Abigail Williams at NBC

The State Department declined to provide exact numbers. According to the American Foreign Service Association, around 2,000 U.S. diplomats have left the Foreign Service over the last year, either through layoffs or forced retirements, taking with them decades of institutional knowledge, experience in crisis response and highly specialized language skills paid for by the U.S. government.

Their departure from a workforce that was estimated to be more than 13,000 in 2024 leaves the U.S. at a critical disadvantage, current and former State Department officials say, at a time when the nation is facing an escalating number of foreign policy crises.

...

The leadership vacuum is large. The ambassadorship in Moldova is still vacant, along with more than half of ambassadorships around the globe, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where a worsening Ebola outbreak began. There is no ambassador to Ukraine, and seasoned diplomat Julie Davis, who has been leading the embassy in Kyiv while simultaneously serving as ambassador to Cyprus, is stepping down next month to join others in retirement.

...

In the Middle East, where the U.S. continues to navigate a war with Iran and the fallout with regional allies, half of the U.S. missions, including four Persian Gulf countries, are without formal U.S. ambassadors. Pakistan and Qatar, where officials have taken on critical mediating roles in negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, are without ambassadors.

The absences contributed to the frantic effort to evacuate thousands of Americans who became stranded, and withdraw personnel when Iran began retaliating across the region in March, current and former diplomats say.

Not good pic.twitter.com/yvodGttLpV

— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) June 4, 2026

A Year and a Week of Trump

Many posts have discussed the presidency.

 My article in La Tercera (original English):

The first year of President Trump's second term was full of action. He got Congress to pack much of his domestic agenda into what he called "One Big Beautiful Bill." The legislation cut taxes, with the benefits flowing mainly to the wealthiest Americans. It partly offset the tax reductions by cutting programs for the poor.

Trump assigned billionaire Elon Musk to cut "waste, fraud, and abuse" in the government. The effort failed. The young staffers who worked for Musk did not know what they were doing. They disrupted government operations and fired experienced employees without finding much waste. Their actions led to lawsuits and required expensive remedial measures. In the end, Musk cost American taxpayers more money than he saved. By the end of 2025, the federal government's debt had risen to $38 trillion.

On the positive side, the economy grew, and inflation remained modest, continuing trends that had begun during the Biden administration. Additionally, Trump's tariffs did not lead to the immediate price spikes that many had feared. Nevertheless, economists warned that tariffs could drive up prices in 2026.


Trump's record on foreign policy was also mixed. His administration helped broker a cease-fire in Gaza and carried out a military strike that set back Iran's nuclear program. The abduction of Nicolas Maduro possibly opened long-term opportunities for American oil companies, but it was not clear how the Venezuelan people would fare.


During his 2024 reelection campaign, Trump repeatedly promised that he would end the war in Ukraine in the first 24 hours of his term. But despite his courtship of Vladimir Putin, the war dragged on. He was no more successful in his quest to gain ownership of Greenland.


All in all, it was a year to remember, though not necessarily for the reasons that Trump wanted.

Since I wrote that piece, things have gotten worse for Trump.  Tricia Escobedo at CNN:

President Donald Trump showed his first signs of retreat since surging federal immigration agents in Minnesota late last year — replacing the leader of the crackdown on the ground and signaling a new willingness to cooperate with the state’s Democratic elected officials. Top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino and some of his agents are expected to leave Minneapolis today and return to their respective sectors, according to three sources, sidelining a key player in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The move comes after Trump announced he was dispatching White House border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis in the wake of the fatal shooting of US citizen Alex Pretti. The White House has said Homan is expected to manage ICE operations in the city.

