Putin’s puppetry: How Russian propaganda divides the West

Early this month, the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of two RT employees, charging that the Russian state broadcaster had broken the Foreign Agents Registration Act and engaged in a “conspiracy to commit money laundering” by covertly funding a right-wing media outlet to spread Russian disinformation abroad.

The Justice Department said RT employees were bound up in a “$10 million scheme to create and distribute content to US audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinkenwarned that Kremlin-backed media outlets like RT have effectively behaved as an arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus, threatening not only the US but countries worldwide.

The Justice Department didn’t name the outlet suspected of being a conservative front for Russian propaganda, but details in the indictment suggest it was Tenet Media. The Tennessee-based company was founded by a Canadian, Lauren Chen, and her husband, and they hired another right-wing Canadian influencer, Lauren Southern. In other words, the unsealed indictment suggested that Canadian media personalities may have unwittingly been part of alleged Russian influence operations.

So the US and Canada have two foreign interference problems. The first is that foreign states, particularly Russia, are interested in sowing discord and shaping political discourse and election outcomes abroad to further their own strategic goals. The second is that both Washington and Ottawa seem intent on playing right into their hands.

Peddling propaganda at a price?

Tinatin Japaridze, an expert in Eurasian politics and security for Eurasia Group, says one of Russia’s “key goals” is to disrupt political discourse and undermine democratic practices in any states it views as a strategic threat.

“They will use any opportunities they can through hybrid means, including clever manipulation of public opinion by spreading disinformation and propaganda and exploiting existing and new vulnerabilities, to try to show discord and distrust of institutions,” she says.

While Tenet produced videos that predominantly addressed US political and cultural topics, it also made more than 50 videos on Canadian politics. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlancsays the Canadian government is taking the matter seriously and is partnered with Washington to address Russian propaganda operations.

The FBI is still investigating in the US; if convicted, the suspects named in the US indictment face up to five years in prison for violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and up to 20 years for conspiracy to commit money laundering.

RT has been banned in both the US and Canada under sanctions imposed in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since the Justice Department’s indictment was unsealed, YouTube removed Tenet Media from its platform. On Monday, Meta banned RT from Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads.

Heads Russia wins, tails the US and Canada lose

If Russia wanted to sow discord in American and Canadian politics, they may be getting unwitting assistance from partisans who are ready to capitalize on the latest revelations of foreign interference in their domestic politics.

On Sunday, Liberal Member of Parliament Ken Hardieposted on X about the Conservative Party leader, writing that “the Russians favour [sic] Pierre Poilievre … and Mr. P votes against help for Ukraine. What to make of this, eh?”

Two days later, Hardie followed up with a similar attack, saying, “As you know, Mr. Poilievre has refused to get the security clearance he needs to see sensitive info on foreign interference. Might he find the chapters on Russia and India too personally upsetting? Time for the enquiry [sic] to open those pages.”

A week earlier, Liberal MP Mark Gerretsenboosted a report about the 50+ Russia-linked videos while taunting the Conservative Party and its leader Pierre Poilievre about a 2023 vote in the House of Commons. “But, please, tell us more about the opposition to Ukraine being premised on the preamble of the free trade agreement.”

Last, Canada’s Conservatives voted against a Ukraine free trade deal. At the time, Poilievre said the party supported free trade with the country but nonsensically alleged the bill would impose a carbon tax on it. The move was almost certainly more about Poilievre attacking the carbon tax for domestic political reasons than to appease Russia.

A Russia-backed site did indeed feature videos that attacked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and supported Poilievre and his party, but there is no evidence linking the Conservatives or Poilievre to the production of the content or to Russia. In February, Poilievre said he and his party would stand with Ukraine and criticized Vladimir Putin for his “tyranny.”

Stateside, foreign interference by Russia and Iran has become a political weapon for Democrats and Republicans alike. For example, the Trump campaign used the alleged Iran hack of its materials to point out that its nominee was a target because he is such a strong anti-Iran leader.

Trump’s routine praise for Putin and the Kremlin’s apparent preference for him in recent elections — and in the 2024 race, for that matter — has helped fuel perceptions that he’s in cahoots with the Kremlin – and Democrats haven’t been shy about suggesting as much. But there’s no direct evidence of this. His campaign might’ve welcomed Russian interference in 2016, but that is not the same as coordinating or colluding with Moscow.

In other words, partisans are capitalizing on Russian propaganda efforts for their own political gain – the implications be damned. Stephen Miller, a top aide to former President Trump, for instance, dismissed the Russia news altogether, using it as an opportunity to attack the Justice Department itself and Vice President Kamala Harris. He suggested it was all a Democratic ploy to “interfere in and suppress the Election in favor of the Democrats.”

What can we do about foreign interference?

For nearly a decade, there have been warnings about Russia’s attempts to disrupt Western politics by using existing political cleavages and opening up new ones to divide, distract, and undermine the health – or what’s left of it – of democratic institutions in the US and elsewhere.

The strategy seems to be working. Toxic partisan polarization is thriving in the US, and it’s moving north. Distrust in political institutions – and elections – is acute in the US, and it’s gradually creeping into Canada.

Japaridze says Russia’s strategy is effective, and its efforts are unlikely to abate, while some of the Western discourse may play a role in fueling the problem, which is already difficult to tackle since it can be difficult to identify the origins of disinformation.

Moreover, the growing tendency for some to label information they don’t like as Russian disinformation isn’t helping, Japaridze argues. “But, of course, the fact that the Kremlin has deeply penetrated Western politics and society over the years is undeniable.”

“If something looks suspicious, we immediately call it Russian,” she says. “And that has numbed the public, even when Moscow is undoubtedly behind the malicious act.”

She advocates for a broader strategy that deals with the content of political discourse and not just its origins while also addressing institutional problems and eroding institutional trust in Western democracies.

“The entity behind the campaign is important to identify for the purposes of naming and shaming,” says Japaridze, “but the end result – the ultimate damage – remains the same, and our resilience to disinformation continues to be weak.”

Addressing that content means shoring up the strength of democratic institutions, many of which are currently in bad shape.

Russia doesn’t even have to create vulnerabilities. “They're able to identify them and deepen them so that they’re indirectly influencing the conversations without always needing to be directly involved in the mechanisms behind them,” Japaridze says.

The work now falls to US and Canadian political, media, and civil society leaders to counter foreign interference without playing into the hands of adversaries – a task which has proven, to date, far more difficult and elusive than perhaps ever before, which is surely a delight to Russia.