American investigative authorities are probing the activities of a Tennessee firm alleged to have received $10 million (about €9 million) from the Russian state broadcaster RT to "create and distribute content to US audiences with hidden Russian government messaging."
The money was reportedly used to produce videos which promoted right-wing narratives on issues such as immigration, gender and the economy ahead of the US presidential election on November 5.
Several right-wing influencers who worked for the company then shared these videos on social media, allegedly without knowing that they were actually edited and produced by two employees of RT, formerly known as Russia Today.
"While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, most are directed to the publicly stated goals of the Government of Russia and RT — to amplify domestic divisions in the United States in order to weaken US opposition to [Russia's] core interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine," said the indictment by the US Justice Department, released on September 4.
Russia 'trying to influence elections for years'
This latest case only provides a glimpse of how Russia is allegedly acting to meddle with global elections. Moscow, for its part, has repeatedly denied any accusations of interference.
"Russia has been trying to influence elections in democratic countries for years, such as the 2016 US presidential election or the 2017 French presidential election," said Julia Smirnova, a senior analyst at the Berlin-based Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy, CeMAS, which researches conspiracy theories, disinformation, antisemitism and right-wing extremism.
As early as in October 2023, the US sent an intelligence report to 100 allied countries worldwide, according to which Russia was actively using "spies, social networks and state media" to undermine public confidence in the integrity of democratic elections worldwide.
According to CeMAS, this was reported to have happened in at least nine different countries between 2020 and 2022. There was also a "less pronounced level" of Russian social media activity in 17 another countries, intended to reinforce preexisting domestic concerns about the integrity of the upcoming elections, Smirnova told DW.
Reports of Russian attempts to exert influence were also made during the European elections in June.
Intimidation, disinformation, manipulation
The Russian tool kit for interference is believed to be extensive, according to CeMAS.
In an unspecified European election in 2020, campaigners were allegedly intimidated. And in 2020 and 2021, Russian state media is said to have massively disseminated false allegations of electoral fraud in democratic elections around the world.
In at least one South American country, Moscow also sowed massive doubts about the independence of the electoral process.
"This involves various methods such as hacker attacks in which internal documents of politicians are published, authentic or partially mixed with forged documents, such as in the 2017 French elections," said Smirnova. "Russia also manipulates public opinions via social media with the help of fake accounts and public channels such as Russia Today."
Another example is the so-called doppelganger campaign. The central element, Smirnova explained, was "cloned websites of major Western media" such as the German media outlets Der Spiegel or Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, or US media like The Washington Post, Fox News and many others. These sites were deceptively similar to their real counterparts, except that they deliberately published pro-Russia content, she said.
"Some of these were made-up stories, but some were also articles that spread certain political opinions," said Smirnova.
Links to these fake articles were then posted on social media, sometimes even in the comments underneath real articles by established media outlets.
According to the CeMAS analyst, these were often "pro-Russian narratives about the war in Ukraine, as Russia is trying to undermine Western support for Ukraine."
Kremlin aiming to 'destabilize' democracies
However, the aim of Russian interference is no longer just to spread and strengthen pro-Russian positions.
"The overarching goal is to promote Russia's geopolitical interests, and to destabilize the countries that the Kremlin perceives as Russia's opponents," said Smirnova.
To achieve this goal, she said, Russia is fueling polarizing debates and trying to push apart existing divisions within democratic societies as much as possible. The Kremlin is also strengthening parties on the political margins with financial contributions, and policy arguments.
The Washington Post as early as 2022 that at least $300 million had been given to particularly Russia-friendly parties worldwide, including in smaller countries such as Albania, Montenegro, Madagascar and Ecuador.
According to US intelligence agencies, Kremlin-linked sources also used shell companies, think tanks and other tools to influence political events, often in favor of far-right groups.
As recently as in March, the Czech secret service BIS uncovered a Russia-financed network that allegedly sent funds to Petr Bystron, a now former member of the German parliament for the far-right AfD. These payments were allegedly made via the Prague-based pro-Russia internet portal Voice of Europe.
It is also alleged that money flowed to extreme parties in France, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Hungary.
Awareness, media literacy is key
According to the US intelligence report from October 2023, Russia is ultimately pursuing two goals: to portray democratic elections as untrustworthy, and delegitimize the elected governments that run them.
This, in turn, would destabilize the affected democracies and weaken Russia's opponents around the world.
However, the countries in Russia's crosshairs aren't completely helpless.
"The US has demonstrated this by seizing 32 web domains last week that were used in the doppelganger campaign," said Smirnova.
In the long term, however, it's also about "strengthening the resilience of democratic societies," she added.
This includes education programs to boost media literacy among young people and adults, so that they're aware that they too could very quickly become the target of Russian influence online, she said.
"In fact, Russia invests considerable resources in its campaigns around the world every year," said Smirnova, adding that "these attempts should be taken very seriously but we should also be aware that Russia does not always achieve its goal with its influence attempts."