How some of the biggest right-wing media stars ended up as unwitting puppets of Russian propaganda | CNN Business

Court documents unsealed Wednesday reveal Russian state media producers funneled nearly $10 million to an online media company.

The company, Tenet Media , boasts a slate of high-profile right-wing commentators as “talent,” including Tim Pool , Benny Johnson , Lauren Southern , Tayler Hansen , Matt Christiansen and Dave Rubin .

The personalities weren’t directly named or accused of wrongdoing by the Justice Department .

Russian funders asked Tenet co-founder to “blame Ukraine and the United States ” for a terrorist attack on a concert hall outside of Moscow .

Tenet staffers were asked to repost a video of “a well-known U.S. political commentator” thought to be former Fox News host Tucker Carlson visiting a grocery store in Russia in February .

“It just feels like overt shilling,” one employee identified as “Producer-1” wrote in an internal chat to one of the company’s founders.

Tenet Media has not responded to requests for comment and stopped posting content on Wednesday .

Russia has a long history of tapping Americans as part of influence operations aimed at stoking divisions in the US .

In Soviet Cold War jargon, they’re referred to “useful idiots” — people who don’t know they are doing Russia ’s bidding.