Kremlin Manipulates US Elections; the Russian operation, annihilated by American institutions

The United States Department of Justice has dismantled a Russian network that was trying to influence the November 2024 US presidential election through an extensive online disinformation campaign. As a result of investigations by FBI and US Treasury agents, 32 domains were seized of the Internet used by the Russian government and its agents of influence to spread pro-Russian propaganda and undermine international support for Ukraine. The operation, dubbed "Doppelganger" (ed. - alter ego), is one of the most extensive foreign influence campaigns mentioned in the recent State Department of Justice indictments, and it concerns not only the politics of the US, but also of other countries European countries, among which Germany and France are in the foreground.

According to the American authorities, the authors of the operation used modern information manipulation techniques: cybersquatting, artificial intelligence and local influencers (the latter to give greater credibility to false information presented as true to American citizens).

According to a material published on the Zerohedge website, but also from the data included in the indictment presented by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the American influencers were to be remunerated with a total of 10 million dollars, benefiting from contracts following which they were to receive for a single podcast $100,000, in some cases four podcasts per month were ordered, to which another bonus of $100,000 was added to the total value of $400,000.

• The role of Margarita Simonyan and the group around Russia Today

Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russia Today (RT), is among those named in the DOJ's indictment for her involvement in Russian government influence campaigns. Simonyan facilitated covert operations through RT, using front companies to recruit American influencers and disseminate pro-Kremlin narratives. US authorities claim that the head of Russia Today directly coordinated these actions, reporting to President Vladimir Putin and other high-ranking officials, including First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko, former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation (1998) and former director of Rosatom (2007-2016).

Along with Simonyan, Elizaveta Brodskaia, RT's deputy editor-in-chief, was instrumental in promoting state-generated narratives, according to the indictment published by the DOJ. The operations coordination team also includes RT Deputy Director Anton Anisimov, who worked closely with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) to carry out these activities. Andrey Kiyashko, Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva were also involved in disseminating disinformation content and coordinating online influencer networks.

The FBI's investigation also revealed that the RaHDit group, a pro-Kremlin hacktivist organization, played a crucial role in the cyber manipulation campaigns. Under the leadership of Aleksey Garashchenko, a former FSB officer, this group carried out cyber attacks designed to support the Kremlin's influence operations. Garashchenko and his team developed and used new cyber tools to support public opinion manipulation actions, using, among other things, false identities and cryptocurrencies to fund these operations. Garashchenko interacted directly with members of the Russian intelligence and security services, members of the Russian Presidential Administration and RT employees, according to the document presented by the DOJ. Among them are Anastasia Igorevna Yermoshkina and Aleksandr Vitalyevich Nezhentsev, the latter an administrator and developer of cyber tools used by the FSB. Nezhentsev also leads a team that focuses on developing new tools that can be used in surveillance of intelligence data files.

• Advanced manipulation tactics: from cybersquatting to AI and influencers

One of the main techniques used in the "Doppelganger" campaign was cybersquatting, a method by which domains that imitated legitimate press sites were registered. For example, domains such as "washingtonpost.pm" (created to mimic the genuine website of the Washington Post - washingtonpost.com) or "leparisien.news" were used to trick readers and spread fake messages that appeared to come from reliable sources. In other cases, fictitious media brands were created, such as "Reliable Recent News", which published pro-Russian content that appeared credible.

To amplify the impact, the Kremlin used fake influencers (bots), fake social media accounts and paid advertisements, some of which were generated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). AI was used to create false narratives, distributed to specific social classes and regions in the US. These advanced disinformation tactics were designed to confuse and undermine the American public's confidence in the election process, the DOJ indictment said.

• Involvement of American influencers

In a subtle manipulative move, the Russian government unwittingly recruited prominent American influencers to spread pro-Russian messages. Among those named in the indictment are conservative influencers such as Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and Lauren Southern. The DOJ indictment specifically alleges that they were tricked into working with Kremlin-funded front companies without knowing they were part of an influence campaign. Basically, the influencers did not know that the money offered by the Tenet Media company came from the Russians and that they were using manipulated or false information. The founder of Tenet Media, Lauren Chen, who knew the true source of the funds, allegedly told influencers that the money was given by a wealthy private investor, whose name is "Eduard Grigoriann". One of the influencers requested a profile of Grigoriann before signing the contract and received a fake profile from an internet page, thus being convinced to sign the document. The indictment alleges that Tennessee-based Tenet Media received nearly $10 million from Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, employees of Russia Today, who hid their connection to the Russian government. Pool received $100,000 per podcast, while Johnson was paid $400,000 per month for four videos per week, plus a $100,000 signing bonus. Both influencers stated that they were deceived and had no knowledge of the true source of the funds.