US Envoy Coaches Russian on How to Play Trump

 

Remarkable story. Stunning stuff even if it’s what we have come to expect from
Witkoff. Here he explicitly advises Russian officials how Putin should deal with Trump, and also shows a staggering, fundamental misunderstanding of Putin’s goals and the war. https://t.co/e1pwzMqAGg pic.twitter.com/rhpZc74Nlm

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) November 25, 2025

Even in the age of Trump, just staggering. Here is Steve Witkoff, an American offical, coaching a Kremlin adviser about how Putin should deal with Trump. “Congratulate the president on this achievement … that he is a man of peace.” https://t.co/VgmfUFtKj0 pic.twitter.com/VGDZ8GR87P

— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) November 25, 2025

When I worked for Obama, I advised him on how to talk to Russian leaders. I never gave the Kremlin advice on how to talk to Obama (and I talked to Ushakov many times!). pic.twitter.com/1B73I7HxAg

— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) November 26, 2025

Trading Places on National Security

In the 1980s, the Republicans wanted a hard line against the Kremlin, the Democrats less so.

They have traded places.

Moira Fagan, Jacob Poushter, and Sneha Gubbala at Pew:

More than three years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Americans remain divided along partisan lines in their views of the conflict, as well as in their attitudes toward NATO and perceptions of Russia.  

Americans continue to see NATO in a mostly favorable light, and views among the public overall have changed little over the past year. As has long been the case, Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to have a positive opinion of the military alliance. pic.twitter.com/8Fo9gDcqMs

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) April 18, 2025

Republicans have become less likely over the past year to say Russia is an enemy of the United States – and more likely to call it a partner or competitor. pic.twitter.com/5Phur7oujY

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) April 17, 2025

Post-Truth and Ukraine

 Many posts have discussed myths and misinformation. There is a lot of disinformation about Ukraine.

 

This is the main problem with the post-truth online information ecosystem in a nutshell.

A MAGA user claimed last night that Democratic politicians "Blinken, Rice Nuland and Vindman" had a conference call with Zelensky on his flight to Washington and advised him to "stand… pic.twitter.com/UOsQpHQnge

— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) March 1, 2025

This is the main problem with the post-truth online information ecosystem in a nutshell.

A MAGA user claimed last night that Democratic politicians "Blinken, Rice Nuland and Vindman" had a conference call with Zelensky on his flight to Washington and advised him to "stand strong" and be "tough" against Trump, which directly led to the argument with Trump and Vance in the Oval Office.

She cites no source or evidence for her claim and goes on to admit she was merely "speculating".

Three hours later, another MAGA users rehashes that claim, saying "rumour has it" that those four Democrats did this and therefore violated the Logan Act. 

Again, no evidence is provided for this claim at all, but the tweet goes viral.

This morning, major MAGA user amuse with 560,000 followers tweets the same claim as a news story, this time saying Obama was also directly involved and Zelensky was told to reject the minerals deal. 

Once again, zero source or evidence is provided by amuse, but the tweet racks up 1.7 million views.

Finally this morning, Trump's envoy Richard Grenell shares the same claim, saying it's "very serious", meaning this claim has now reached the president's senior aides.

At no point throughout this entire cycle has any of these users bothered to simply ask: "Is there any source or evidence for this?"

And now, millions of people likely believe this is true. That Zelensky, on the advice of senior Democrats, scuppered the minerals deal and got into an argument with Trumo and Vance. 

There's still no source or avidence that this actually happened. But evidence no longer seems to matter in the post-truth online information ecosystem.

Siding with Russia

 Many posts have analyzed how foreign governments try to influence American politics and policy. Russia and China are  prominent influencers.

Mike Allen at Axios:

• At the UN General Assembly on Monday, the U.S. voted against a resolution condemning Russia for invading Ukraine on the third anniversary of the war.
• It was the first time since 1945 that the U.S. sided with Russia — and against Europe — on a resolution related to European security, according to the BBC's James Lansdale.
• Nearly all other Western leaders see Russia as a rogue state and an aggressor. Trump sees a potential partner.

He goes so far as to say - falsely - Russia’s interference in the 2016 election had “nothing to do with Russia”:

“That was a rigged deal and had nothing to do with Russia. It was a rigged deal with inside the country. And they had to put up with that, too. They put up with a…

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) February 27, 2025

Ukraine Fact and Fiction

 Many posts have discussed myths and misinformation.

