OPINION:
We have the ancient Roman poet Virgil to thank for the phrase “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”
The maxim originated from Greek mythology when Odysseus and his soldiers hid in a wooden horse, which the Trojans rashly hauled into their city as a victory trophy. Under the cover of darkness, the Greeks crept out of the horse and opened the city gates for their army, which conquered the Trojans.
Based on the Department of Justice’s indictment last month of Russia Today, or RT, U.S. media outlets would do well to be on high alert for Russians bearing gifts.
The indictment charges two Russian RT employees with funneling $10 million through fake personas and shell companies to a Tennessee online content creation company in return for disseminating Russian propaganda.
The U.S. company unwittingly pumped out the Kremlin’s disinformation to millions of social media users via TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube.
Created in 2005, RT is now banned in the European Union, the United States and Canada.
FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that Russia’s “covert attempts to sow division and trick Americans into unwittingly consuming foreign propaganda represents an attack on our democracy.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s formative experiences as a KGB operative and director of Russia’s Federal Security Service help explain why, after coming to power, he eliminated the country’s independent media to restrict the flow of information and shape public dialogue in support of the Kremlin’s Potemkin village narratives.
Mr. Putin also holds a black belt in judo, a key principle of which is to use opponents’ strength against them. Applying this judo approach to Russia’s strategic rivalry with its “main enemy” — the United States — Mr. Putin brazenly targets America’s open media, a foundation of our democracy.
For this operation, Mr. Putin deliberately chose not to use one of his spy services, turning instead to his state media propaganda company to target the unwitting Tennessee company, which received wire transfers from RT cutouts starting last October. By doing so, the Kremlin not only injected its preferred propaganda into our media ecosystem for a year but also reaped the benefits when the scheme was exposed.
First, Mr. Putin sought to throw gasoline on the already deep partisan divide burning hot in our country.
Second, with the U.S. presidential election approaching, Mr. Putin’s goal is to reduce voters’ trust in American media. Mr. Putin ran what was a discoverable influence operation by leaving a trail of evidence that Russia had infiltrated our media and corrupted it.
Third, aside from prosecuting ruthless attacks on what scares him the most — namely, the truth and democratic government — Mr. Putin wants to demonstrate that Russia can level the playing field with the United States through asymmetrical information warfare.
The Biden administration predictably responded by imposing sanctions on the Russian state-funded broadcaster overseeing RT and several Russian media properties and personalities. The State Department, which highlighted declassified U.S. intelligence indicating Russian spy services are embedded in RT, has launched a diplomatic effort to warn other nations about RT’s propaganda.
But we must do more and operate with the alacrity that this threat to our national security demands.
First, the country’s intelligence agencies need to detect these Russian threats in the pre-attack phase so they can be preempted before any harm is caused. The Justice Department, which has shut down over 30 Russian-linked media sites designed to imitate U.S. counterparts, must, with the help of the intelligence community, stay a step ahead of our Russian adversaries.
Once our adversaries infiltrate our media, we are already in the incident-response phase, dealing with collateral damage to citizens’ trust in a key foundation of our democracy.
Second, we need a more comprehensive effort from the federal government, with full bipartisan congressional support, to warn American print, television and online media outlets about the threats to their content, particularly from hostile actors such as China and Russia. We should also educate our citizens better, starting with civics lessons in elementary school, about how to spot disinformation and propaganda.
We should all see the value of vetting information and the veracity of alleged primary sources before sharing information on social media.
Third, just as we did during the Cold War, the U.S. should turn the tables on the Kremlin by finding innovative ways to deliver real news to the Russian people.
Mr. Putin has a string of Trojan horse operations ready to deploy against us. We had better be prepared with far more robust defensive and offensive countermeasures, or we can expect that the Kremlin will continue to strike with impunity at the heart of our democracy.
• Daniel N. Hoffman is a retired clandestine services officer and former chief of station with the CIA.
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