Indictment: Russian propagandists used Tennessee content company to push disinformation

An indictment unsealed Wednesday alleges a Tennessee content creation company was the tool a team of Russian propagandists used to infiltrate U.S. audiences with Kremlin-backed messaging.

Two Russian nationals who worked for Russia Today, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, were indicted on accusations they funneled nearly $10 million to a Tennessee-based online content creation company to publish English-language videos on social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube. The company's more than 2,000 videos posted in the last 10 months have been viewed more than 16 million times just on YouTube, according to the indictment.

The indictment, unsealed in the federal court for the Southern District of New York, doesn't identify the Tennessee company, but descriptions in the indictment match those of Tennessee-based Tenet Media.

The indictment states the company described itself on its website as "a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues." Tennessee-based company Tenet Media has the same message on its homepage. The indictment states the Tennessee-based company was incorporated around Jan. 19, 2022, which matches records from the Tennessee Secretary of State's Office. The indictment says the company applied to the Tennessee Department of State to conduct business on May 22, 2023.

Tennessean reporters have submitted a message seeking comment in the submission form on Tenet Media's website and emailed requests for comment to commentators listed on Tenet Media's website.

The two suspects are Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, also known as Kostya, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, also known as Lena, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. They are charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva are both at large, the release states.

"The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in the news release.

In response to the allegations, Russia Today responded with ridicule: "Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT's interference in the U.S. elections," the media outlet told Reuters.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Russia Today was forced to cease formal operations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union, the federal indictment stated.

“In response, Russia Today created, in the words of its editor-in-chief, an ‘entire empire of covert projects’ designed to shape public opinion in ‘Western audiences’,” the indictment said. One of those projects was the Tennessee-based online content creation company. The company launched in November 2023.

Many of the videos contained commentary on events and issues like immigration, inflation, domestic and foreign policy in the United States, according to the indictment.

Afanasyeva allegedly posted and directed other staff members of the Tennessee company to post content that aligned with the Russian government's goals. According to the news release, after the March 22 terrorist attack on a Moscow music venue that killed more than 130 people, Afanasyeva asked one of the Tennessee company's founders to blame the attack on Ukraine and the U.S.

Around the period beginning in October 2023 through August 2024, Russia Today sent wire transfers to the Tennessee company totaling approximately $9.7 million, which was about 90% of the company's total bank deposits. The wires came from shell companies in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Mauritius and ascribed the payments to the purchase of electronics, according to the news release.

The indictment states that the Tennessee company's two founders masked the company's true source of funding when contracting with two commentators, falsely stating its funding came from a private investor named "Eduard Grigoriann," a fictional persona.

The FBI is investigating the case.

"Covert attempts to sow division and trick Americans into unwittingly consuming foreign propaganda represents attacks on our democracy,” FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said in the news release. “Today’s actions show that as long as foreign adversaries like Russia keep engaging in hostile influence campaigns, they are going to keep running into the FBI. We will continue to do everything we can to expose the hidden hand of foreign adversaries like Russia and disrupt their efforts to meddle in our free and open society.”

The Tennessee company neither disclosed to its viewers that it was funded by Russia Today, nor did it register with the attorney general as an agent of a foreign principal, as required by law, according to the indictment.

The two defendants each face up to 20 years in prison on a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering and up to five years on a charge of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, if convicted.

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: DOJ indicts Russians who used Tennessee company to push disinformation