RT AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD MONTH: The Russian propaganda arm RT (formerly known as Russia Today) is not having a very good September. On Friday, the United States announced new sanctions against Russian state media. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of using state-funded outlets to push propaganda around the world. On Monday, Meta, the outfit that runs Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram revealed that they are giving RT and other Kremlin-run propaganda organizations the heave ho from their platforms because of RT’s ongoing efforts to interfere in U.S. elections. In announcing their decision Meta said that “After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets: Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity.” Dmitry Peskov, a Putin spokesman, declared Meta’s move “unacceptable” and said, “We have an extremely negative attitude towards this.” Meanwhile, thanks to Russia Media Monitor Julia Davis, we have clips of RT head Margarita Simonyan saying that her “media empire” is guilty as charged. “We did it, we’re doing it and we will keep on doing it,” she proclaimed. But it’s not only RT that’s working to spread Russian propaganda. Davis also pointed out that a meme mocking Ukrainian President Zelensky (that was reposted by Elon Musk) was apparently created by Russia’s “Social Design Agency.” Way to go, Elon.
ALL IN THE FAMILY: We also learned from Julia Davis, that RT Chief Simonyan’s husband, Tigram Keosaysan, appeared on Vladimir Solovyov’s state TV program to argue that if Ukraine gets permission from the West to conduct long-range missile strikes into Russia – it would not be all that big of a deal. Which made us wonder: Are the propagandists lowering the angst level on the home front just in case? If so, nobody informed Solovyov, who appeared to conflate any missile launched from Ukraine as being launched by NATO and he insisted that Russia should respond with a nuclear attack. (We kinda think the global media landscape would be a lot better off if Russia would just keep it’s propaganda at home – where it’s clearly doing well.)
ALL IN THE FAKE FAMILY: The Wall Street Journal published a lengthy story based on new details about two Russian illegals who were part of last month’s big prisoner swap between Washington and Moscow. Russian citizens Artem and Anna Dultsev had been living abroad pretending to be Argentinians and were living in Slovenia when they were arrested and jailed in late 2022. The paper reported that the couple’s two children (9 and 11 years old) did not know that mom and dad were Russian - or spies. And apparently no one told them during the nearly two years that they lived with a foster family while their parents were in prison. According to the WSJ, on an airplane while the prisoner swap was underway, the Dultsev’s pleaded with their Slovenian minders not to call them by their real names until the couple could break the news to their kids. Another interesting nugget in the piece is that the kid’s care during the parental imprisonment was apparently overseen by the head of the Slovenian spy agency. Those kids are gonna turn out just fine, eh?
WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND: The CIA’s Langley Files podcast had a fascinating three-part story recently about a guy they simply called “Kevin” – who had been a naval officer serving aboard a destroyer in 1998 and participated in firing Tomahawk cruise missiles at Khost, Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden was believed to be hiding out after the bombing of U.S. embassies in East Africa. Three years later, Kevin was serving in a Navy command center in the Pentagon on 9/11/01. Everyone around him was killed but he was saved by Army Sergeant First Class Steve Workman. Kevin’s road to recovery was incredibly hard – he was so terribly burned that he flat lined twice in the hospital. But eventually he recovered and after being medically retired from the Navy, he talked his way onto the staff of the Congressional 9/11 Commission. But that wasn’t quite enough so he also became a targeting officer at the CIA and was among those who helped find Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan – which is of course there U.S. Navy SEALs delivered justice the American way. Martha Raddatz talked with ‘Kevin’ about his own long journey to justice for ABC News.
BOOKS ON THE HORIZON: James Bamford, who made his name over 40 years ago by writing The Puzzle Palace(about the National Security Agency) is reportedly shifting his gaze and has landed a deal to write The Coldest War: The US, Russia, China, and the Battle for the North and South Poles. It will reportedly be about espionage efforts of the major powers to access the frozen assets at the ends of the world. No word on when the book will be out. And moving into Bamford’s old turf is Timothy Edgar, a Brown University professor who has inked a deal with W.W. Norton to write a book called Intercepted which is said to be a history of American signals intelligence. We, however, have not yet intercepted a planned publication date.
SHAMELESS (SELF-PROMOTION): What’s happening behind-the-scenes at The Cipher Brief:
MASTERCLASS IN NATIONAL SECURITY: We’re now just weeks away from The Cipher Brief Threat Conference, which has quickly (if you call over eight years ‘quickly’) become one of the country’s premiere national security conferences (says us). Leading the list of speakers this year is CIA Director Bill Burns. Other former CIA Directors including General David Petraeus (Ret.) and General Michael Hayden (who also served as head of NSA) will also be there. We hear that one of the sessions (that haven’t been publicly announced yet) will simply be called ‘The Station Chiefs’. But the real secret of this gathering is the leading list of experts from the private sector who come to talk about how technology is changing the future of both national security and espionage. So, if you want a masterclass in national security, this is the place to be October 5-8. And if you’re working for an organization that’s leading the way in dual-use technologies in particular, it might just cost you more not to be there (cause we’re pretty sure your competition will be). That’s our own recruitment pitch and we’re sticking to it.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
UNDERCOVER MISSION: Remember all the way back to last week, when we mentioned that Linda Sun, a former aide to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and current Governor Kathy Hocul, had been arrested on charges of spying for China? Inevitably juicy new details trickle out in cases like this. But The New York Post reported some that were a little shocking including that just four months ago, Sun visited Washington, D.C. and got a tour of the White House that had been arranged by another politician she had previously worked for, Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY.) It didn’t require clandestine investigations to find this out, however, since Ms. Sun posted reports of the trip on her Facebook page. But wait – there’s more. In addition to visiting the White House – she also spent time at the International Spy Museum. In her Facebook post, Sun included a photo of what appears to be a ticket to the venue with the words “Undercover Mission” on it. Now, that’s what we call hiding in plain sight!
HOW ABOUT SNEAKING US SOME TIPS ON FUN STUFF YOU HAVE COME ACROSS. YEAH, THAT’S THE TICKET. SEND THEM TO: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com
Read more expert-driven national security insights, perspective and analysis in The Cipher Brief
