Tenet Media Russian Operation Indictment

Overview

Tenet Media Russian Operation Indictment refers to an indictment against two Russian nationals who work for the Russian state-controlled international news company Russia Today (RT), alleging they operated a shell company called Tenet Media intended to funnel money to American conservative commentators and influencers with the intention of stoking division among Americans and promoting Russian interests concerning the country's war in Ukraine and other topics. The talent of Tenet Media includes prominent conservative influencers Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Dave Rubin. Following the story breaking in early September 2024, Johnson, Pool and Rubin all stated they had no knowledge of the alleged scheme and were victims of the crime. News coverage surrounding Tenet Media, its pro-Russian propaganda and the people involved sparked widespread backlash, memes and other reactions online.

Background

On September 4th, 2024, U.S. prosecutors charged Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva with conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act.^[1] The indictment^[2] alleges that the pair, who work for Russian media outlet RT, had run a covert operation and set up a shell company in America to funnel money to conservative media influencers, amplify their voices and promote talking points in line with Russian interests.

The indictment reads:

Using multiple fake personas, AFANASYEVA edited, posted, and directed the posting by U.S. Company-I of hundreds of videos. Many of the videos published by U.S. Company-I contain commentary on events and issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics related to domestic and foreign policy. While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Government of Russia's interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine.

Though Tenet Media is not explicitly named in the indictment, the indictment says the site describes itself as a "network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues" and features six commentators as its "talent." Tenet Media uses the same phrase in its description on its website,^[3] and its talent includes Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, Matt Christiansen, Lauren Southern and Taylor Hansen.

The company was founded by Liam Donovan and his wife, Lauren Chen, who are alleged to have said in private that they knew their company was funded by "The Russians."^[8]

Tenet Media was supposedly sponsored by an investor named "Eduard Grigoriann," but that person doesn't exist. Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva created a fake profile to act as him. Afansyeva acted as an "outside editor" for Tenet content but used her position to edit and monitor the content it produced without disclosing that she worked for RT. Donovan, Chen, Afanasyeva and Kalashnikov did not disclose that the company was operated by RT to the Tenet Media talent or the U.S. government.

Developments

After the indictment was unsealed on September 4th, 2024, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and Tim Pool all denied knowledge that Tenet Media was a Russian shell company (Johnson and Pool statements shown below).^[4][5][6] Pool, in particular, stated that he always had full control over his content and was never pressured to say certain things or push certain talking points by Tenet Media.

However, news of the indictment led others online to review some of the content posted by Tenet Media talent. Pool's content drew a significant amount of interest.

For example, on September 4th, X / Twitter user @YourAnonNews posted a video in which Tim Pool described Ukraine as "the enemy of our nation" and spliced it with the Russian national anthem, gaining over 14,000 retweets and 63,000 likes in one day.

Also on on September 4th, 2024, Twitter user @JoshEakle^[7] pulled up roughly two dozen tweets in which Tim Pool stated that America was headed for a "civil war," implying that Pool's "obsession" with a potential American Civil War may be a result of the payments he was allegedly receiving from Russian operatives. The post gained over 5,500 retweets and 29,000 likes in one day.

Online Reactions

As the news surrounding the story spread in early September 2024, numerous users across multiple social media platforms began posting reactions to it. The term "Russian" notably trended on X / Twitter^[9] on September 5th, 2024, as various people discussed the controversy.

For example, on September 5th, Twitter user @cwebbonline posted a news clip covering the story in a tweet claiming, "This Russian PSYOP is so much bigger than Tim Pool," which received nearly 440,000 views, 13,000 likes and 770 replies in six hours.

YOU NEED TO SEE THIS.

It’s not just bots--Russia is paying influencers big bucks to boost Trump’s candidacy and we are the mark. You might have even read fake articles that were made to look legit.

This Russian PSYOP is so much bigger than Tim Pool.
🧵 pic.twitter.com/I3wvqPyUCb

— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) September 5, 2024

Numerous posts on Reddit also appeared between September 4th and 5th, 2024, discussing the allegations, including threads on /r/worldnews,^[10] /r/JoeRogan^[11] and /r/facepalm,^[12] each of which garnered thousands of upvotes and comments in roughly 24 hours.

Other influencers, content creators and political commentators covered the controversy on YouTube, such as The Young Turks YouTube channel, which uploaded a video titled "Right-Wing Influencers Allegedly Caught Up In Russia Propaganda Scheme" on September 4th that received over 67,000 views, 3,200 likes and 1,500 comments in 18 hours.

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References