Same Schmitz, Different Day

Key Findings

• Suspected Russian actors are engaged in a renewed effort to target far-right audiences in the U.S. with politically divisive messaging ahead of the November midterm elections.
• This includes direct attempts to undermine support for Democratic candidates in Pennsylvania, Georgia, New York, and Ohio. Other narratives promoted by the network comprise inflammatory messaging about sensitive cultural and political issues, as well as criticism of President Joe Biden.
• These narratives are primarily advanced via a series of political cartoons, which we assess were likely created by the actors and are almost certainly intended to go viral. Similar cartoons disseminated by this campaign have previously achieved significant levels of engagement from authentic online communities.
• Assets in the network have, for the first time, promoted entities publicly linked to Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, supporting our attribution of this campaign to actors associated with past activity of Russia’s Internet Research Agency.
• This latest, midterms-focused phase of the campaign has so far achieved minimal traction online. We are publicly sharing limited content samples and our recent observations about TTPs to raise awareness of the activity and its origins.