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‘Secret’ Russian influence campaign paid $10M to prop up right-wing US commentators: indictment
The Justice Department indicted two employees of the Russian state-controlled media outlet RT on Wednesday for acting as unregistered foreign agents and laundering $9.7 million in payments to a Ten…
nypost.com
4 Sep 2024 ~~ By Josh Christenson
A “secret”
Russian influence campaign allegedly paid $10 million to prop up a media company hosting what it saw as like-minded, right-wing commentators in the US — including popular pundits like Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and Tim Pool.
The Justice Department
indicted two employees of the Russian state-controlled media outlet RT on Wednesday for acting as unregistered foreign agents and laundering $9.7 million in payments to a Tennessee media company to allegedly promote pro-Kremlin propaganda.
The employees, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, are at large, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, after floating for almost a year the media entity that “posted nearly 2,000 videos that have garnered more than 16 million views on YouTube alone.”
~Snip~
“The Culture War Podcast was licensed by Tenet Media, it existed well before any license agreement with Tenet and it will continue to exist after any such agreement expires. The only change with the agreement was that the location of the live broadcast moved to Tenet’s Youtube Channel,” he also said.
“Never at any point did anyone other than I have full editorial control of the show and the contents of the show are often apolitical. Examples include discussing spirituality, dating, and videos games,” he added.
“The show is produced in its entirety by our local team without input from anyone external to the company,” he went on, stressing the separation between the podcast and his popular “Timcast” programming.
Rubin
retweeted an X post noting that the influencers were “deceived” about the source of the funding.
Commentary:
The indictment has 2 counts :conspiracy to commit money laundering and the conspiracy to violate the foreign agents registration act (FARA). The government is seeking to forfeit the defendants’ property which could conceivably hit the above mentioned podcasters-influencers.
Here is the salient aspects of what the foreign agents registration act. As you read it, think of the Bidens (China, Ukraine etc) Eric Swalwell (China), and AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) which is one of the most influential and monied lobbying organizations and somehow has avoided having to register as a foreign agent under FARA:
The Foreign Agents Registration Act ("FARA"), 22 U.S.C. § 611 et seq., is a registration and disclosure statute that requires any person acting or agreeing to act in the United States as "an agent of a foreign principal" to register with the Attorney General if he or she is engaging or agreeing to engage, directly or through another person, in certain types of conduct for or in the interest of the foreign principal. Conduct requiring registration under FARA includes, as is relevant here, political activities, acting as a publicity agent or information-service employee,and disbursing money for or in the interests of the foreign principal. FARA registrations are made to the Foreign Agents Registration Act Unit ("FARA Unit") of the Department of Justice's National Security Division. It is a crime to willfully fail to register when required under FARA.
The big laugh at all this is that Russia spent $10 million on this "Influence Cam[aign", While Democrat Neo-Marxists have spent billions promoting their "Russia, Russia, Russia theme for the last 10 years.
My guess is that Democrats will begin another Russian Meme. Just ask "Alexa".
