Far-Right Media Outlet Linked to Secret Russian Influence Campaign Produced 50+ Videos Focused on Canada

The far-right media outlet at the centre of a US Department of Justice indictment over an alleged foreign influence campaign involving covert funding from Russia also produced dozens and dozens of videos this year focused on Canada.

The federal indictment alleges two employees of the Russian state-owned media outlet RT violated the US Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspired to commit money laundering by covertly funding and directing a media outlet featuring high-profile far-right influencers.

The indictment focuses on a far-right media outlet based in Tennessee describing itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues” – American media outlets have since independently confirmed the outlet is Tenet Media.

Two RT Employees Indicted for Covertly Funding and Directing U.S. Company that Published Thousands of Videos in Furtherance of Russian Interests

🔗: https://t.co/UfRPQO9QEz pic.twitter.com/2OUJXwRqlH

— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) September 4, 2024

Tenet Media was founded by a Canadian right-wing social media influencer named Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovon.

The indictment alleges RT directed nearly $10 million to Chen and Donovon through Tenet Media and a separate Canadian company controlled by the couple. Canadian corporate records list Chen and Donovon as directors of “Roaming Millennial Inc.” which is registered at a residential address in an affluent neighbourhood in Hudson, Québec, a leafy suburb of Montréal.

The US Department of Justice alleges RT, formerly known as “Russia Today,” set-up a network of “covert projects” after the Russian state-run outlet was sanctioned following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. While it suggests this was designed to “amplify domestic divisions” and “manipulate American public opinion,” Tenet Media has also devoted significant time and energy on Canadian topics.

Tenet Media’s YouTube channel, which counted 316,000 subscribers, went offline Thursday afternoon, nearly a day after the indictment was announced.

However, an analysis of Tenet Media YouTube content preserved by PressProgress prior to its takedown has identified at least 51 videos focused on topics relating to Canada, including videos focused on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other hot button right-wing culture war topics.

Tenet Media (YouTube)

According to metrics displayed on the video platforms YouTube and Rumble, the Canadian-themed videos allegedly funded and directed by individuals based in Russia, have been viewed half-a-million times.

At least 51 videos about Canada posted on YouTube have been viewed approximately 434,500 times while 17 videos about Canada posted on Rumble were viewed approximately 64,250 times.

Tenet Media (Rumble)

The majority of videos on Canadian topics were produced by Lauren Southern, a highly controversial alt-right influencer originally from Langley, British Columbia who has previously worked for Rebel Media and later separately produced videos with prominent European far-right figures.

In 2018, Southern traveled to Russia and created a series of videos with Alexander Dugin, a Russian neo-fascist philosopher who is considered an influential ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Southern’s Dugin video series partner, influencer Brittany Pettibone, is the spouse of Austrian fascist activist Martin Sellner, who was at the centre of a major scandal in Germany after he was recorded outlining a mass deportation plan to politicians with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party at a secret meeting in Potsdam, prompting massive anti-AfD street protests earlier this year.

Lauren Southern (Twitter)

Southern’s Tenet Media Canadian-themed videos touch on a wide range of hot button issues, including immigration, crime, “anti-white” sentiment, anti-LGBTQ+ paranoia, residential school unmarked graves, as well as inflation and the housing crisis.

The subtext of many videos suggest Canada is on the brink of chaos or the impending collapse of the social order, including videos with headlines like “Canada has fallen,” “Impending civil unrest in Canada?” “Economic revolts imminent?” and “Is a Muslim majority in Canada’s future?”

One video, titled “Canada is becoming a communist hellhole,” features Southern interviewing Katrina Panova, a convoy influencer and contributor to the Canadian far-right media outlet “The Counter Signal” who operates under the pseudonym “Kat Kanada.”

The video features “Kat Kanada” comparing Canada under Justin Trudeau to her childhood growing up in the former Soviet Union (Panova says she was originally born in Moldova).

Panova did not respond to a request for comment from PressProgress.

In July, Tenet Media released a xenophobic 30 minute documentary-style video about international students in Prince Edward Island featuring Southern and Harrison Faulkner, a personality with the Canadian right-wing website True North.

The video insinuates the international students have “gamed Canada’s immigration system” and “don’t really care about Prince Edward Island.”

The video was released a week before Faulkner appeared in a now-deleted video on True North with Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes – the Proud Boys are legally designated as a terrorist entity under Canadian law.

In a statement to PressProgress, True North Editor-in-Chief Candice Malcolm did not specifically address questions about whether her outlet took any steps out of due diligence to look into who was behind Tenet Media before authorizing their employee to appear, but instead strongly denied “True North is somehow affiliated with or influenced by Russia.”

“I have never heard of Tenet Media before,” Malcolm told PressProgress, noting she is “barely on my computer and am not following the news very closely” due to her four children. “True North has nothing to do with Tenet and nothing to do with Russian conspiracies or funding.”

“Harrison appearing as a guest on a podcast does not link my organization to Tenet or Russia,” Malcolm said, adding “I cannot speak for Harrison, but my understanding is that even the people working for Tenet were unaware of its Russian connections.”

Malcolm noted she’s “not a fan of Lauren Chen,” adding: “Never have been.”

Other videos also attempt to build bridges between far-right influencers in North America and Europe.

In a Tenet Media video titled “The Great Replacement: Can we finally talk about it?” Southern praises Dutch far-right influencer Eva Vlaardingerbroek for a speech about the “great replacement” she delivered at a CPAC conference in Hungary sponsored by Victor Orban’s government.

The “Great Replacement” is a racist conspiracy theory that is popular among the European far-right and has been cited by white nationalist terrorists, including the perpetrators of massacres in Utøya, Norway in 2011 and Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019, which claims the white population is being deliberately replaced by non-white immigrants.

“God bless Eva for her bravery standing up there,” Southern said of Vlaardingerbroek’s great replacement theory speech. “I look forward to that Overton window pushing more and more into these conversations we need to be having.”

Tenet Media (Rumble)

Vlaardingerbroek has past ties with the Forum voor Democratie, an ultra-right party in the Netherlands that is viewed as more extreme than Geert Wilders’ Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV).

Last year, Vlaardingerbroek joined Christine Anderson, an EU politician with Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party on a cross-country speaking tour of Canada.

In Ottawa, Vlaardingerbroek and Anderson met with a number of key Freedom Convoy figures.

Chris Dacey (Facebook)

 Southern also produced a documentary for the allegedly Russian-funded outlet called “Pipeline Wars” which attempts to discredit protests in British Columbia relating to Indigenous land disputes in Wet’suwet’en “eco-terrorists” and “antifa.”

One tweet from the outlet’s account was amplified by X dot com owner Elon Musk.

Here’s Elon Musk amplifying what was allegedly, according to the DOJ indictment, Russian-funded media.

Bit ironic that the doc claims to be exposing “dark money” lmao pic.twitter.com/rcSnwJUwNL

— Rachel Gilmore (@atRachelGilmore) September 5, 2024

While the indictment cites digital forensic evidence showing the two RT employees based in Moscow were directly involved in producing content that appeared on Tenet Media’s website, it also suggests they used pseudonyms and took steps to conceal their identities from the on-air talent – though Tenet Media’s owners appeared to know they were receiving millions of dollars from “Russians.”

Two of Tenet Media’s high-profile personalities, each of whom were being paid millions of dollars, issued statements Wednesday claiming they were “victims” and “deceived.”

On Thursday, Lauren Chen, the owner of Tenet Media, was fired by The Blaze, another outlet run by US right-wing personality Glenn Beck.