WASHINGTON (AP) — The Kremlin couldn’t have requested for higher publicity at a greater time when Ben Swann, a self-described unbiased journalist who promotes conspiracy theories, launched a 12-part video collection he promised would reveal darkish truths about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Swann’s flashy documentary-style movies have been crammed with innuendo, assaults on Zelenskyy’s character and commentary from friends sympathetic to Russia in its two-year struggle with Ukraine.
The collection, titled “Zelenskyy Unmasked,” launched in April as Congress was debating rising navy help to Ukraine, and it rapidly caught the eye of conservative social media influencers who hyped the undertaking to their thousands and thousands of followers.
Amongst those that promoted the collection was Donald Trump Jr., the previous president’s eldest son.
“Curious concerning the billions of {dollars} and weapons Congress despatched Ukraine?” Trump Jr. posted on X, Reality Social and Threads. “You could watch the primary episode of the explosive 12-part collection.”
In contrast to different conservative media personalities who final month expressed shock upon studying they might have been secretly financed by the Kremlin, Swann has no such qualms. He’s labored for Russia’s state-owned media empire for years, with certainly one of his firms incomes thousands and thousands of {dollars} for producing Kremlin-friendly exhibits.
The creation of “Zelenskyy Unmasked” and its viral unfold reveal how broadly Russia-backed speaking factors are touring on social media — a trend that concerns present and former U.S. intelligence officers and disinformation consultants.
An investigation by The Related Press additionally offers insights into the shadowy and worthwhile world of political influencers who usually are not required to reveal who’s paying them, elevating transparency issues about their political endorsements within the largely unregulated realm of social media.
Swann introduced on a digital advertising agency to publicize “Zelenskyy Unmasked,” and not less than one creator acknowledged he was paid to advertise the collection.
Dire warnings
The revelations about Swann’s work for Russia come as U.S. authorities have issued more and more dire warnings concerning the risk posed by Russian disinformation campaigns. Along with undermining Ukraine, the Kremlin is seeking to disrupt the presidential election and sow discord within the U.S. and elsewhere within the West, these officers have stated.
U.S. officers are significantly involved about Russia’s covert efforts to make the most of unwitting Individuals to unfold Moscow’s message and use synthetic intelligence to rapidly tailor false content material.
Russia’s affect operation additionally seems aimed toward boosting support for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has criticized Ukraine and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, the officers stated.
Trump has dismissed proof of Russian affect operations, and he and plenty of of his supporters have mocked the broader U.S. authorities’s effort to spotlight Kremlin propaganda efforts.
Registered with the DOJ
Swann filed paperwork with the Justice Division two years in the past to register certainly one of his firms as working for Russian state media. In an interview with the AP, Swann stated he has saved his work for Russian pursuits separate from what he produces for U.S. audiences. He has executed this, Swann stated, by working two firms — one which generates content material for Russian media and one other that produces unbiased journalism, like “Zelenskyy Unmasked,” for U.S. audiences.
“The one connection is that I personal each firms,” Swann stated.
The AP, nonetheless, discovered that there was some overlap in how the 2 entities operated.
A handful of friends on “Zelenskyy Unmasked” additionally appeared on RT exhibits produced by Swann, in response to a evaluate of RT’s video archives and information filed with the Justice Division.
Swann’s exhibits for U.S. audiences and RT even have comparable themes. The Zelenskyy collection, for instance, echoed Russian state media’s messaging that the Ukrainian president is a would-be autocrat who has duped the West into supporting a battle that Russia will inevitably win.
A former TV anchor
Swann, 46, was a longtime TV journalist earlier than he was fired from an Atlanta station in 2018 after selling the debunked “Pizzagate” conspiracy that alleged Democrats have been abducting youngsters to function intercourse slaves.
He has since grow to be a social media star who portrays himself as somebody daring to ask uncomfortable questions on robust matters — revolving round unfounded claims akin to whether or not the Sandy Hook faculty shooter acted alone, the coronavirus vaccine was a money-making ploy by huge pharmaceutical firms, and Israel was a ”participant” within the bloodbath of Oct. 7, 2023.
Swann joined Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine group, Kids’s Well being Protection, in a lawsuit pending towards a number of information organizations, together with the AP, accusing them of violating antitrust legal guidelines by taking motion to determine misinformation, together with about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines.
