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State Department offers $10m bounty for information ‘leading to the identification or location’ of Rybar and its employees
A Russian blogger with ties by the country’s defence industry is behind a string of pro-Republican social media channels, the US government has said.
Rybar – better known for its pro-Kremlin coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – is using the channels to sow discord and stoke racial tensions in an attempt to sway the US election, Washington claims.
The State Department is offering a $10 million bounty for information “leading to the identification or location” of the media outlet and its employees.
Rybar has over one million subscribers on Telegram, the instant messaging and social media platform.
The military blog was once funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the late Russian warlord behind the notorious Wagner Group of mercenaries.
Rostec, the state-owned defence and industrial group, which has been placed under US sanctions, is the outlet’s latest benefactor.
Rybar aims to “bolster Russia’s military capabilities and advance pro-Russian and anti-Western narratives”, the US government said, in its statement on the Rewards for Justice website.
It was said the Russian bloggers were behind two social media channels – #HOLDTHELINE and #STANDWTHTEXAS – that have been used “to promote Russian government political interests” in the US.
The hashtags are synonymous with Republican supporters, and the latter has even been shared by Undercover Billionaire star Grant Cardone, who has more than a million followers on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The US said Rybar was also managing the TEXASvsUSA account on X, which has since been suspended for violating the social media platform’s rules.
When it was active, the account was used to “promote social division, stoke partisan and racial discord, and encourage hate and violence” ahead of the presidential elections next month.
After the 2016 election, the FBI, CIA and NSA declassified intelligence assessments that said Vladimir Putin had sanctioned a campaign to sway the vote in favour of Donald Trump.
And in September, the US government said the Kremlin had spent millions of dollars in an attempt to influence the upcoming presidential election and “covertly spread Russian government propaganda”.
The US sanctioned the Russian state-funded broadcaster RT, formerly known as Russia Today, and its editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, a Kremlin propagandist, as part of the crackdown.
On social media, Rybar frequently pushes an anti-Western narrative.
False accusations about Nato’s involvement in Ukraine’s war against the Russian invasion are commonplace.
The Rewards for Justice bounty contains the names of nine people involved in the Russian blog’s campaign to sway the election, including its director Mikhail Zvinchuk.
In a video response, Zvinchuk denied Rybar was being used to influence American politics.
The Russian propagandist said he had provided the US government with his Moscow address, adding that he expects a $10 million payment via a bank transfer, using the donation button on Rybar’s website or in crypto currency.