Russian disinformation is now hiding in plain sight
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Russian disinformation warfare is more calculated and intentional than ever — as it employs more strategies that require hefty financial investments and long-term planning.
Why it matters: These new tactics make it much harder to decipher between a legitimate U.S. influencer posting about the election and a Russian operative posing as an American pundit.
Driving the news: The Department of Justice released several major indictments last week against Russian disinformation operatives and military hackers.
- Feds charged two employees of RT, a Russian state media network, with infiltrating a Tennessee-based online content company as part of a $10 million scheme to push the company to create content aligned with Russian interests.
- The DOJ also seized 32 domains tied to a Russian influence campaign that spread election disinformation and charged a former Trump 2016 campaign adviser with working for a sanctioned Russian television station.
- And the U.S. government identified a new Russian hacker team inside the GRU, an aggressive military branch known for plotting assassinations, bombings and coup attempts.
What they're saying: The schemes "make clear the ends to which the Russian government — including at its highest levels — is willing to go to undermine our democratic process," Attorney General Merrick Garland said last week.
Between the lines: Until now, much of the focus on Russia has centered on social media troll farm operators, phishing-based espionage campaigns and haphazard cybercriminal gangs.
- The new charges show how Russia has grown even more sophisticated in its disinformation operations, building on its advancements in the 2020 election.
Zoom in: Russia is now going as far as funneling millions of dollars into disinformation schemes that involve legitimate U.S.-based media outlets.
- According to the indictment, two RT employees — Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva — were hired by an unidentified Tennessee media company as editors and successfully published videos promoting Russian interests on TikTok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.
- The Tennessee company, which some outlets have identified as Tenet Media, launched in November and has since published nearly 2,000 videos that have garnered more than 16 million views.
- RT funded the operation by funneling money through several foreign shell companies. Tenet has not commented on the allegations.
The intrigue: One of Russia's longest-running disinformation campaigns, known as Doppelganger, has even evolved to start tracking American social media influencers, according to indictment documents.
- Investigators uncovered evidence that the Russian marketing agencies that run Doppelganger have maintained a list of more than 2,800 influencers they track for potential collaborations.
- In one piece of submitted evidence laying out a Doppelganger project, the marketing firms proposed working with social media influencers to fuel "internal tensions" inside U.S.-allied nations.
The big picture: In the last few years, Russian disinformation operatives have struggled to gain traction online.
- In December, Meta researchers said they had failed to find "any significant engagement from authentic social media users" from the Doppelganger network found on Meta's platforms.
- The new tactics — including infiltrating legitimate media sites and tapping unwitting American influencers — are now Russia's preferred way to boost engagement online, officials say.
What we're watching: The Russia-focused indictments could be the tip of the iceberg in an election season that's already been defined by AI-fueled disinformation and Iranian hacks on presidential campaigns.
