Information Incident Notification︱ Russian Funding of US and Canadian Political Influencers
Overview
Charges: On September 4, the United States Department of Justice released an indictment against two Russian nationals, alleging that they funded a media company – since identified as Tenet Media – to spread Russian propaganda on social media.
Canadian involvement: Tenet Media’s owners, Canadian influencer Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan, allegedly accepted almost $10 million USD from the Russian-government funded media outlet RT in exchange for promoting Kremlin-approved narratives through Tenet’s network of American and Canadian online personalities.
Why it’s important: Russian disinformation campaigns are a known threat to the Canadian information ecosystem. The scrutiny of and evidence against Tenet Media joins a growing list of Russian interference efforts in Canada.
What happened?
On September 4, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) unsealed charges against two employees of Russian state media network RT for conspiracy to violate the American Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The indictment describes a nearly $10 million USD scheme to create and propagate content that aligns with Russian political motives through an unnamed American company.
Based on the details of the indictment, news media has identified the company involved as the Tennessee-based Tenet Media, owned by Canadians Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan. Tenet Media is a subsidiary of Roaming Millennial Inc., also owned by Chen and incorporated in Montreal, Canada. The FBI is investigating, and the case will be prosecuted by the Southern District of New York and the Justice Department’s National Security Division Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. Neither of the Russian actors have been arrested as they are believed to be in Russia.
On September 5th, the day after the indictment was unsealed, YouTube removed at least four channels associated with Chen, including her main channel and a pop culture channel, Mediaholic, after “careful review” by the site and its ongoing investigation to “combat influence operations.” Tenet Media’s YouTube channel has also been blocked, while its content creators also appear to have been banned from the platform.
Allegations
Two Russian nationals, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva – employees of RT– are alleged to have worked with Tenet Media, owned by Chen and Donovan, to create, post and share hundreds of videos that pushed Russian talking points.
Under the guise of an invented Belgian investor – Eduard Grigoriann – Kalashnikov worked with Chen and Donovan to establish their company, recruit talent (for which Chen and Donovan received a fee), and produce and share content.
Tenet Media’s founders invoiced Grigoriann and received payment through a series of shell corporations.
Once production of the videos began – in the Fall of 2023– Afanasyeva, using a false identity, was brought on-board first ostensibly as an editor and then in a second personna as an advisor for the fictitious investor. In these roles, she tailored messaging, provided content and encouraged the network’s influencers and producers to share it widely.
Almost 90% of all Tenet Media’s bank deposits from October 2023 to August 2024 came from RT wire transfers, suggesting that RT was Tenet’s main funder.
The indictment claims that Tenet “actively concealed the company’s links to Russia” from influencers and the public.
What is RT?
Formerly known as Russia Today, RT is a media organization controlled, funded, and directed by the Kremlin. In March 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine the previous month, RT was banned from operating or broadcasting in Canada, as well as the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. According to the indictment, since being sanctioned, RT has created an “entire empire of covert projects”, designed to shape public opinion in Western countries. One of these “covert projects” included funding Tenet Media.
What is Tenet Media?
Tenet Media was founded in 2022 by Canadian political commentator Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan. Chen is more widely known as the right-wing political commentator “Roaming Millennial” on YouTube. Tenet Media is operated by Roaming USA and incorporated in Tennessee, but is a subsidiary of Chen’s Canadian company, Roaming Millennial Inc.
Tenet Media officially launched in November 2023 after recruiting six headline creators in addition to Chen: Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Lauren Southern, Tayler Hansen, and Matt Christiansen, all of whom have substantial social media followings outside of their affiliation with Tenet Media. Before being removed by YouTube, Tenet Media had 316,000 subscribers.
In addition to these influential voices on the American right, Chen and Donovan recruited a Canadian one: Lauren Southern. Southern is a prominent Canadian far-right commentator, with over 560,000 followers on X and 712,000 subscribers on her personal YouTube channel, who has extensively promoted conspiracy theories on social media. On contract for Tenet Media, Southern produced various videos focused on Canada, such as “Canada is Becoming a COMMUNIST HELLHOLE.” It is unclear if these videos were influenced by RT.
How did Canada respond?
The Canadian owners of Tenet Media have not been indicted in the United States or Canada. The FBI in the United States is currently investigating the relationship between Tenet Media and RT, but it is still unclear if Canadian law enforcement is involved in the investigation. In an emailed statement to CTV News, the RCMP declined to confirm whether or not they were investigating, instead stating that they work with both domestic and foreign partners to “share intelligence and enable the prevention, investigation, and enforcement of criminal sanctions evasion.”
