Why Russian disinformation is so successful in America

The recent Tenet Media and Russia Today scandals highlight how vulnerable the U.S. is to Russian information operations.

This is a guest essay by Catarina Buchatskiy, my longtime friend who just graduated from Stanford after studying international security and military history. Catarina has researched and published articles about Russian disinformation. She is now back home in Ukraine, working in the defense innovation sector.

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Photo by Nihon Graphy on Unsplash

A few weeks ago, in an unsealed indictment, the U.S. Department of Justice claimed that a Tennessee-based media network, identified as Tenet Media, was secretly being funded by the Kremlin, in a scandal eerily reminiscent of the 2016 Russian election interference. 

The court documents revealed that Russian state media producers had funneled almost $10 million to Tenet Media, and prosecutors claim that Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan (the founders of Tenet) were not only aware they were working with Russians and but that the Russians “edited, posted, and directed the posting by [Tenet] of hundreds of videos.” 

A number of high-profile right-wing commentators, with millions of followers across various social media platforms, were implicated, though the commentators have claimed they were not aware of the Russian influence scheme and have portrayed themselves as victims of the situation.

We will have to wait and see how this investigation unfolds to understand the scope of the operation and whether these commentators were just “useful idiots” or active and knowledgeable disseminators of Russian propaganda. However, I am certain that Tenet media was not the only information operation being funded by the Kremlin to promote Russian interests, and that the Department of Justice will likely continue to uncover the true scope of Russia’s influence in the United States (I have some bets on people that I personally believe are on Putin’s payroll…).

Recently, the State Department also accused Russia Today (RT) — Moscow’s state-controlled media outlets which spread Russian propaganda internationally — of moving “ beyond being simply a media outlet” and becoming a part of Russian covert influence and intelligence operations. Yes, you read that correctly. It took the State Department this long to figure it out, but I do think it’s better late than never.

For me, these scandals feels like a frustrating deja-vu to 2016, and it seems as though in the last eight years, we not only have not improved in combating Russian information operations, but they have become increasingly prevalent, especially in right-wing circles.

I think there are two important things to understand about information operations in general, in order to understand the Tenet media case and (unfortunately) what I believe will be future cases — why has Russian propaganda been so successful in taking root, particularly amongst the right-wing (a demographic that used to pride itself in being anti-Russia…) and why has the United States been so slow to fight back?

The right and its Russia problem

The days of the Republican Party taking pride in being “tough on Russia” and being unapologetic about calling the U.S.’ historical geopolitical rival “the focus of evil in the modern world” are long over.

Over the last few years, right-wing rhetoric has become increasingly favorable to Russia and increasingly anti-American, disguised as healthy criticism coming from patriots who want their country to be better. Using content from Tenet Media’s channels as a case study, we can begin to understand what has pushed the American right-wing into Russia’s arms. 

Some of the most common words and phrases found in Tenet’s content include “black lives matter”, “diversity equity inclusion,” “Mexicans gun violence”, “black history month,” “hate speech laws,” “critical race theory,” “illegal immigrants,” “birth control,” and “border patrol,” to name a few.

There’s a common theme here, and it’s not the Tenet media commentators praising Russia or even addressing Russia directly. In fact, in an analysis of 405 long-form videos from Tenet’s channel, Wired found that the word “Ukraine” appears in the transcripts about as often as “misinformation,” or “Christianity” or even “Clinton”. But the obsession with fear-mongering about immigrants, the LGBT community, and inflammatory “culture war” topics reveal the underlying appeal of Russia to the right-wing. 

“[The conservative party] doesn’t like the diverse society that we’ve become,” says Anne Applebaum. “It doesn’t like immigration. It doesn’t like the kind of national conversation we have. And ironically, like the left of the previous generation, they’ve imagined that a better, ideal version of our society exists in Russia — a kind of white, Christian nation, you know, unified beneath a single leader without all this messy, ugly democracy and all these different kinds of people.” 

Putin is well-aware of these divisions within American society, and preys on these vulnerabilities by amplifying narratives that will enrage a right-wing base. It’s common for Russian state media, and sometimes for Putin himself, to comment on LGBT culture in the U.S. or depict America as a degenerate, satanic culture. 

Some of it fits nicely with the already existing anti-gay conspiracies that have grown within Russia over the last decades. The Russian opposition is depicted as being plants of the “decadent West”, or “mindless agents of global sexual decadence” that threatens the “innocence” of Russian society. Vladimir Yakunin, a confidant of Putin, once published an article claiming that the spread of gay rights was propaganda to reduce birth rates in Russia and preserve the power of the West.  

But also, “some of that is absolutely designed to appeal to the American right,” Applebaum claims.

The U.S. and its information problem

It’s unbelievable to me that one of the United States’ greatest geopolitical adversaries can spend years blatantly pumping money into massive influence operations against the U.S.’ population without garnering an appropriate response.

In 2022, Russia was spending approximately $1.3 billion annually just on broadcast media and strategic communications. China’s investments in information and public influence exceed $10 billion. Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department’s total budget, which includes all public diplomacy and public affairs efforts such as cultural events and exchanges, was only $1.44 billion in 2021. American administrations since the end of the Cold War, have “resisted offensive information warfare efforts” in adversary nations such as China, Russia, and Iran, out of fear of “provoking” them. Sound familiar?

The U.S. for the last decades has been playing defense at information operations — uncovering the schemes, bringing them to light, attempting to bring attention to Russian fake news and so forth. 

But information favors the offense. Once information is being disseminated online, it is almost impossible to contain. Playing whack-a-mole with Russian information operations means the U.S. is constantly trying to keep up and keep Russia down, and it reaches a point where the sheer quantity of “moles” means you’ll never actually be able to whack them all. Tenet Media is one such mole — the DOJ did an excellent job uncovering this Russian operation, but it begs the question of how many more are still operating and how many new ones will replace it. 

The U.S. used to be the kings of information — “this was our mission,” says Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill. “Winning hearts and minds across the world. That’s how we fought the Cold War. That’s how we fought communism.”

Despite the fact that the U.S. has “[talked] a big game” about information warfare over the last few decades, plenty of branches of the U.S. military, including the Air Force, have yet to publish “formal, actionable requirements” laying out the roles of their information warfare organizations.

Perhaps the U.S. government is still stuck in a mindset of information idealism, believing that in the marketplace of ideas, the truth ultimately prevails or democracy ultimately triumphs. Perhaps the U.S. is resting on its laurels, believing that a victory in the Cold War means American values will continue to dominate, withstanding the test of time. Regardless, what the West is doing isn’t working. Out of this infamous fear of “provoking” their adversaries, U.S. information policy is letting Russian (and Chinese) interests run rampant, reaching millions of Americans via popular podcasters and YouTubers on the Kremlin’s payroll. 

I miss the days when the U.S. wasn’t afraid to take the lead in the global power competition and was unapologetic in defending American interests. Let’s bring those back.