Lori Robertson and Robert Farley at FactCheck.org:

After U.S. and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia to discuss an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, President Donald Trump made several false and misleading statements about the conflict and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

• Trump falsely claimed that Ukraine had “started” the war with Russia, saying the country could have made a “deal.” Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

• He inflated the amount of U.S. aid for Ukraine and wrongly said the U.S. gave “$200 billion more than Europe.” Aid from Europe is higher than that from the U.S.

• Trump distorted comments Zelenskyy made to claim that the Ukrainian president “admits that half of the money that we sent them is missing.” A Trump administration official has said the U.S. tracks the money.

• Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator” and misleadingly said that he “refuses” to have elections. Because of the war, the country is under martial law and can’t have an election, according to Ukrainian law.

The talks between the U.S. and Russia in Saudi Arabia, led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, were held Feb. 18. Ukraine wasn’t included in the meeting. Trump made his claims about Ukraine late in the afternoon on Feb. 18 and reiterated them the following day in a post on Truth Social and remarks at a summit in Miami.

From the Institute for the Study of War:

Russian Influence, Fall 2024

 Many posts have analyzed how foreign governments try to influence American politics and policy. Russia and China are  prominent influencers.

ALAN SUDERMAN and GARANCE BURKE at AP:

The Kremlin could not have asked for better publicity at a better time when Ben Swann, a self-described independent journalist who promotes conspiracy theories, released a 12-part video series he promised would reveal dark truths about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Swann’s flashy documentary-style videos were filled with innuendo, attacks on Zelenskyy’s character and commentary from guests sympathetic to Russia in its two-year war with Ukraine.

The series, titled “Zelenskyy Unmasked,” launched in April as Congress was debating increasing military assistance to Ukraine, and it quickly caught the attention of conservative social media influencers who hyped the project to their millions of followers.

Among those who promoted the series was Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son.

“Curious about the billions of dollars and weapons Congress sent Ukraine?” Trump Jr. posted on X, Truth Social and Threads. “You need to watch the first episode of the explosive 12-part series.”

Unlike other conservative media personalities who last month expressed shock upon learning they may have been secretly financed by the Kremlin, Swann has no such qualms. He’s worked for Russia’s state-owned media empire for years, with one of his companies earning millions of dollars for producing Kremlin-friendly shows.

The creation of “Zelenskyy Unmasked” and its viral spread reveal how widely Russia-backed talking points are traveling on social media — a trend that concerns current and former U.S. intelligence officials and disinformation experts.

An investigation by The Associated Press also provides insights into the shadowy and profitable world of political influencers who are not required to disclose who is paying them, raising transparency concerns about their political endorsements in the largely unregulated realm of social media

Alia Shoaib at Newsweek:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said under oath that Tucker Carlson is funded by a Russian state-owned media outlet, without providing evidence for the claim.

Trudeau made the allegation about Carlson and fellow conservative media personality Jordan Peterson while testifying at a public inquiry into foreign interference on Wednesday.

The Canadian prime minister was addressing alleged Russian influence in spreading anti-vaccine messaging in the media and on social media during the "Freedom Convoy," a protest against COVID-19 vaccines and restrictions in Canada in early 2022.

"We have seen that anti-vax messages during the convoy, during the pandemic, were amplified by Russian propaganda, especially in the media of the right," Trudeau said, per a translation from French by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

He added that after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, several of these channels began spreading "pro-Putin propaganda."

"We've recently seen that RT is currently funding bloggers and other YouTube personalities of the right, such as Jordan Peterson. Other names that are well known, Tucker Carlson as well, in order to amplify messages that are destabilizing democracies," Trudeau said, naming the Russian state-controlled network.

More Russian Disinformation

 Many posts have analyzed how foreign governments try to influence American politics and policy. Russia and China are  prominent influencers.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken:

In addition to imposing sanctions, visa restrictions, and other measures, the State Department also designated the Russian state-funded and directed media company Rossiya Segodnya and five of its subsidiaries, including RT, under the Foreign Missions Act. As a result, these actors are now required to notify the State Department of all personnel working in the United States as well as their property.

