U.S. accuses Russia of using unwitting influencers, fake news sites to sway presidential election

The United States on Wednesday took a series of actions against Russia in response to what it described as extensive efforts to meddle in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

The U.S. Justice Department said Russia has used state-run media, unwitting influencers and websites masquerading as prominent American news sites to spread disinformation and sway American voters ahead of the vote in November.

"The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power is attempting to exploit our country's free exchange of ideas in order to send around its own propaganda," U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters on Wednesday.

"That is what we allege happened in this case."

In one step announced Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against two employees of RT, a Russian state-run media organization. An indictment said Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, directed a Tennessee-based content creation company to spread pro-Russia propaganda and erode support for Ukraine.

U.S.-based influencers and personalities were recruited to help with the nearly $10-million US campaign. They did not know about Russia's involvement, Garland said, having been led to believe their work was being funded by a made-up investor named "Eduard Grigoriann."

The indictment doesn't name the Tennessee company, but details in the court document match Tenet Media — a company founded by Canadian far-right commentator Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan. 

The indictment said the company in question is self-described as "a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues," which matches word-for-word the description on Tenet Media's homepage. The indictment also said the company was incorporated on Jan. 19, 2022, which matches publicly available records with the Tennessee Secretary of State.

Commentators like Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Lauren Southern are among Tenet's personalities.

The indictment also includes more than a dozen references to another Canadian company owned by Chen and Donovan that was used as a vehicle to receive payment from RT.

Research by CBC News found a federally registered corporation linked to Chen and Donovan called Roaming Millennial Inc., which had an address in Montreal until last November.

Roaming Millennial was Chen's username on YouTube and Instagram in her earlier days as a content creator. 

Roaming USA Corp. is the corporate name for the entity that operates Tenet Media.   

Chen and Donovan were not named in the indictment and have not been criminally charged. Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva remain at large.