Russian interference in Argentina and a sad fact that should give some people pause for thought

In the last few hours, a political storm has erupted in Argentina in relation to a Russian disinformation campaign in that country.

A very revealing few hours about principles, patriotism and sovereignty
Patriots advocating surrender: a great success for the enemies of the West

A Russian intelligence campaign to fund attacks against Milei in the media

On Thursday, April 2, a consortium of media outlets from several countries revealed a Russian propaganda campaign in Argentina. This campaign was carried out by a Russian task force known as "The Company," initially linked to the Wagner Group and ultimately controlled by the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR. As we saw here in July 2024, the SVR creates hoaxes that are spread by pro-Russian propaganda networks in Western countries, with the aim of favoring Russia.

The aforementioned investigation has revealed 250 news, analysis and opinion articles published in more than 20 digital media outlets in Argentina between June and October 2024 and that were paid for by Russia, at a cost of no less than $283,100. The investigation states: "According to a summary of spending in August 2024, at least in that month, Argentina was by far the country where the most had been invested in propaganda and disinformation for the entire campaign by The Company in Africa and Latin America." One of the media outlets that uncovered this Russian interference points out that through this campaign Russia paid to launch media attacks against the Argentine president, Javier Milei:

At first glance, the content of the articles cited by La Compañía is unremarkable: they are generally articles that criticize various aspects of Milei's government, such as education cuts, wage reductions, and social and labor protests—the kind of material typically found in non-official Argentine media. Dozens of articles also address the tensions between Milei's government and progressive governments in the region, which is also not particularly noteworthy.

However, the exorbitant amount the Company claims to have paid is striking. Next to each article cited in the documents appears a figure between $350 and $3,100, far exceeding the average salary in Argentina, where the average journalist's salary does not surpass $700.

The Russian campaign also included the dissemination of these paid news stories through social media. The published documents reveal "fifty accounts on the social media platforms Instagram, X, and YouTube belonging to influencers and digital media outlets that appear to have received monetary contributions, as well as four payments of $4,000 each." Commenting on this Russian interference in Argentina, Javier Milei has spoken of "trash journalism" and has pointed out:

The most important thing about the case that links espionage and the planting of fake news with corrupt journalists and traitors to the homeland (which does not exempt editors and owners), is not only the fact in question, but that it shows what kind of stuff the vast majority of "journalists" and "media" are made of.

The part of the investigation that should make Milei reflect

Certainly, Javier Milei has reason to be outraged by this Russian interference and should act accordingly, not only against the media outlets that published these Russian-funded stories, but also against the dictatorship that paid for them. Furthermore, Milei should also reflect deeply on what one of the media outlets that published this investigation points out:

In the case of Argentina, documents show that in April 2024, the Company launched a six-month media and political campaign to discredit the government of Javier Milei. At that time, the relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was present at Milei's inauguration, was key to his foreign policy. The Argentine president strictly followed the guidelines of the United States, which was then governed by Joe Biden and was firmly aligned with Kyiv in the war against Russia. After Donald Trump took office in January 2025, the United States distanced itself from Ukraine, and Argentina followed suit. The Russian disinformation campaign in Argentina then lost its primary objective and was discontinued.

In other words, the Russian campaign in Argentina ceased because Milei did exactly what the Kremlin wanted: stop supporting Ukraine. He did so by abstaining in a UN vote on a proposed resolution demanding that Russia withdraw "immediately, completely and unconditionally all its military forces" from Ukraine. The Kremlin itself welcomed Milei's change of position, as we can see in a news item published by Sputnik, one of the Kremlin's propaganda outlets, on February 26, 2025:

In a sudden shift in its stance on the conflict in Ukraine, Buenos Aires decided not to support the initiative presented by Kyiv at the United Nations General Assembly demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops. "His main objective is to gain Trump's approval, and they will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal," an expert told Sputnik.

A reflection that should also be made within the Spanish right

Unfortunately, this didn't only happen in Argentina: the phenomenon occurred on the right in other countries as well. On February 19, 2025, I spoke here about the case of Spain. Where we once saw messages of support for Ukraine and solemn declarations in defense of national sovereignty, then we began to see patriots advocating surrender, something purely surreal, and I am being very generous and benevolent with the adjective. On March 2, 2025 I already warned here that what we were seeing was a great success of Russian propaganda and a textbook psychological warfare operation.

The scandal of Russian interference in Argentina demonstrates that Russia has paid large sums of money to carry out disinformation campaigns in the West, something that should also be investigated in Spain. But this is not done, perhaps because among the parties that most favor Russia in Spain are several allies of Pedro Sánchez's government, which explains, for example, its eagerness to erase the Russian plot of the 2017 separatist coup in Catalonia.

Aside from that, and as I've been denouncing for a year now, Trump's shift regarding Russia has had regrettable consequences for much of the right wing, revealing the weakness of some principles that seemed very solid and clearly favoring the interests of Putin's dictatorship. This should also give some people pause for thought, and not only in Argentina.