We took these steps based on our conclusion that Rossiya Segodnya and these five subsidiaries are no longer merely firehoses of Russian Government propaganda and disinformation; they are engaged in covert influence activities aimed at undermining American elections and democracies, functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus.

Today, we’re announcing that these Kremlin-backed media outlets are not only playing this covert influence role to undermine democracy in the United States, but also to meddle in the sovereign affairs of countries around the world. Thanks to new information – much of which originates from RT employees – we know that RT possess cyber capabilities and engaged in covert information and influence operations and military procurement. As part of RT’s expanded capabilities, the Russian Government embedded within RT a unit with cyber operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence. RT’s leadership had direct, witting knowledge of this enterprise.

Russian Government actors incorporated the cyber capabilities of this unit within RT in the spring of 2023, which is focused primarily on covert influence operations around the world. Under the cover of RT, information produced through this unit flows to Russian intelligence services, Russian media outlets, Russian mercenary groups, and other state and proxy arms of the Russian Government. One of its projects is a large, online crowdfunding program in Russia, operating within RT and through social media channels, to provide support and military equipment – supplies, weaponry – to Russian military units in Ukraine. This includes sniper rifles, suppressors, body armor, night vision equipment, drones, radio equipment, personal weapon sites, diesel generators.

While the crowdfunding campaign is out in the open, what’s hidden is that this program is administered by the leaders of RT. Last week, our government revealed how RT launders information operations through unwitting Americans to covertly disseminate Kremlin-produced content and messaging to the American public. Today, we’re exposing how Russia deploys similar tactics around the world.I

Matt Bernardini at The Guardian:

Amid the recent crackdown on Russian influence in American media, a group of former Trump advisers and operatives have quietly helped build a pro-Russian website that frequently spreads debunked conspiracy theories about the war in Ukraine, election fraud and vaccines.

Working alongside contributors for Kremlin state media, the former Donald Trump policy aide George Papadopoulos, his wife, Simona Mangiante, and others have become editorial board members of the website Intelligencer, which is increasingly becoming a source of news for those in the rightwing ecosystem.

The growth of the website, which has not been reported on before, comes at a time when the US is seeking to crack down on Russian influence ahead of the 2024 election. Recently, the justice department charged two members of RT (formerly known as Russia Today) with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act and money laundering for payments they allegedly made to “recruit unwitting American influencers”. It also placed sanctions on RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, and nine other employees.

Russian Influence Operations

Many posts have analyzed how foreign governments try to influence American politics and policy. Russia and China are  prominent influencers.

From DOJ

The Justice Department today announced the seizure of two domain names and the search of 968 social media accounts used by Russian actors to create an AI-enhanced social media bot farm that spread disinformation in the United States and abroad. The social media bot farm used elements of AI to create fictitious social media profiles — often purporting to belong to individuals in the United States — which the operators then used to promote messages in support of Russian government objectives, according to affidavits unsealed today.

In conjunction with the domain seizures and search warrant announced today, the FBI and the Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF), in partnership with Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), the Netherlands General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), Netherlands Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD), and Netherlands Police released a joint cybersecurity advisory detailing the technology behind the social media bot farm, including details regarding how the bot farm’s creators leveraged their bespoke AI system in furtherance of the scheme. The advisory will allow social media platforms and researchers to identify and prevent the Russian government’s further use of the technology. In addition, X Corp. (formerly, Twitter) voluntarily suspended the remaining bot accounts identified in the court documents for terms of service violations.

“With these actions, the Justice Department has disrupted a Russian-government backed, AI-enabled propaganda campaign to use a bot farm to spread disinformation in the United States and abroad,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “As the Russian government continues to wage its brutal war in Ukraine and threatens democracies around the world, the Justice Department will continue to deploy all of our legal authorities to counter Russian aggression and protect the American people.”

“Today’s action demonstrates that the Justice Department and our partners will not tolerate Russian government actors and their agents deploying AI to sow disinformation and fuel division among Americans,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “As malign actors accelerate their criminal misuse of AI, the Justice Department will respond and we will prioritize disruptive actions with our international partners and the private sector. We will not hesitate to shut down bot farms, seize illegally obtained internet domains, and take the fight to our adversaries.”

