Today I went down a rabbit hole looking into Russian state media’s August 2022 Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) filings in the US. 🚨A Russian propaganda channel is paying a US conspiracy theorist $$$ to broadcast (dis/mis)information in developing countries. THREAD 1/

I started digging after reading @caitlinoprysko ’s update for @politico on Friday that Rossiya Segodnya, the parent company of Russian propaganda org Sputnik, had re-upped its media production deal with US partner Ghebi LLC for 2022/23 at ~$7 million. 2/

But Russia targeting Americans with propaganda and disinformation is old news, frankly. 3/

Some digging in the FARA database reveals that TV Novosti, parent organization of Russian propaganda channel RT, signed a contract with “Rebel Media Productions” to produce content NOT for the US, but to broadcast specifically to “India, China, and South America.” 4/

As we see, Rebel Media is owned+founded by American conspiracy theorist/ex-RT employee Benjamin Swann @BenSwann_ , best-known for hawking Pizzagate conspiracies and anti-vaccine disinformation. For context, his social media platform “Sovren” promotes ties with Alex Jones. 5/

Side note: Mr. Swann writes that he believes TV Novosti receives funding “in part” from the Russian government. Turns out, TV Novosti received the MOST Kremlin funding of any Russian news outlet in 2022—25 billion rubles. 6/

Mr. Swann filed under FARA on August 5, 2022 with the express purpose of broadcasting Russian state propaganda for TV audiences in the developing world. TV Novosti will pay him an initial $420,000 (nice, Ben) for his efforts. 8/

Quick recap: Kremlin propaganda channel pays American conspiracy theorist @BenSwann_ $400k+ to spread his dubious views on TV to audiences in India, China, Africa, and South America. Mr. Swann set up his own personal media company in the US months ago to do just that. 9/

Even though much of the world has condemned Russia for its full-scale war of aggression in Ukraine, Russian malign influence is a real and continuing problem in the US and around the globe. 10/END

@andrew_danieri