On September 6 - two days after the indictment was released – Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc announced that the federal government was collaborating with the United States, stating that “any Canadians who illegally assist in Russia’s persistent attempts to use disinformation, criminal and covert activities, and corruption to undermine our sovereignty and democratic processes will face the full force of Canadian law.”
Timeline of the event
Spring 2021: Chen is said to have begun working for the parent company of RT.
19 January 2022: Tenet Media is incorporated in Tennessee.
March 2022: RT is banned in Canada, the United States and other countries, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
December 2022: Chen (identified as Founder-1 in the indictment) starts working for “Eduard Grigoriann” to launch a new Youtube channel.
Spring 2023: Chen, Donovan and RT operatives work to recruit headlining names to be part of the network.
May 2023: Tenet Media applies for its current operating name.
November 2023: Tenet Media publicly launches. Over the following 10 months, it posts over 2000 videos on YouTube, accumulating more than 16 million views.
4 September 2024: The DoJ unseals its indictment.
5 September 2024: Tenet Media and Lauren Chen’s other channels are removed from YouTube.
6 September 2024: Canadian Public Safety Minister announces that the federal government is collaborating with the United States on the issue.
Why does this matter?
Russian narratives promoted by Tenet Media have circulated among Canadians. Tenet Media contracted Canadian influencer Lauren Southern, who created over 50 videos related to Canadian politics, and likely gained significant engagement from Canadian users on many of their videos across multiple social media platforms.
According to the indictment, the narratives pushed by RT and promoted by Tenet Media were not simply positive messages about Russia but ones intended to amplify polarization and weaken democracy. While some content is clearly linked to Russia and public perception of its government’s activities (e.g., the indictment describes RT’s request that Tenet Media produce content blaming Ukraine and the United states for a terrorist attack on a Moscow music venue in March 2024), influencers primarily stressed “highly divisive culture war topics” linked to domestic debates, such as transgender rights and racial divides. The overall goal of RT’s relationship with Tenet Media appears to be to cause “chaos” and increase division among Americans – and, consequently, Canadians. Further research is necessary to understand the full scope of the messages RT pushed Tenet Media to promote and the impact of these messages on online discourse and the political climate in both the United States and Canada.
Unfortunately, RT’s involvement with Tenet Media is not an isolated incident of Russian influence in Canadian politics. Russia has launched innumerable disinformation campaigns targeted towards Western audiences, including Canadians, with the intention of misleading users, polarizing voters, and weakening democratic institutions. It is important for Canadians to be aware of this threat and capable of identifying disinformation when they encounter it.
What are we doing about it?
This notification launches an investigation into efforts by the Russian government to influence the Canadian information ecosystem using English- and French-language online personalities.
Key questions we are focusing on:
Content: What narratives have RT and other Russian-backed entities pushed into the Canadian information ecosystem?
Network: Which influencers in Canada have promoted Kremlin-approved narratives and messages to their followers?
Impact: How much engagement have these narratives received? Have they significantly influenced political discussion in Canada?
Research response
The CDMRN is conducting research to understand the situation in more depth and to characterize its impacts on the Canadian information ecosystem. This study will use a combination of techniques including survey and social media analysis. In the coming weeks, we will release incident updates on topics including:
Impacts of this information incident: Insights into how it has affected public perception (e.g., should Canadians be concerned, does it impact their trust in politicians, media, or the electoral process), and what factors generated the most impact on Canadians perception (e.g., was it the Russian-funded campaign or the media coverage about it).
Diagnostics of this information incident: Insights intopublic awareness of the Russian-backed content (e.g., have people seen the content and where) and their beliefs about the situation (e.g., what do people think happened, where do they believe it originated from, who they think is responsible), as well as more insight on foreign interference in Canadian political discourse.
Foresighting information incidents: Insights intohow this incident compares to other historical foreign influence campaigns and what similar efforts might look like going forward.
Additional updates may be provided as the event unfolds.
Research partners
This incident response notification is a collaboration between the Canadian Digital Media Research Network (CDMRN) and its research network partners, including Disinfowatch, the PolCommTech Research Lab, the Media Ecosystem Observatory and Professor Stephanie Carvin of Carleton University. Other experts may be added as the incident evolves.
Key contacts - Subject matter experts
Aengus Bridgman, Director, Media Ecosystem Observatory (aengus.bridgman@mcgill.ca)
Expertise: Political science, social network analysis
Stephanie Carvin, Associate Professor, Norman Peterson School of International Affairs (stephanie.carvin@carleton.ca)
Expertise: Canadian national security and technology
Elizabeth Dubois, Director, PolCommTech Research Lab (elizabeth.dubois@uottawa.ca)
Expertise: Bots
Marcus Kolga, Director, Disinfo Watch (marcuskolga@gmail.com)
Expertise: Central and Eastern European politics; disinformation and propaganda; media and foreign policy