It’s 2016 déjà vu all over again, with federal prosecutors bringing indictments against Russian operatives who allegedly are seeking to influence the outcome of the 2024 election. However, this set of initiatives is quite different than the shadowy confabs that Russian spooks purportedly held with senior officials of Trump's first campaign; now, the new charges claim, the Russian government is directly setting up shop in the chaos-prone US mediasphere to generate support for its own preferred policy aims, and to sow suspicion of Russia’s critics.

The Department of Justice laid out its charges in an affidavit and an indictment. (A separate pair of indictments appeared the following day, charging former 2016 Trump campaign official Dimitri Simes and his wife, Anastasia, with a million-dollar money-laundering scheme for sanctioned Russian broadcaster Channel One.) The affidavit targeted an initiative called Doppelganger, allegedly headed up by Vladimer Putin’s domestic policy chief Sergei Vladelenovich Kireyenko, that created a network of websites disguised as well-recognized American news brands packaging Russian propaganda as straight news reports.

One such offering appeared on a spoofed Washington Post site under the headline “White House Miscalculated: Conflict With Ukraine Strengthens Russia,” and reads in part, “It is time for our leaders to recognize that continued support for Ukraine is a mistake. It was a waste of lives and money, and to claim otherwise means further destruction.” The affidavit says that the United States has seized and shut down 32 such sites launched by the Doppelganger team.