Two Russians indicted and internet domains seized in DOJ election interference inquiry

The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment on Wednesday against two Russian nationals who allegedly carried out a foreign influence plot in the United States, a move that came as part of the department’s broader investigation into election interference activities.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said that in addition to a grand jury indicting the pair, who are both employees of the Russia-controlled media outlet RT, the department was also seizing dozens of internet domains that it alleged were spreading Russian government propaganda in the U.S. at the behest of the Kremlin.

Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, face charges of conspiring to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The pair are at large, DOJ officials said. They would each face up to 25 years in prison if they were apprehended and convicted.

Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva allegedly used shell companies to funnel $10 million from the Kremlin into a Tennessee-based company, which, in turn, pushed out their videos to millions of viewers on social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and X, according to government prosecutors.

The description in the indictment of the Tennessee company matched the description of TENET Media, which was established in 2023 and features conservative influencers Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Lauren Southern, and three others.

Prosecutors alleged that the two Russian defendants worked with the two unnamed founders of TENET Media, one of whom is listed as Blaze TV host and TPUSA contributor Lauren Chen, to deceive the conservative influencers about their funding.

The influencers, who were prominent conservative commentators on the internet long before TENET Media was founded, would at times inquire about where TENET Media was getting its funding, according to the indictment.

For example, when one of TENET Media's founders approached one of the unnamed social media influencers, who has about 2.4 million YouTube followers, to produce content, the influencer asked how the company was getting its money. One of the TENET Media founders claimed the funding came from "Eduard Grigoriann," who was a fictitious person, and the founder provided a fabricated one-page biography to back up the claim.

"After receiving the fictitious profile, [the social media influencer] agreed to work with [TENET Media] and produced approximately 130 videos that were published on [TENET Media's] platform," prosecutors said.

Pool and Johnson noted that they were victims of the alleged scheme. Both said they had no knowledge of TENET Media's ties to alleged Russian propaganda.

A statement on the leaked DOJ indictment today:

A year ago, a media startup pitched my company to provide content as an independent contractor. Our lawyers negotiated a standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated. We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s…

Garland addressed the indictment during an election-related roundtable, saying that Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva's malign foreign influence scheme involved pushing out to millions of people content that was intended to sow divisions in the U.S. and weaken the country's overall opposition to Russian interests, including with regard to the Russia-Ukraine war.

The two defendants used multiple fake identities to conceal that they were working covertly on behalf of the Russian government, according to the indictment.

"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," Garland said.

Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray also said Wednesday that the DOJ was seizing 32 internet domains, and they revealed a 69-page affidavit with dozens of attachments showcasing how the Russian government was allegedly using the websites to influence the 2024 presidential election to benefit Russia.

“Companies operating at the direction of the Russian government-created websites to trick Americans into unwittingly consuming Russian propaganda," Wray said.

The announcements on Wednesday mark the latest instance in the last several years of the government accusing Russia and other foreign adversaries, including Iran, of secretly attempting to peddle their countries' propaganda in the U.S. during an election season.

The U.S. government previously accused RT, which was formerly known as Russia Today, of working to disadvantage former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2016.

RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan derided the U.S. on Telegram for repeatedly targeting RT during presidential election seasons.

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"If they kick us out completely, how will they conduct the next elections," Simonyan wrote. "They don't have any other strategies except to scaremonger about the almighty RT."

Treasury Department officials announced concurrently Wednesday that they were imposing sanctions on Simonyan, Afanasyeva, Kalashnikov, and seven others.