The American authorities announced on Saturday October 19 that they were offering a bounty of $10 million for any information on the Russian blog Rybar. Why such an emergency? Washington believes that the platform is trying to destabilize the United States in the run-up to the American elections scheduled for November 5. Nine people are identified in a statement from Rewards for Justice, a counterterrorism information-gathering program under the State Department.
Among these suspects accused of having worked on “Rybar’s nefarious influence operations” is Mikhail Zvintchouk, the founder of Rybar, a popular Telegram channel close to the Russian army. On this network followed by more than 1.3 million subscribers, Russian commentators and pseudo-analysts provide information on the armed conflict in Ukraine. Note that many Russian bloggers have a large audience in Russian society, some with hundreds of thousands of subscribers on Telegram, and others more than a million.
And since October 7, 2023, experts’ eyes on Rybar have turned to the Middle East. Particularly on Israel and the Occupied Territories. Drawing on their experience in Ukraine, they are now closely scrutinizing the Hamas attack in Israel “trying, not without difficulty, to remain impartial”, report our colleagues at International mail. For its part, the BBC clearly speaks of a “propaganda channel”.
An example of what we can read on Rybar: “As the Israeli Defense Forces work to regain control over the occupied communities, the corridors and breaches in the perimeter on the border with the Gaza Strip continue to function, continually feeding the Palestinian groups which advance towards the north, east and south. Except that according to the American authorities, this blog is not limited to commenting on conflicts, but aims to “strengthen Russia’s military capabilities and advance pro-Russian and anti-Western discourse.”
A site supported by Evgueni Prigojine
To understand these accusations, we must return to the genesis of the Rybar project. Indeed, the media would have been supported from the start by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a now deceased Kremlin ally. If the boss of the Wagner group ended up becoming the enemy of Vladimir Putin, that does not prevent the Russian blog Rybar from remaining in the bosom of Moscow. “Rybar now receives funding from Rostec, the Russian national defense industrial corporation, which has been sanctioned by the United States since 2022,” the site says Bloomberg.
According to the Rewards for Justice press release, “Rybar manages the #HOLDTHELINE and #STANDWTHTEXAS propaganda channels on social media which promote the political interests of the Russian government in the United States.” Thus, Rybar’s attempts to “sow discord, arouse social divisions, stir up partisan and racial dissension and encourage hatred and violence in the United States” are also revealed. And no matter how much it costs. The US government said in September that Moscow had spent millions of dollars to influence the upcoming vote and strengthen the Kremlin’s influence by creating several dozen domains.
In a video response to the reward waved by Washington, Rybar’s director denied that his operation was being used to influence US elections. Provocatively, he even gave his registration address in Moscow: Rybar specifies that he expects the American government to pay him the bonus promised in exchange for this address, via a direct funds transfer, the donation button on its website or in cryptocurrency. The Americans did not react.