In the days since the U.S. raid in Venezuela, a network of Russian propaganda websites has been promoting a message that countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia should stop buying American military hardware, according to a firm that tracks the online activities.
The websites, known as “Portal Kombat,” have also said that the U.S. seizure of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, shows that the United States is unreliable and dangerous.
An analysis by Alethea, a company that tracks influence operations, found that articles published by Sputnik, a media outlet controlled by the Russian state, were quickly amplified and promoted by the larger network of websites used by Russian security services to attack the West.
The U.S. military operation in Venezuela on Saturday was a demonstration of the effectiveness of American military weaponry, and the weakness of Russian defenses. U.S. F-35 aircraft were used to take out Russian-made air defense batteries.
Lisa Kaplan, the chief executive of Alethea, said Russia invented the concept of information campaigns and had trained how to use them effectively to muddy facts, in this case to try to undermine the post-raid perception of the strength of American military equipment and the weakness of Russian weaponry.
“It’s an example of how if you can’t beat America on the battlefield, beat them in the information space,” Ms. Kaplan said. “Sowing doubt about American defense suppliers is a key way to weaken the U.S.”
FilterLabs, another firm that monitors online discussion, also tracked increased Russian activity in Venezuela, as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok accounts that have pushed Moscow’s narratives in the past immediately criticized the operation and echoed statements from Russian diplomats.
On one level, the language promoted by Russian diplomats and Moscow’s network of allied social media influences was hardly surprising. The accounts, Russian officials and media aligned with the Venezuelan government have referred to the seizure of Mr. Maduro as a kidnapping and described the U.S. operation as military aggression and banditry.
But Jonathan Teubner, the chief executive of FilterLabs, said cross-posted social media messaging suggested coordinated dissemination — a sign of a likely Russian influence operation.
“The Russian interests are aligned with the U.S. getting bogged down in Venezuela,” Mr. Teubner said. “What you don’t see is a coordinated campaign with a clear strategic objective. Instead this is a disruptive campaign, the standard type of campaign Russia has traditionally done.”
Russia and Venezuela have had a close diplomatic relationship, and Venezuela has traded its oil with Russia. Russia also provided some of the air defense weaponry used by Venezuela, weaponry that failed to protect against the U.S. operation.
Moscow is keen to retain its ties to Venezuela, even as the Trump administration demands that the Venezuelan government resist showing animosity toward the United States and make a deal to allow American companies to extract its oil.
Russia has been targeting the American defense industry for a while. In April, the Portal Kombat network coordinated a campaign to spread rumors that American allies would not have control over fighter planes they purchased.
That campaign was mostly focused on the F-35. But Kayla Ryan, a spokeswoman for Alethea, said the new campaign was a much broader attack on the American defense industry to persuade allies around the world to not purchase U.S. weaponry.
“Russian influence operations are promoting the narrative that in order to punish the U.S. for the raid on Venezuela, global customers should stop buying U.S. arms,” Ms. Ryan said. “The broader goal of this narrative is to encourage sales of their own weapons and portray the U.S. as an unreliable ally.”
Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.
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