The US State Division is providing a reward of as much as $10 million for data resulting in any international individual or entity participating in election interference, it stated simply weeks earlier than Individuals choose their subsequent president.
An announcement from the division’s Rewards for Justice program particularly singled out Russian media group Rybar LLC, which it stated used social media to “sow discord, promote social division, stoke partisan and racial discord, and encourage hate and violence in the USA.”
There was no instant response from Rybar or Russian authorities.
The State Division stated Rybar had established a channel on the X platform known as “TexasvsUSA,” and used it forward of the US election to take advantage of the difficulty of undocumented immigrants crossing the Texas border.
It stated Rybar additionally used social media channels #HOLDTHELINE and #STANDWTHTEXAS to unfold pro-Russian propaganda.
Rybar, it asserted, receives funding from Russian protection industrial group Rostec, which the US Treasury Division imposed sanctions in opposition to in 2022.
“Rybar depends on the connections and funding from Rostec to bolster Russia’s army capabilities and advance pro-Russian and anti-Western narratives,” the announcement stated.
It inspired anybody with related information—notably concerning 9 named people it stated helped perform Rybar’s “malign affect operations” over the US election—to contact the Rewards for Justice tipline.
Rybar operates a channel on the Telegram platform that’s fashionable among the many pro-Ukraine-war hardliners of Russia’s “Z neighborhood”—with 1.3 million followers.
It was co-founded by Mikhail Zvinchuk, a onetime member of Russia’s spetsnaz particular forces and former Protection Ministry worker, who has been below European Union sanctions since June 2023.
Providing day by day studies on battlefield developments in Ukraine, he has change into one of the crucial well-known and influential Russian army bloggers.
In April 2024, Zvinchuk introduced the opening of a “Rybar Media College” in Serbia, saying on Telegram: “Now we have lengthy studied the West’s approaches to waging data warfare in opposition to us.
“Now could be the second to use our information and educate our associates the proper approaches,” he stated, including that this was “only the start” of this propaganda technique in Western nations.
