Ever since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has banked on American conservative political and media allies to weaken U.S. support for Ukraine and deploy disinformation operations, The Guardian reported.
Disinformation experts said that blatant falsehoods have been spread to falsify the horrors of the war for both U.S. and Russian audiences.
Some of the Kremlin’s most blatant disinformation revolves around undercutting American aid for Ukraine.
And they have been promoted by major figures on the American right, from Holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes to ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Fox News star Tucker Carlson.
These conservative talking heads’ audience of millions is deemed especially helpful to Russian objectives.
Political conservatives are also playing a big role.
House Republican Freedom Caucus members such as Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Scott Perry have all proved to be useful, though perhaps unwitting, Kremlin allies at times.
Those House representatives voted with 54 other Republican members in May against a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine, and have raised other concerns about the war.
Pro-Moscow video materials from the network RT (formerly Russia Today), which early this year shuttered its operations in the U.S., have been featured on Rumble, a video-sharing platform popular with conservatives that last year received major financing from a venture capital firm co-founded by recently elected Republican Ohio senator JD Vance and backed by billionaire Peter Thiel.
The influence of these Ukraine aid critics in Congress and Moscow-friendly media on the right led by Carlson is expected to increase.
That is even more true now that Republicans will control the House in 2023.
But analysts say they’re unlikely to block a Biden administration request to Congress in mid-November for over $37 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine, although they may try to pare it back.
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