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On Wednesday, 4 September 2024 the US Justice Department in an official statement declared they have sei zed 32 internet domains that were used for foreign malign influence operation targeting audiences in the United States and in other countries, an operation supported by the Russian government known as Doppleganger. A report by an FBI agent was also released from which it becomes clear why that name- an essential part of the operation was to make nearly identical duplications of legitimate news websites, including of papers like Washington Post, or outlets such as Fox News (report, p.16). Very often many things in these websites would lead to the legitimate media, the websites would even include trademarks registered for the original websites.

The purpose, according to the report, was to push narratives, aligning with Kremlin viewpoints on different matters, but most notably the war in Ukraine. The report by the FBI agent (p.20) even alleges that through a high ranking operative, the presidential administration in the Kremlin itself exercised control over Doppleganger.

Amongst the narratives which were commonly pushed were lies about the state on the battlefield in Ukraine, theories that it is not in the West’s interest to support the country struggling against Russian aggression, as well as smears such as claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a cocaine addict, as well as smears against pro-Ukraine political candidates in the USA and other countries. 

In order to influence some US audiences specifically, the report notes that certain other countries were targeted too. One such country is Mexico, probably with hopes to influence Mexican, Catholic and Hispanic communities in the USA, and other such country is Israel probably with hopes to influence Jewish and Evangelical communities.

Likewise, different narratives were used as well as different domains fore right-wing and for left-wing target audiences.

An interesting part of a separate statement is that a right-wing Tennessee-based media was named to have received Russian funding, probably referring to Tenet Media which is famously linked with MAGA pundits including Tim Pool, Lauren Southern and Benny Johnson.