The popular American YouTube channel Tenet Media is suspected of distributing fake Kremlin for Russian money.
US sanctions against Kremlin propagandists for meddling in the presidential election are getting new interesting details. So, the American authorities suspect two employees of the Russian propaganda channel RT of violating the law on the activities of foreign agents and conspiracy to launder money. The accusation concerns 31-year-old RT digital media project manager Konstantin Kalashnikov and his subordinate, 27-year-old Elena Afanasyeva.
According to the lawsuit, over at least the past year, RT and its employees, including Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, have funneled nearly $10 million in secret funding to an online content company in Tennessee. This is almost 90% of the translations he received during this period. While the company is not directly named in the indictment, details provided in court documents indicate it is the popular YouTube channel Tenet Media, which has published nearly 2,000 videos in less than a year.
YouTube channel has been blocked.
In the service of the Kremlin
Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva allegedly worked with Tenet Media to create hundreds of videos supporting Russian causes. They were charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agent Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Posing as outside video editors, they were allegedly directly involved in Tenet Media’s activities. Kalashnikov, for example, “monitored internal communications and edited content” published by the company, according to the indictment.
Afanasyeva, who allegedly used the fake names “Elena Shudra” and “Victoria Pesti” while working at Tenet Media, “edited, hosted and managed publications” of Tenet Media, and “also provided day-to-day management” of company employees .
Afanasyeva’s employment with Tenet Media allegedly directed the company to promote pro-Russian views, such as promoting a conspiracy theory that Ukraine and the United States were responsible for terrorist attack in March at a music venue in Moscow.
On YouTube, Tenet Media describes itself as “a network of unorthodox commentators focusing on Western political and cultural issues.”
The federal indictment alleges that the channel’s commentators Tim Poole, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, Lauren Southern and others may have secretly received funding from the Kremlin.
Trouble for Musk?
The Tenet Media channel and all its commentators are actively promoted by the owner of the social network X, Elon Musk. The billionaire, by the way, plans to allocate about $45 million a month to a new committee supporting the presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump.
Musk will donate to a political action committee called America PAC, whose other donors include Palantir Technologies, twin businessmen Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and former US Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft and the her husband, Joe Craft, who heads Alliance Resource Partners.
According to one of the members of the committee, its activities are mainly aimed at encouraging Trump voters to register and convince them to vote early in the so-called key states – that is, those where the vote can determine the outcome of the election.
A political action committee in the United States is an organization that brings together donors who donate money to the campaign of one of the presidential candidates. The amount of donations to such committees is not limited.
Trump, if he wins, promises that Musk will get a government job. The former president said that if he wins, he wants to create a “commission on government efficiency”, whose task is a complete financial audit and audit of the efficiency of the US federal government.
This commission, which should be headed by Musk, after an audit should give recommendations for “radical reforms,” Trump added.
The billionaire himself proposed the idea of creating such a body to the presidential candidate in an interview on his X (Twitter) in August. At the same time, Musk promised that he would work for free.
Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes admitted that the former president’s speech did not mention much about how a “commission on government efficiency” might work.
But he added that the former president’s words were “confirmation that Trump likes the idea and will work with Musk and others to make sure it comes to fruition.”
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.