“Today’s actions represent a first in disrupting a Russian-sponsored Generative AI-enhanced social media bot farm,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Russia intended to use this bot farm to disseminate AI-generated foreign disinformation, scaling their work with the assistance of AI to undermine our partners in Ukraine and influence geopolitical narratives favorable to the Russian government. The FBI is committed to working with our partners and deploying joint, sequenced operations to strategically disrupt our most dangerous adversaries and their use of cutting-edge technology for nefarious purposes.”

“We support all civic engagement, civil dialogue, and a robust exchange of ideas,” said U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino for the District of Arizona. “But those ideas should be generated by Americans, for Americans. The disruption announced today protects us from those who use unlawful means to seek to mislead our citizens and our communities.”

“The disruption announced today is the result of a combined response with our international partners to a serious and unique threat,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual for the Northern District of Illinois. “Multiple U.S. and foreign governmental components worked closely and efficiently to address the threat and develop and execute a mitigation strategy. Through vigorous enforcement efforts and collaborative international partnerships, the Justice Department works tirelessly to disrupt criminal cyber activity.”

Overview

According to court documents, a bot farm is an enhanced software package which allows for the creation of false personas on social media platforms. Bot farms are enhanced by integrating components which contain artificial intelligence, such as image production or text generation.

As described in the affidavits filed in support of the warrants, development of the social media bot farm was organized by an individual identified in Russia (Individual A). In early 2022, Individual A worked as the deputy editor-in-chief at RT, a state-run Russian news organization based in Moscow. Since at least 2022, RT leadership sought the development of alternative means for distributing information beyond RT’s standard television news broadcasts. In response, Individual A led the development of software that was able to create and to operate a social media bot farm. As planned, the social media bot farm would create fictitious online personas for social media accounts, through which RT, or any operator of the bot farm, could distribute information on a wide-scale basis. The development was executed by Individual B and others, who hid their identities and location (Russia) while beginning to purchase infrastructure for the social media bot farm in April 2022.

In early 2023, with the approval and financial support of the Presidential Administration of Russia (aka the Kremlin), a Russian FSB officer (FSB Officer 1) created and led a private intelligence organization (P.I.O.), as explained in the affidavits. The P.I.O.’s membership was comprised of, among others, employees at RT, including Individual A. The true purpose of the P.I.O. was to advance the mission of the FSB and the Russian government, including by spreading disinformation through the social media accounts created by the bot farm.

According to the affidavits, FSB Officer 1, Individual A, and other members of the PIO had access to the social media bot farm. The following are examples of Russian-government narratives that the bot farm posted on X in October and November 2023:A purported U.S. constituent replied to a candidate for federal office’s social media posts regarding the conflict in Ukraine with a video of President Putin justifying Russia’s actions in Ukraine;
A purported resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota, posted a video of President Putin discussing his belief that certain geographic areas of Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania were “gifts” to those countries from the Russian forces that liberated them from Nazi control during World War II;
A purported U.S. resident of a city identified only as “Gresham,” posted a video claiming that the number of foreign fighters embedded with Ukrainian forces was significantly lower than public estimates;

The same purported individual posted a video of President Putin claiming that the war in Ukraine is not a territorial conflict or a matter of geopolitical balance, but rather the “principles on which the New World Order will be based.”


To register the fictitious social media accounts, the social media bot farm relied on private email servers, which in turn relied on the two domain names seized by the FBI. An individual who controls an internet domain can create email accounts using the domain. For example, an individual controlling the domain name www.example.com can create email accounts using @example.com (e.g., EmailAddress@example.com). Here, the actors obtained and controlled the domain names “mlrtr.com” and “otanmail.com” from a U.S.-based provider. They then used those domains to create the email servers that ultimately allowed them to create fictitious social media accounts using the bot farm software.

The FSB’s use of U.S.-based domain names, which the software used to register the bots, violates the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. In addition, the accompanying payments for that infrastructure violate federal money laundering laws.

