THE TENET MEDIA FRONT
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
V.
KOSTIANTYN KALASHNIKOV,
a/k/a Kostya,” and
ELENA AFANASYEVA,
ak/a “Lena,”
Defendants.
SEALED INDICTMENT
24 Cr. 24CRIM 519
KOSTIANTYN KALASHNIKOV
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- KOSTIANTYN KALASHNIKOV, ak/a “Kostya,” the defendant, is a citizen of Russia and an employee of RT. KALASHNIKOV has identified himself as the “Deputy Chief of the Digital Media Projects Department” for RT, is a member of an internal RT email distribution list reserved for “leaders” at RT, and manages multiple RT covert distribution channels in the United States, including TENETMEDIA. As set forth below, Chen introduced KALASHNIKOV to TENETMEDIA employees and affiliates as a purported outside editor, and KALASHNIKOV edited TENETMEDIA content without disclosing that he was working for RT. KALASHNIKOV also participated in an internal TENETMEDIA messaging group comprised solely of KALASHNIKOV, Chen, Donovan, and an individual purporting to act as a representative of TENETMEDIA ‘s investor, “Eduard Grigoriann,” but who was, in fact, a fake persona (“PersonaOne“), as described below. In that messaging group, KALASHNIKOV monitored discussions of, among other things, TENETMEDIA ‘s funding, hiring, and contract negotiations with Dave Rubin and Tim Pool.