Swann stated he labored as a correspondent for RT America, a cable channel that was a part of a Russian state media outlet, till it went off the air following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. RT officers then requested if he wished to supply exhibits for the community to air exterior the U.S., Swann stated.
“I stated, ‘Nicely, I can’t produce exhibits for the USA, but when these exhibits are for abroad, I’ll make it easier to produce them.’ So I began doing that for them, and we’ve been doing that ever since,” Swann stated in a July interview.
Producing RT exhibits
Swann stated he produced 10 exhibits every week utilizing RT America’s outdated studios in Washington, and he careworn that these exhibits don’t air within the U.S. or Western Europe, though they’re seen throughout the globe on RT’s web site.
Underneath the Overseas Brokers Registration Act, people should register with the Justice Division after they search to affect U.S. coverage and public opinion on behalf of overseas governments. Not doing so can lead to prison costs.
Swann’s firm, Insurgent Media Productions, first registered with the Justice Division in August 2022, saying it labored for RT’s mother or father firm and associated entities. The disclosures present Insurgent Media Productions was paid greater than $6 million in lower than two years by RT-related entities.
RT, previously referred to as Russia Right now, is a significant participant in Russia’s sprawling propaganda equipment, and a goal of U.S. efforts to dam Moscow’s covert affect.
The Justice Division has stated RT has hyperlinks to Russian intelligence companies, whereas the U.S. State Division not too long ago unveiled new sanctions on Russian state media. The sanctions goal RT’s mother or father group, TV Novosti, which Swann contracted with for his Russia-related work.
In February, Swann stopped reporting Insurgent Media’s work for Russia to the Justice Division, whilst his firm saved producing RT exhibits.
Swann stated he ended that registration with the Justice Division as a result of his attorneys instructed him it wasn’t crucial, regardless of his firm’s continued work for RT. “They stated, ‘Why are you making issues tougher for your self?’” Swann stated.
In response to the current sanctions, Swann stated his firm final month severed all ties to RT.
“Whereas we disagree with the censorship of our journalists, who have been doing high quality work on behalf of our consumer, now we have and can proceed to respect the rule of regulation,” Swann stated in a press release.
The Justice Division declined to remark.
‘Assume they don’t like Zelenskyy’
Swann stated he creates content material — just like the “Zelenskyy Unmasked” collection — for American viewers by way of one other firm, Reality in Media.
Reality in Media, Swann stated, isn’t worthwhile and is funded by rich U.S. people whom he refused to call. “Most of them personal very massive firms,” he stated, “if not publicly traded firms.”
Swann stated the massive payouts he obtained from Russian state media had not influenced his work on “Zelenskyy Unmasked,” however he acknowledged Russia’s leaders most likely favored the collection’ robust tackle Ukraine’s president.
“I don’t know, I assume they don’t like Zelenskyy,” Swann stated.
Lots of the friends interviewed in “Zelenskyy Unmasked” have been RT contributors and friends on its applications.
That features RT contributor Tara Reade, who briefly moved to Moscow after accusing President Joe Biden of assaulting her within the Nineties; former Ukrainian diplomat Andrii Telizhenko, who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury on allegations he had shut ties to a “Russia-linked overseas affect community”; and Russell Bentley, an American citizen recognized to have fought with Kremlin-backed separatists and labored for Russian state media, who died earlier this 12 months in Ukraine.
One other visitor who has appeared on RT exhibits and within the Zelenskyy movies is Scott Ritter, a former U.N. weapons inspector sympathetic to Russia whose upstate New York house was raided in August by the FBI. Ritter instructed the AP that FBI brokers of their questioning made clear that they have been investigating his Russia-related work however didn’t ask particularly about his work with Swann.
Ritter supplied the AP with a replica of an e mail he stated was from a reserving producer for Swann’s RT exhibits asking him to seem within the Zelenskyy collection.
Ritter stated an e mail invitation he obtained to take part in “Zelenskyy Unmasked” indicated that its government producer was Sean Stone, who hosted an RT present and is the son of the filmmaker Oliver Stone.
Sean Stone didn’t reply to requests for remark, and Swann didn’t reply to a query about Stone’s involvement on the collection.
Swann stated his RT-linked firm had handed alongside visitor contact particulars to his enterprise producing “Zelenskyy Unmasked.”
The 2 entities didn’t share employees, he stated.
An ‘explosive’ collection
Reality in Media started teasing the “Zelenskyy Unmasked” movies earlier this 12 months on its web site, writing the “explosive” 12-part collection would reply “who is de facto benefitting from the $100 billion the U.S. has despatched Ukraine.”