The Justice Department commends members of the private sector who coordinated with law enforcement efforts on this disruption, including X for its voluntary efforts to suspend the identified bot accounts from its platform. Prior to the government’s action, X identified and suspended a significant number of the bot accounts.

The Justice Department’s investigation is ongoing.

The National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois are prosecuting the case, with valuable assistance from the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
Updated July 9, 2024

Russian Influence Operations in the US

Many posts have analyzed how foreign governments try to influence American politics and policy. Russia and China are  prominent influencers.

Alex Finley. former CIA officer, writes at TNR:

Last year, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed that politicians in Germany, Italy, and Cyprus were paid by Russian operatives to introduce legislation literally written by Russian intelligence officers. The OCCRP also uncovered examples of parliamentary staff members, party activists, and members of think tanks publishing articles in European press outlets under their name, while the articles were actually written by Russian handlers. One activist from Austria even complained to his handler about the quality of one article that had been coordinated with the Kremlin. “I am not a robot,” he said. Nevertheless, he published the article under his name in a Swiss media outlet.

It is naïve to think the same pattern does not exist in the United States, given the ample evidence of coordinated pro-Russian talking points from several Republican politicians. Just this week, Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke to Steve Bannon about Ukraine’s persecution of Christians, which is a Kremlin talking point aimed at boosting the pro-Moscow wing of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church. The U.S. should be spending money on the border with Mexico, not on Ukraine aid? That’s a Kremlin talking point. Russia invaded Ukraine to defend itself against an expanding NATO? That’s a Kremlin talking point. Call for a cease-fire, and give Russia Crimea and eastern Ukraine? That’s a Kremlin talking point.

While we cannot say for sure if any Republican officials are on the Russian payroll in ways similar to their European counterparts, we can be sure that they’ve been approached. As the director of national intelligence wrote in 2021, Russian intelligence operatives and their proxies “sought to use prominent US persons and media conduits to launder their narratives to US officials and audiences. These Russian proxies met with and provided materials to Trump administration-linked US persons to advocate for formal investigations; hired a US firm to petition US officials; and attempted to make contact with several senior US officials. They also made contact with established US media figures.”

American Defector and Russian Disinformation

Many posts have discussed myths and misinformation.

Brandy Zadrozny at NBC:

More than 150 fake local news websites pushing Russian propaganda to U.S. audiences are connected to John Mark Dougan, an American former law enforcement officer living in Moscow, according to a research report published Wednesday by NewsGuard, a firm that monitors misinformation.

The websites, with names like DC Weekly, New York News Daily and Boston Times, look similar to those of legitimate local news outlets and have already succeeded in spreading a number of false stories surrounding the war in Ukraine. Experts warn they could be used to launder disinformation about the 2024 election.

In an interview over WhatsApp, Dougan denied involvement with the websites. “Never heard of them,” he said.

Dougan, a former Marine and police officer, fled his home in Florida in 2016 to evade criminal charges related to a massive doxxing campaign he was accused of launching against public officials and was given asylum by the Russian government. Most recently, Dougan has posed as a journalist in Ukraine’s Donbas region, testifying at Russian public hearings and making frequent appearances on Russian state TV.

He’s now part of a small club of Western expats who have become purveyors of English-language propaganda for Russia. Researchers and cybersecurity companies had previously linked Dougan to the sites. The NewsGuard report published Wednesday is the latest to implicate him in the fake news ring.

Academic research from Clemson University linked Dougan to the network of fake news websites last year after one of them was found to share an IP address with other sites he ran, including his personal website.

In an interview, Darren Linvill, co-director of the Watt Family Innovation Center Media Forensics Hub at Clemson, called Dougan “a tool of the broader Russian disinformation machine” whose websites “are just one of several mechanisms by which these narratives are distributed.”

