REPORT (FP) All the Kremlin’s Trolls How Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put Moscow’s worldwide influence operations to the test.

 REPORT  (FP)

All the Kremlin’s Trolls

How Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put Moscow’s worldwide influence operations to the test.

By Amy Mackinnon, a national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy. FP subscribers can now receive alerts when new stories written by this author are published. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin applauds as he hosts Russia's medal-winning athletes of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games and members of the country's Paralympic team at the Kremlin in Moscow on April 26. NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

NOVEMBER 18, 2022, 12:01 PM

In the summer of 2018, a little-known Russian journalist arrived in Washington with a bold plan to test the limits of U.S. freedom of speech. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Moscow’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was in full swing, and the media pulsated with stories of alleged Russian spies, collusion, and plots to undermine U.S. democracy.

Alexander Malkevich was the latest emissary of Russia’s hopes for poisoning U.S. political discourse, this time using a news site called USA Really, tied to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the wealthy ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin behind the infamous social media “troll factory” and sponsor of the mercenary outfit Wagner Group. Unlike previous Russian influence efforts, Malkevich spoke openly about his plans, which included opening an office a block from the White House. “I want to make this media interesting and very much involved in the everyday life of Americans,” he told Foreign Policy in an interview at the time. “And maybe, in some years I can be a Pulitzer Prize winner.”

His lofty ambitions were short-lived. Malkevich was ejected from his office—a WeWork—just hours after he arrived. Facebook shuttered the publication’s page within a day of its launch, and his attempts to hold a protest in front of the White House sputtered out. After being sanctioned by the Treasury Department later that same year, his days of headline-grabbing sojourns to the United States were over.

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