At the moment, hard-right congressional Republicans have been combating a proposal to ship more cash and weapons to Ukraine.
Home Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Turner and Home Overseas Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, each Republicans, stated some GOP lawmakers had been closely influenced by Russian speaking factors.
Turner stated on CNN that a few of these speaking factors have been being “uttered on the Home ground.”
To advertise “Zelenskyy Unmasked,” Swann stated he paid for promoting on social media however believes the collection obtained its most substantial enhance in viewership because of promotion from conservative influencers. Swann’s movies that have been embedded in X posts garnered tens of thousands and thousands of views.
“When you have got completely different influencers which you can ship it on to, who can watch it for themselves, determine in the event that they prefer it, after which share it, that’s a fairly highly effective device,” Swann stated. “That’s extra highly effective than the precise advertising of it on Meta or X.”
With the help of the tech agency Shiny Information, the AP recognized a core group of influencers who performed a major position in serving to promote the collection. Posts by these influencers have been shared by not less than 9,300 different distinctive X accounts which have 33 million complete followers, in response to an AP evaluation of “Zelenskyy Unmasked” X information created by Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship.
Influencers promote movies
The unfold of “Zelenskyy Unmasked” highlighted how such influencers are taking part in more and more pivotal roles in politics, and plenty of have grow to be de facto marketing campaign surrogates for Democratic and Republican candidates. Trump instructed a core group of conservative content material creators — who met in a “struggle room” over the past presidential debate — that they “are extra vital than I’m.”
A few of those self same influencers promoted the collection, utilizing an identical or comparable language to what Swann or Reality in Media promoted on-line.
Chaya Raichik, the founding father of the far-right Libs of TikTok social media accounts, echoed Reality in Media’s promotion of the collection, tweeting: “The place did $100 billion of our tax {dollars} that Congress despatched to Ukraine go? Watch ‘Zelensky Unmasked’ to seek out out!” Raichik didn’t reply to requests for remark.
When Reality In Media promoted the third episode within the collection, it tweeted, “The checklist of wealthy and highly effective individuals profiting off the struggle in Ukraine contains President Biden and his son, however they’re removed from the one ones.”
A number of days later, C.J. Pearson, co-chair of the Republican Nationwide Committee’s Youth Advisory Council, wrote the very same factor in a tweet about “Zelenskyy Unmasked.”
Others who touted the collection have been former Trump marketing campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis; Morgonn McMichael, a younger creator linked to the right-leaning group Speaking Factors USA; and Andrew Giuliani, a former New York gubernatorial hopeful and the son of Trump confidant Rudy Giuliani. Ellis, McMichael and Giuliani didn’t reply to requests for remark from the AP.
Conservative influencer Xaviaer DuRousseau, one other member of the RNC’s Youth Advisory Council, stated he was paid to advertise ”Zelenskyy Unmasked” on X by way of City Legend, an influencer advertising agency led by a former Trump administration staffer.
DuRousseau didn’t disclose how a lot he was paid, stated he was unaware of Swann’s work for Russian state media till interviewed by the AP and stated he would fastidiously think about any future collaborations.
“Is there perhaps an ulterior motive to you being towards Ukraine? Doubtlessly,” he stated. “However I might stress myself out a lot if I researched each single particular person on this business that totally, to be trustworthy.”
Swann stated Reality in Media employed City Legend to assist with advertising, however didn’t know the small print of its work.
“We didn’t know whether or not or not they have been speaking to influencers,” Swann stated in a press release.
City Legend declined to debate its monetary relationships with particular influencers. The corporate stated in a press release that it had been unaware of Swann’s ties to RT and would now not work with Reality in Media.
Amongst Swann’s most influential promoters was the previous president’s son, Trump Jr., who didn’t reply to requests for remark from the AP.
In a tweet on April 5, Trump Jr. hailed the collection as “explosive” for exposing “the reality behind the struggle in Ukraine!”
The social media platform’s customers added a neighborhood notice to his tweet that famous Swann’s ties to Russia and stated his claims “are prone to be disinformation.”
The warning didn’t appear to discourage Trump Jr. A number of days later, he once more took to X to reward Swann’s work — in an identical language.
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Related Press information journalist Aaron Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.
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Contact AP’s international investigative workforce at [email protected] or https://www.ap.org/tips/
