A Russian State Pro-Trump Media Campaign Is Exposed as the Latest Interference in American Politics and Elections

The United States criminally charged Russian employees of state-backed media with money laundering and violating a federal requirement for foreign agents to register as part of a conspiracy to disseminate propaganda through pro-Trump right-wing media to divide Americans, oppose American resistance to Russian aggression against Ukraine, and influence the American elections in favor of Donald Trump. The Russian state influence campaign was conducted while hiding its hostile foreign power funding source. Ten million dollars was furnished to the Trumpist media outlet that employed influencers popular on social media and had the Republican National Committee Chairman, Lara Trump, who is Donald’s daughter in law, and prominent Republican candidates for office as guests. The Trumpist outlet folded after the announcement of the charges. A Russian-American 2016 Trump campaign advisor was also charged with working on behalf of the sanctioned Russian state media company and accepting a million dollars in laundered money, as well as for other work on behalf of sanctioned Russian oligarchs. Along with the charges from the U.S. Justice Department, the Departments of State and Treasury imposed visa restrictions and sanctions on numerous individuals and entities, respectively, in a joint response to election interference by the Russian Federation. Treasury also sanctioned Russian intelligence officers for cyber hacking, stealing and releasing stolen information. The U.S. also seized many Internet domains used by the Russians. The revelations that the Russians were behind the pro-Trump media campaign highlight how the isolationist Trump and his supporters and the Russians amplify each other’s talking points. As I have posted, Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, the ex-Soviet intelligence officer trying to restore the Soviet Union, backed Trump in the Republican presidential primaries and general elections in 2016 and 2020 and is doing so again, despite its denials, according to U.S. intelligence officials. The real estate tycoon Trump defrauded the voters in 2016 by falsely claiming that he was no longer conducting business with the Russians. He solicited Russian interference on his behalf in the general election, which his campaign then accepted and coordinated its messaging with the release of information stolen by the Russians and released through their cut-out Wikileaks, while the campaign benefited from a “sweeping and systematic” Russian active measures campaign on Trump’s behalf, in the words of the Republican special counsel, which were validated by the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee, as well as by the charges and sanctions against some of the Russians by the Trump Administration itself. As President, Trump declined to criticize Putin, publicly cast doubt on the intelligence agency findings that Putin had backed him, obstructed the special counsel’s probe, and acted on the hostile foreign power’s behalf when he could. Since leaving office, Trump has opposed defensive aid for Ukraine against Russian aggression. He and his supporters have denied, minimized or accepted interference in American politics by a hostile foreign power, but now that the success of the Russians is being copied by other hostile foreign powers, they are starting to be affected by the compromise of American independence they supported when it was expedient to them.