“An indictment charging Russian nationals Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, also known as Kostya, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, also known as Lena, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and conspiracy to commit money laundering was unsealed today in the Southern District of New York. Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva are at large,” says a DOJ press release.

“According to the court documents, RT, formerly known as Russia Today, is a state-controlled media outlet funded and directed by the Government of Russia. Over at least the past year, RT and its employees, including Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, deployed nearly $10 million to covertly finance and direct a Tennessee-based online content creation company (US Company-1). In turn, US Company-1 published English-language videos on multiple social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube. Since publicly launching in or about November 2023, US Company-1 has posted nearly 2,000 videos that have garnered more than 16 million views on YouTube alone. Many of the videos posted by US Company-1 contain commentary on events and issues in the US, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics related to domestic and foreign policy. 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 carry out RT’s secret influence campaign in the United States, Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva operated under covert identities at US Company-1. Posing as an outside editor, Kalashnikov edited US Company-1 content, monitored US Company-1’s funding and hiring, and introduced Afanasyeva as a member of his purported editing team. Using the fake personas Helena Shudra and Victoria Pesti, Afanasyeva posted and directed the posting by US Company-1 of hundreds of videos. Afanasyeva also collected information from and gave instructions to US Company-1 staff. For example, after the March 22, 2024, terrorist attack on a music venue in Moscow, Afanasyeva asked one of US Company-1’s founders to blame Ukraine and the United States for the attack, writing: ‘I think we can focus on the Ukraine/US angle… [T]he mainstream media spread fake news that ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack yet ISIS itself never made such statements. All terrorists are now detained while they were heading to the border with Ukraine which makes it even more suspicious why they would want to go to Ukraine to hide.’ “