McKenzie Sadeghi at NewsGuard:

This is an inside, yet almost accidental, story about how an American fugitive who sought asylum in Moscow has become a key player in Russia’s global disinformation network. It starts with a NewsGuard analyst happening upon what appeared to be a fledgling Washington D.C.-based news site promoting Russian propaganda. Unbeknownst to her, this was six months after her boss and his family had been threatened in a YouTube video that included an aerial shot of his home and calls to his unlisted phone number by a Russian disinformation operative working from a studio in Moscow. It turns out that this D.C. website, those threats to NewsGuard’s co-CEO, and what NewsGuard discovered were dozens of similar hostile information operations — including a “documentary” that the Russians used as an excuse to invade Ukraine — were all orchestrated by the same man — John Mark Dougan, a former Florida deputy sheriff who fled to Moscow after being investigated for computer hacking and extortion.

As of this writing, NewsGuard has discovered 167 Russian disinformation websites that appear to be part of Dougan’s network of websites masquerading as independent local news publishers in the U.S. and 15 films on Dougan’s since-removed YouTube channel. Ranging from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky siphoning off money meant to aid the war against Russia so he could buy an estate in England owned by King Charles, to a non-existent U.S. bioweapons lab in Ukraine being the reason the Russians had to invade that country, these concocted stories have been amplified on social media accounts to reach a broad global audience of more than 37 million views—including 1,300,000 views of just the narrative about Zelensky buying the king’s estate.

What follows—including multiple conversations with the Russian operative and an excerpt from NewsGuard co-CEO Steven Brill’s upcoming book, “The Death of Truth,” recounting Brill’s harrowing experience with the same man—is the story of how NewsGuard connected the dots, shining light on a sophisticated multi-media global disinformation operation.

Moving to Russia

Peter Savodnik at The Free Press:

I spoke to twenty American expats, all men, who have moved to Russia over the past four years. They told me they moved to Moscow or St. Petersburg or the wild east—Siberia—because they no longer believed the one person they once thought could save America—Donald Trump—could still save it. America, they felt, was beyond saving now.

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No one was bothered by Putin being a dictator or invading Ukraine. That was, they agreed, understandable, what with NATO having expanded east and the United States having spent the past two and a half decades “meddling” in Russia’s backyard. (That was how most of them described U.S. support for democratic activists in Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, and other post-Soviet states.)

Peter Frohwein, who, like most recent expats, had never been to the former Soviet Union until recently and had a tenuous grasp of the Russian language, said of the war, “When someone says it’s a Russian invasion, that’s not even true.” He thought the United States, not Russia, had instigated the war by installing a friendly regime in Kiev.

Russian Influence Operations Today

Many posts have discussed myths and misinformation.

Catherine Belton and Joseph Menn at WP:

When President Biden proposed an additional $24 billion in supplemental funding for Ukraine in August, Moscow spin doctors working for the Kremlin were ready to try to undermine public support for the bill, internal Kremlin documents show.
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Many of the documents contain metadata showing they were written by members of a team working for Ilya Gambashidze, head of the Moscow PR firm Social Design Agency. The United States imposed sanctions on Gambashidze last month for his involvement in “a persistent foreign malign influence campaign” at the Kremlin’s direction, including the creation of websites designed to impersonate legitimate media outlets in Europe, part of a campaign that Western officials have called “Doppelganger.”

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Plans by Gambashidze’s team refer to using “short-lived” social media accounts aimed at avoiding detection. Social media manipulators have established a technique of using accounts to send out links to material and then deleting their posts or accounts once others have reshared the content. The idea is to obscure the true origin of misleading information and keep the channel open for future influence operations, disinformation researchers said.

Propaganda operatives have used another technique to spread just a web address, rather than the words in a post, to frustrate searches for that material, according to the social media research company Alethea, which called the tactic “writing with invisible ink.” Other obfuscation tricks include redirecting viewers through a series of seemingly random websites until they arrive at a deceptive article.

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Fake news articles alleging Zelensky’s corruption pushed out by Russian-linked websites during the congressional debates on assistance for Ukraine in the fall have resonated. One of the most successful claims was disseminated by DC Weekly — a respectable-seeming internet outlet, which disinformation researchers at Clemson University traced back to domains affiliated with a former American police officer, John Mark Dougan, who has reinvented himself as a pro-Russian journalist in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.