• The authors of the network, blacklisted by the US authorities

Following the investigation, Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered the seizure of the 32 Internet domains and said the Russian government and its actors are trying to manipulate the American electorate through a covert disinformation campaign orchestrated by President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, including Sergei Kiriyenko .

FBI Director Christopher Wray added that these actions are part of a concerted effort to deceive the American public and sow discord in American society. The FBI worked closely with other agencies to expose these sites and expose Russian operations, stressing that such attempts at foreign influence will continue to be combated.

In addition to the seizure of the domains, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions against 10 individuals and two entities involved in these operations. Among those sanctioned are Margarita Simonyan, Brodskaia, Anton Anisimov, Andrey Kiyashko, Konstiantyn Kalashnikov, Elena Afanasyeva, Aleksey Garashchenko, Anastasia Yermoshkina and Vitasievych Nezhentsev, as well as Vladimir Grigorievichi Tabak - the head of the non-governmental organization ANO Dialog, because they acted, directly or indirectly , on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation, facilitating influence operations. Sanctions freeze all property and interests of these individuals and entities in the United States and prevent them from conducting financial transactions. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. OFAC regulations generally prohibit all transactions by US persons or in transit to the United States involving any property or interests in the property of designated or otherwise blocked persons. In addition, financial institutions and other persons who engage in certain transactions or activities with sanctioned persons may be subject to sanctions or enforcement action. Prohibitions include making any contribution or provision of funds, goods or services by, to or for the benefit of any designated person or receiving any contribution or provision of funds, goods or services from such person.

• The Global Implications of Operation "Doppelganger"

Operation "Doppelganger" not only targeted the United States, but also other countries, including Germany, Mexico, and Israel. Documents obtained by the FBI show that Kremlin officials planned and carried out influence operations designed to discredit the United States and undermine its relations with other countries. Germany was seen as a vulnerable target due to its economic dependence on Russia, and the Kremlin used this vulnerability to manipulate German public opinion against the sanctions policies imposed on Russia.

According to internal Russian documents, the purpose of the campaigns in Germany and France was to create social tensions and destabilize the political situation in these countries. False narratives and articles containing false or manipulated information were distributed to provoke strong emotional reactions among citizens, aiming to divide and influence domestic political decisions.

The operations in Germany and France were based on duplicating major media sites in the respective states by creating similar fake accounts in order to massively disseminate fake articles and content pretending to come from the respective Western media outlets. From the FBI documents it appears that these are fake websites of Reuters, Der Spiegel, Bild, Le Monde, Le Parisien, Welt, FAZ, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Delfi, etc., which were created and updated by payments made with cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin. According to the cited source, Russians involved in disinformation operations have identified Germany as a particularly vulnerable target for Russian influence.

"The Germans are more dependent than the French (on gas and imports from Russia). (...) First of all, we need to discredit the US, Great Britain and NATO, and secondly, we need to convince the Germans to oppose the ineffective policy of sanctions", says one of the documents prepared by one of the teams Russian, presented by the FBI.

Another document by the Social Design Agency outlines an operation called "Incitement to International Conflict" targeting France and Germany in particular, an operation whose objectives were "to escalate internal tensions ... to promote the interests of the Russian Federation, to influence conflicts in real life and artificially create conflict situations" through fake articles, influencers, as well as posts and comments on various sensitive topics on social media. The Russian document cited by the FBI states that the goal was to "destabilize the societal situation" in France and Germany by "spreading additional false narratives, false videos, documents and recordings of phone conversations, social media comments, false quotes and real posts from certain influencers ".

Another organization that played an important role in disinformation made by Russia in European states is ANO Dialog Regions, led by Vladimir Grigorievichi Tabak, a former official in the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation. According to the DOJ indictment, in the fall of 2022 Tabak participated in a meeting with senior Russian government officials in which the foundations of Operation Doppelganger were laid, after previously in July 2022 ANO Dialog and Tabak provided services to the Russian government, working on a project to create fake online posts on popular social media accounts, including "Reliable Recent News" ("RRN") and "War on Fakes" - a Russian disinformation website, on which fake documents were posted, among others materials, to elicit an emotional response from the public of these internet pages. An ANO Dialog adviser purchased RRN's new domain, "rrn.world" to avoid using the former domain, "rrussianews.com", which would have maintained a connection to Russia. Tabak also coordinated with ANO Dialog and the Russian government regarding payment for the services of an RRN affiliate translator. In late fall 2023, ANO Dialog staff identified several public figures in the US and UK as potential targets for deepfake projects. For this reason, the EU sanctioned ANO Dialog for its role in the disinformation network and in particular as the owner and operator of the "War on Fakes" website. In May 2024, Tabak and several Dialog Regions officials coordinated with Russian government officials to create bot accounts on popular social media messaging platforms for use in a disinformation campaign about the places of voting in the 2024 US election.