The Justice Department indicted two Russians on Wednesday who they allege secretly ran a US-based content creation company that platformed notable conservatives. Here’s the press release, the full indictment, and a report naming some of the conservatives who were caught up in this operation. One of the unwitting pundits was Tim Pool, who put out a strongly worded statement denying that the investigated company had any editorial control over his work. He also condemned Russia and Putin too.
On the same day, the State Department designated Rossiya Segodnya and five of its subsidiaries – RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly, and Sputnik – as “foreign missions”, which coincided with the Department of the Treasury sanctioning them as well. Scott Ritter, whose home was raided by the FBI last month on the reported pretext of him failing to register as a “foreign agent”, subsequently announced that he’s ending his cooperation with RT and Sputnik in order to avoid possible legal trouble.
He can’t be faulted for that decision since it’s understandable that folks feel intimidated by what just happened, and others will likely follow his lead as well, thus depriving those top Alt-Media platforms of their American guests who’ve shared valuable insight on current affairs. Considering the US’ extraterritorial reach, some Europeans might also fear persecution if they continue cooperating with those two, which could make it even more difficult than it already is for them to find Western guests.
The two direct consequences of the latest Russiagate scandal are therefore that the quality of those Russian companies’ information products might take a hit while those conservatives whose work was licensed to the company at the center of the FBI’s investigation are now branded with a scarlet letter. The indirect consequence is the most meaningful though and it’s that the narrative of Russia “meddling” in support of Trump has now been revived with gusto.
Considering this, it’s likely that the Democrats’ newfound attacks against Jill Stein will focus more on her supposedly being a “Russian agent” or at least a “useful idiot” in this latest alleged “meddling” operation, with the intent being to maximally fearmonger about Trump’s potential return to power. That party and their allies in the US’ permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”) hate that he promised to end NATO’s proxy war on Russia through Ukraine if he’s elected.
That conflict advances their ideological interests and has also been very profitable for those who’ve invested in associated military-industrial stocks so they want to perpetuate it at all costs. Some of them also strongly disagree with Trump’s proposed conservative-nationalist policies on the home front and are thus relying on this latest Russiagate scandal to discredit them as well. If this doesn’t keep him out of office, then it might influence him into abandoning these pledges, or at least his foreign policy ones.
Whatever the outcome of the elections may be, some Americans might no longer feel comfortable living in the US after the “deep state” de facto criminalized the First Amendment in certain political contexts. Those folks might therefore seriously consider moving to Russia after it reformed its migration policies to facilitate their emigration. As for those who stay, they risk political persecution depending on the views they express and the platforms that share them, so they might be coerced into self-censoring.
