Comment Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin and head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which is fighting in Ukraine, boasted on Monday that he was meddling in the midterm elections for the United States Congress and planned to continue doing so. Prigozhin gained notoriety as an operator of online “troll farms” and was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for his role in meddling in the 2016 US presidential election by using a company he owned, then called the Internet Research Agency, to to spread misinformation and sow discord, especially on social media platforms. Asked by Russian media about further interference in the midterm elections, Prigozhin replied: “Gentlemen, we were interfering. We intervene and we will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do.” His comments were published by his press service on the Russian social media platform VKontakte. “During our operations, we will remove both the kidneys and the liver at the same time,” Prigozhin said. Prigozhin’s provocative comments on the day before the United States election were impossible to verify. US government cyber agencies have said they have largely neutralized Russian troll farms in recent election cycles. The major social media platforms have also become much more vigilant about policing suspicious content, although recent large-scale staff cuts at Twitter have raised questions about whether the company could properly monitor content before its vote. Tuesday. Whether Prigozhin’s statements were true or simply disinformation intended to alarm the United States, they nevertheless reflected how Putin and his supporters see Russia as waging a multi-front war against the US-dominated, supposedly hegemonic West . Putin and his allies have said Russia is fighting the US and other NATO nations in Ukraine and have blamed the West for prolonging the war Putin started. Russia has also used disinformation, its power in energy markets and its control of Ukraine’s food exports in an attempt to crush Western unity over support for Ukraine. A key Kremlin goal includes weakening Western democracies by promoting far-right candidates, targeting centrists and spreading divisive rhetoric online. Influencing the overall outcome of congressional midterm elections, given the hundreds of candidates on the ballot in all 50 states, is more complicated than a head-to-head presidential race. But individual congressional races, in small districts or individual states, can be susceptible to outside interference. The Treasury Department sanctioned Prigozhin in March 2018 for his role in meddling in the 2016 election and again in 2019 for meddling in the 2018 congressional election. In each case, the department cited his role in funding the troll farm of the Internet Research Service in St. Petersburg. The United Kingdom and the European Union have also imposed sanctions against Prigozhin. The oligarch, who made his fortune through catering contracts for the Russian government, including for kindergartens, schools and the military, is known as “Putin’s chef”. He also runs the FAN news agency, which promotes his agenda, including attacks on his political enemies and praise for his own projects, such as his push into Africa in recent years, offering security services and political manipulation advice to autocrats on the continent in exchange for access to resources. After years of denying any connection to the Wagner mercenary group, Prigozhin has in recent months openly admitted his association with the private militia, even personally recruiting fighters in Russian prisons, despite the fact that mercenary groups are illegal under Russian law . Wagner mercenaries have for months tried unsuccessfully to push Ukrainian forces out of Bakhmut, Ukraine, a battle that has taken a heavy toll on each side and left the city in ruins, even though Western military analysts said there was no strategic military logic to push them to take the city Bloomberg News reported that social media analytics firm Graphika has discovered that a Russian political meddling network linked to the Internet Research Service has engaged in new political meddling, promoting right-wing conspiracy theories aimed at tilting midterm election races against Democratic candidates. . The latest United States sanctions against Prigozhin came in July, in connection with Prigozhin’s “Project Lakhta,” a disinformation campaign he financed targeting audiences in the United States, Europe and Ukraine. According to the Treasury Department, Project Lakhta spends tens of millions of dollars to fund troll farms “and other mechanisms of malign influence.” “Since at least 2014, Project Lakhta has used, among other things, fictitious online personas posing as US persons in an attempt to interfere in US elections,” according to the Treasury Department. Graphika reported that the Russian network made “direct efforts to undermine support for Democratic candidates in Pennsylvania, Georgia, New York and Ohio” between August and September. A primary vehicle was the circulation of political cartoons, “almost certainly intended to go viral.” “The network includes a number of fake personas on alt-tech platforms popular with far-right online audiences in the US, including Gab, Parler, Gettr and the patriots.win discussion forum. These individuals regularly spread inflammatory narratives about sensitive cultural and political issues in the US, including vaccines, gun control, racial injustice, and allegations of child sexual abuse. Actors are consistently critical of the Biden-Harris administration,” the Graphika report said. Figures in the network also shared articles from right-wing media outlets and screenshots of social media posts accompanied by inflammatory political commentary, according to the report. According to the report, online trolls from the Internet Research Service targeted Democratic candidates — including Sen. Raphael G. Warnock and gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in Georgia, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate candidate John Fetterman in Pennsylvania and Senate candidate Tim Ryan in Ohio. — with racist or inflammatory material. In a new development, the accounts also cast aspersions on Russia’s war against Ukraine, promoting the Kremlin’s false narrative that Ukraine is a Nazi state and suggesting that the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine had hurt the American standard of living. But Graphika reported that the latest campaign had little online traction. Prigozhin’s political currency has increased in the Kremlin because of his role in the war, not only sending Wagner into battle but also creating popular defense groups on Russian soil near the border with Ukraine. At the same time, Prigozhin has emerged as one of the strongest critics of the Russian military over its failures and retreats in Ukraine. He recently spoke angrily to Putin about the matter, according to two US officials familiar with the matter. The exchange was included in the daily briefing provided to President Biden. Prigozhin denied speaking to Putin.
