Putin Pals Say Accused MAGA Media Stars Should Come to Russia for Protection

This week’s Department of Justice indictments of the employees of RT, Russia’s premiere state-controlled propaganda outlet, have been met with mockery and jeering in Moscow. Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor-in-chief, posted a bevy of messages on her Telegram channel—and none of them sounded like denials.

In one of her first reactions on Telegram, Simonyan mocked the authorities for being so slow to catch up to RT’s nefarious activities in the United States. She wrote, “Ptooey, they finally woke up!”

The unsealed indictment alleged that prominent right-wing influencers like Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson were secretly funded by Russian state media employees to create favorable content.

Tenet Media’s founders were also caught up in the indictment. While those people were not named, Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan are the only people who match that description. On Thursday, Blaze Media CEO Tyler Cardon said in a statement to Semafor that Chen had been fired following the indictment.

“Lauren Chen was an independent contractor whose contract has been terminated,” he said.

In other posts by Simonyan, she noted that the influencers that were allegedly showered with Russia’s rubles, to the tune of $10 million, were denying their awareness as to the source of the windfall. The head of RT pointed out, “Bloggers, of course, deny everything, but what else can they do.”

In another post about the indictments and sanctions, Simonyan wrote, “Excellent work, team!”

She described the reaction in the United States as “paranoia,” but hardly bothered to deny the accusations. After all, in the preceding years, Simonyan frequently boasted about RT’s ongoing efforts to destabilize the United States, aiming to contribute to America’s eventual collapse. During multiple state TV appearances, she proudly recounted her network creating “an entire empire of covert projects,” peddling Russian propaganda, while disguising its origin.

In 2022, Simonyan admitted, “When they [Western governments] conducted carpet bombing against us and destroyed everything, denying us any access to disseminating information, we came to our senses and started to penetrate their defenses using partisan trails: under other names, with different people, in new ways. I won’t disclose the rest here.”

While Simonyan pretended to scoff at the fallout, reactions by other prominent state media propagandists were less than cheerful. Andrey Lugovoy, whom the courts found to be responsible for the 2006 murder by radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London, and who is now serving as a State Duma member, appeared on the state TV show Evening With Vladimir Solovyov on Thursday, pretending not to understand how RT could get away with transferring $10 million to the United States to pay the influencers for their services.

The host, Vladimir Solovyov, was notably shaken about the indictment of his friend Dimitri Simes, who frequently appeared on his shows to condemn America’s policies and justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Solovyov and his fellow propagandists expressed alarm that Tucker Carlson might be charged next, urging the Russian government to immediately offer asylum to all involved.

Karen Shakhnazarov, Director General of Mosfilm, praised Simes as a “hero who made his choice” and is now paying the price. He called on all Russians to follow his example. Shakhnazarov mockingly noted, “Margo Simonyan is making American presidents left and right.” He speculated that the charges against RT and Simes were brought in the run-up to the presidential election to weaken “our Donald.”

Solovyov and Shakhnazarov pointed out the ties between Simes and Trump, which landed the Russian state TV host in the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Shakhnazarov claimed that Simes and Trump are still communicating—and by indicting Simes, the Department of Justice is actually striking at Trump.

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Prominent lawmakers and propagandists on Russian state TV frequently admit that Russia is still interested in propping up “Trumpushka.” A phony “endorsement” of Vice President Kamala Harris by Russian President Vladimir Putin was designed to boost Russia’s favorite contender—just as his previous attempt to smear U.S. President Joe Biden by claiming to support his re-election in his interview with Carlson. At the time, state TV propagandists proudly described this effort to mislead Americans as Putin carefully planted “info-bombs and mines” during his sit-down with Carlson.

After airing a clip with Putin’s comments, claiming to support the presidential candidacy of Harris, Solovyov laughed and promised that gullible Americans will believe that Putin was serious.

Shrugging off the pretense and refusing to play along with Putin’s charade, Andrey Sidorov, Deputy Dean of world politics at the Moscow State University, insisted, “I will always root for Trump. Trump is a direct path to civil war in the United States.”