Two employees of RT, a pro-Russia media network, have been indicted for financing a multi-million dollar scheme to influence US politics with the help of right-wing creators who allegedly work with Tenet Media.
As reported by NBC, RT employees Elena Afanasyeva and Konstantin Kalashnikov spent $10 million trying to influence political discourse through an unnamed Tennessee media company.
The indictment centers around what it calls “Company-1,” whose description matches that of a pro-Trump media company called Tenet Media.
Tenet Media works with numerous right-wing commentators like Lauren Southern, Dave Rubin, and Tim Pool. “Commentator 1” and “Commentator 2” mentioned in the indictment match the descriptions of Rubin and Pool.
Rubin and Pool (alongside one other unidentified influencer) allegedly got payouts totaling $8.7 million, which made up 90% of the company’s deposits between October 2023 and August 2024. The commentators were allegedly not aware that Russian-backed RT was funding the whole thing.
In X statements, Rubin and Pool denied knowledge of the scheme. They asserted their editorial independence and claimed that they, too, were “victims.”
The indictment also claims that RT staff created an investor persona to throw commenters off the scent.
While Tenet Media didn’t respond to NBC’s request for comment, RT said in a series of text messages to the outlet: “Hahahaha! […] We gotta earn our Kremlin paycheck somehow.”
