Alleged RT Agents Charged With Deceiving American Public

An indictment was unsealed on September 4 to reveal charges against two Russian nationals, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, a.k.a Kostya, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, a.k.a Lena, including conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to the DOJ press release.

Alleged Foreign Agents Registration Act Violations

Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva were also charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires people working with foreign entities for political or advocacy reasons in the United States to register with the DOJ and report their activities. The DOJ clarifies that they do not seek to prohibit specific activities of individuals and foreign entities but want transparency in registering and disclosing those activities.

Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva reportedly worked for a Russian-funded and directed media outlet formerly known as Russia Today (RT), according to the indictment. In February 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, RT was sanctioned and forced to cease operations in the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, and the United States. As a result, RT allegedly formed what its editor-in-chief called an “empire of covert projects.”

An online content creation company based in Tennessee was alleged in the indictment to be one of those “covert projects.” The indictment does not name the company, but it describes it, saying, “On its website, U.S. Company-I describes itself as a ‘network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues’ and identifies six commentators.”

These are the exact words on the website of Tenet Media, a media company based out of Tennessee with six commentators.

One of the commentators, Tayler Hansen, tweeted about the indictment, denying the allegations and saying he was shocked, confirming suspicions that Tenet Media was the unnamed company from the indictment. Hansen later confirmed in a tweet that Tenet Media had ended after the DOJ indictment, though the website is still active. The Daily Muck also confirmed that Tenet Media’s channel is no longer on the YouTube platform.

Videos Media Allegedly Supplied by RT

In November 2023, Tenet Media allegedly launched, posting nearly 2,000 videos and getting upwards of 16 million views on their YouTube channel, as detailed in the indictment. During this time, the alleged funding from RT and the identity of its founders and principal executives, Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, were not disclosed to the viewers or registered with the DOJ under FARA.

Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva allegedly deceived two of the commentators of Tenet Media during contract negotiations, saying that Tenet Media would be funded by a private investor, “Eduard Grigorann,” which was a fake persona they used to hide RT’s monetary involvement, according to the indictment. Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva even allegedly provided false documents to the commentators about Eduard Grigoriann’s professional record and set up a phone call.

Kalashnikov reportedly negotiated a contract to receive $8,000 per month and a percentage of the deals she closed with influencers from different shell entities to a company she owned in Canada, according to the indictment. She allegedly received about $25,000 monthly from a U.K. Shell Company during “stage two,” after the deal between Tenet Media and Eduard Grigoriann was signed.

Once the contracts were signed in 2023, Afanasteva allegedly posted, edited, and directed hundreds of videos produced by Tenet Media, whose subject matter and content often aligned with the Russian government’s interests, according to the indictment. Kalashnikov allegedly began to lead the editing team, requesting raw footage from the team via a Discord server and giving them back the edited version to produce in their content.

U.S.-Based Media Company Received Millions in Payments

Between 2023 and 2024, Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva reportedly invoiced the U.K. Shell Entity nearly 9.3 million dollars for Tenet Media’s expenses, according to the indictment.

During the same years, Tenet Media allegedly received 30 wire transfers totaling about $9.7 million from foreign entities, including Turkey, U.A.E, and Mauritius Shell Entities, none of which were the companies with which they signed the contract. About $8.7 million of that money was allegedly dispersed to three of the commentators.

This indictment announced by the DOJ was part of a united effort with the Treasury Department and the Department of State to designate individuals of Russian-funded and controlled companies like the Rossiya Segognya media group and its subsidiaries: RT, Sputnik, Ruptly, TV-Novosti, and RIA Novosti, according to the Treasury Department’s press release on September 4. The efforts of these companies are allegedly to create “a vast ecosystem of Russian proxy websites, fake online personas, and front organizations that give the false appearance of being independent news sources unconnected to the Russian state.” The Treasury Department press release named Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva as designated members of RT.

In response to this perceived threat to democracy, on September 4, the DOJ announced the seizure of 32 domains allegedly being used in a Russian-directed influence campaign called “Doppelganger,” that was being used to spread disinformation and interfere with United States elections, according to the DOJ press release on the topic and further covered by The Daily Muck.

Influencing Public Opinion Against Elections

The Doppelganger campaign has had adverse effects on elections in the United States, making them unsafe for poll workers in various states where some politicians and media outlets questioned the legitimacy of the election results, an issue Attorney General Merrick Garland brought up during his press conference covered by PBS News. The Attorney General acknowledged a spike in threats against the public servants who administer our elections and described cases that the DOJ had encountered during the past year.

Michael Lee Tomasi, 37, from Rio Verde, Arizona, and Brian Jerry Ogstad, 60, from Cullman, Alabama, two men who recently pled guilty to making threats against elections officials and their families in Arizona, and whose stories were covered by The Daily Muck were also described in Garland’s statement.

Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva are still at large, according to their DOJ press release. However, if tried and convicted, the maximum sentence for violating FARA is five years, while 20 years is the maximum for conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Doppelganger investigation is ongoing.