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WASHINGTON — US intelligence officials on Tuesday accused a conservative financial news site with a significant American readership of amplifying Kremlin propaganda, and claimed that five media outlets targeting Ukrainians had received instructions from Russian spies.

Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, posted articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by organizations and people unaware of their links to Russian intelligence, officials said. Authorities did not say whether Zero Hedge knew of any links to spy agencies and did not claim any direct links between the website and the website. Russia.

Zero Hedge denied the allegations and said it was trying to “publish a broad spectrum of views that cover both sides of a given story.” In a response posted online Tuesday morning, the website said it “never worked, collaborated or cooperated.” Russianor any ties to spy agencies.”

Authorities briefed the Associated Press about the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence sources. It was the latest effort by President Joe Biden’s administration to publish US intelligence findings on Russian activities involving Ukraine as part of a concerted effort to expose and influence the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. US officials have previously accused Putin of planning a “false flag” operation to create a pretext for a new invasion of Ukraine, detailing what they believe is Russia’s final stage preparations for an attack.

It is unclear whether US efforts have changed Putin’s behavior. And without providing further evidence for its findings, Washington has been criticized and reminded of past intelligence failures, such as the rebutted claims that pre-war Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Zero Hedge harshly criticized Biden and published stories about his son Hunter’s allegations of malfeasance. While perhaps best known for covering markets and finance, the website also covers politics with a conservative leaning.

In its online response, the website accused the AP of releasing a “weird hit” and said government officials were trying to distract from “our view of the current dismal US economic situation”.

As a result, these kind of blunt accusations that we somehow work together for the Kremlin or that we make for the Kremlin are nothing new: We have faced similar allegations over and over the years, and we can certainly confirm that they are all ‘mistakes’,” he said. aforementioned.

In recent months, Zero Hedge has published numerous articles accusing the United States of fomenting panic about Ukraine, which faces the possibility of an invasion by more than 130,000 Russian troops gathered across the country. Some of these articles are listed as written by people affiliated with the Strategic Culture Foundation.

The Biden administration imposed sanctions last year for allegedly joining the foundation. Russiainterference in the 2020 US election. US intelligence officials claim that the foundation’s leaders eventually received instructions from the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR.

Recent articles written by the Foundation and published by Zero Hedge include: Russia In Ukraine,” “Americans Need a Conspiracy Theory All Can Agree on,” and “Theatre of Bullshit… Pentagon Asks Russia to Explain Troops on Russian Soil.”

In an email sent before its online response, the website said, “This is the first time we’ve heard of anyone claiming that there is no relationship between the Strategic Culture Foundation (or SVR) and Zero Hedge, and also that the Foundation is linked to Russian propaganda. ”

“They are one of our hundreds of contributors – unlike Mainstream Media, we try to publish a broad spectrum of views that covers both sides of a given story,” the website said.

Disinformation has long been used by Putin against enemies, including the United States, and as a tool to accompany cyber-attacks and the movement of military forces in regional conflicts. Washington and Kiev have been highlighting Russian influence in the Ukrainian media for months.

Intelligence officials on Monday named two websites they said were run by the Strategic Culture Foundation. Three other websites allegedly linked to the FSB, Russiafederal security service. Their website did not respond to requests for comment emailed Tuesday.

“These sites enable the Russian government to build support between the Russian and Ukrainian peoples,” said one official. “This is the primary vector of how the Russian government will increase domestic support for an invasion of Ukraine.”

Authorities said it was the first time they described direct communication between Russian spies and editors or managers of media outlets. They didn’t release their contact log.

US officials alleged that FSB officials directed NewsFront chief Konstantin Knyrik to write stories that specifically damaged Ukraine’s image. They said Knyrik had been praised for his work by senior FSB officers and requested derogatory information that he could use against the Caucasian Knot, a website covering news from the Caucasus. Russia continued conflicts with smaller neighbours.

An official said the editor of PolitNavigator sent reports of published articles to the FSB. And allegedly, Antifashist’s editor-in-chief was directed at least once by the FSB to delete material from the site.

He is accused of controlling the websites of the Strategic Culture Foundation, Odna Rodyna and Fondsk. Authorities claimed that the foundation’s director, Vladimir Maximenko, has met with SVR handlers multiple times since 2014.

Bret Schafer, a senior member of the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance to Secure Democracy, noted that many of the sites have small social media followers and may not seem effective at first glance. But lies or propaganda narratives often start small before they’re scaled up by larger actors, he said.

“You see the narrative getting into the domain of knowledge and it’s very difficult to see where it goes from there,” he said.

A manifesto posted on Zero Hedge’s site advocates the use of anonymous authors and declares that its aim is to “liberate oppressed knowledge.” Many articles were published under the name of Tyler Durden, who also appeared in the movie “Fight Club”.

The website was an early promoter of conspiracy theories and misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. An Associated Press study determined that the site played a pivotal role in promoting the unproven theory that China engineered the virus as a biological weapon. He has also published articles suggesting natural immunity and unproven treatments against COVID-19.

Zero Hedge was also cited in a recent report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which examines how far-right extremists are leveraging COVID-19 misinformation to expand their reach. Twitter briefly suspended Zero Hedge’s account in 2020, but reinstated the account a few months later, saying it “made a mistake in our enforcement action in this case.”

Schafer said the move by the US to name the website could inform some people who come across its content online.

“My guess is that most people who are loyal Zero Hedge followers naturally tend to distrust the US government,” he said, “so this announcement probably won’t undermine much of Zero Hedge’s core support.”

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Associated Press reporters Angela Charlton from Paris and David Klepper of Providence, Rhode Island contributed to this report.