Through DC Weekly, a fake news story alleging that Zelensky had bought two yachts with American aid money went viral in November. The claim — patently false and denied by Zelensky’s government — was picked up by far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who linked to a story about the rumor on X.

Biden and Reagan

Recent posts have discussed the Hamas terror attack on Israel.

 Matt Lewis at The Daily Beast:

I never thought the day would come when I, a die-hard Reagan Republican, would credit a Democratic president for being Reaganesque. Amazingly, it has. Don’t look now, but Joe Biden has been leading with moral authority in the struggle against violent authoritarianism and illiberalism at home and abroad.

While Donald Trump criticized the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden met with Bibi and declared America’s support for Israel to be “rock solid and unwavering.” And while Republican support for providing U.S. aid to Ukraine has eroded, Biden has steadfastly supported them in their plight against a brutal Russian invasion. 

This trend continued during his speech on Thursday night, where Biden sought to unite these two crises. “The assault on Israel echoes nearly 20 months of war, tragedy, and brutality inflicted on the people of Ukraine—people that were very badly hurt since Vladimir Putin launched his all-out invasion,” he said.

Slava Ukraini!

Many posts have dealt with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  A recent tweet includes English literature ("August 1968," Auden's about the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia) and American images (JFK and Reagan).

On the anniversary of Neville Chamberlain's speech justifying the abandonment of democratic Czechoslovakia, and on the day the US passed its continuing budget resolution without aid for Ukraine, this little bit of art from the Ukrainian defense ministry. https://t.co/0Eww82BEBi

— Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder) October 1, 2023

A 2014 recruiting video:

Zelensky and American Exceptionalism

 Volodymyr Zelensky at WSJ:

A decade ago the current boss of Russia wrote that “America is not exceptional.” What he did later shows what he really meant. Many tyrants in human history have claimed global influence, but none of them could inspire the rest of the world to strive for the best in human nature. That’s why today’s Russian tyrants, like all tyrants, are fundamentally weak and their regime will crumble over time. When any tyrant hates America and denies its exceptional role in the struggle for freedom, he recognizes his own inevitable defeat. To Russian tyranny I say the world needs more, not less, American exceptionalism.

In 2013, Trump sided with Putin:

And it really makes him look like a great leader, frankly. And when he criticizes the president [Obama]  for using the term "American exceptionalism," if you're in Russia, you don't want to hear that America is exceptional. And if you're in many other countries, whether it's Germany or other places, you don't want to hear about American exceptionalism because you think you're exceptional. So I can see that being very insulting to the world.

And that's basically what Putin was saying is that, you know, you use a term like "American exceptionalism," and frankly, the way our country is being treated right now by Russia and Syria and lots of other places and with all the mistakes we've made over the years, like Iraq and so many others, it's sort of a hard term to use.

 But other nations and other countries don't want hear about American exceptionalism. They're insulted by it. And that's what Putin was saying.

US Opinion on NATO and International Relations

Jacob Poushter and colleagues at Pew:

In the midst of a major international conflict in Ukraine and an expansion of NATO in Europe, Americans have distinct opinions on the key players in the war. Majorities of U.S. adults have favorable views of Ukraine itself, as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and have confidence in Ukraine’s leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. At the same time, few have positive opinions of Russia or confidence in its ruler, President Vladimir Putin. And a 64% majority view Russia as an enemy to the United States, rather than as a competitor or partner.

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 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are consistently more likely than Republicans and GOP leaners to hold a positive opinion of NATO. About three-quarters of Democrats (76%) have a favorable view of NATO, in contrast to 49% of Republicans. Among Republicans, moderates and liberals are more likely to have a favorable opinion of the alliance than conservatives. And liberal Democrats are more positive toward NATO than conservative and moderate supporters of the party.

The partisan divide on the issue of NATO is well established in past research. In 2022, Republicans grew more favorable toward NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion. However, since then, Republicans have become less positive, with favorable ratings of the alliance declining 6 points. Democratic views of NATO have remained relatively steady since 2021.