Russian Influence And U.S. Right-Wing Extremist Groups

The January 6th insurrection shook America's democracy and was a harbinger of the chaos and discord that has characterized the second Trump administration. Two prominent extremist entities, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, were instrumental in the invasion of the capital and, allegedly, continue to undertake political violence under the auspices of ICE.[i] While the effects of social media and network dynamics on violent extremism and the insurrection have been widely studied, a granular understanding of the impact of foreign malign influence campaigns, which often occurs in tandem with online extremist discourse, remains largely unexplored.
Furthermore, linkages between US domestic extremist groups and Russian disinformation campaigns are nebulous due to problems of attribution, narrative overlap, and the perennial difficulty of measuring strategic effect. This study uses longitudinal case methodology and process tracing in order to analyze continuity and change in Russian information operations, and thus contributes to a growing corpus of literature investigating the nexus between US domestic extremist organizations and Russian disinformation within a grey-zone conflict framework.
Methodological Approach
Grey-zone warfare is defined by Carment and Belo as coercion that occurs mostly below the threshold of armed conflict and encompasses the tactical, operational, and strategic levels of warfare.[ii] The longevity of this case, its engagement with operational campaigns an...