WASHINGTON — Russia has long sought to inject disinformation into American political discourse. Now it has a new angle: paying Americans to do the job.

This year’s indictment of two Russian state media employees, who were accused of paying a Tennessee company to produce pro-Russian content, has revived fears of foreign interference in November’s election, while revealing the Kremlin’s latest tactic in its escalating information war.

If the accusations prove true, they would represent a significant escalation, analysts say, and would likely be just a small part of a broader effort by Russia to influence the election outcome.

“We’ve seen smoke for years. Now it’s fire,” said Jim Ludes, a former national defense analyst who now directs the Pell Center for International Relations at Salve Regina University. “I don’t wonder if they’re doing this more often. I have no doubt.”

According to prosecutors, two employees of RT, the Russian channel formerly known as Russia Today, transferred $10 million to a U.S. media company, which then paid several popular right-wing influencers for their content — in one case, $400,000 a month. Two of the influencers said they had no idea their work was being backed by Russia.

Intelligence officials and private analysts say the aim of Russia’s disinformation campaigns is to cut off U.S. aid to Ukraine, paving the way for a quick Russian victory after more than two years of bitter conflict.

In the presidential race, Russia is backing Donald Trump as the candidate seen as least supportive of Ukraine, intelligence officials say. Trump has openly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested cutting funding to Ukraine and repeatedly criticized the NATO military alliance. On Thursday, Putin ironically said he was rooting for Vice President Kamala Harris to win.

A secondary goal of Russian disinformation, officials say, is to increase political polarization and distrust as a way to undermine American confidence in democracy.

This summer, intelligence officials warned that Russia was using unwitting Americans to spread its propaganda, tailoring it to existing social debates in the U.S. Rather than creating new conflicts, Russia has succeeded by identifying and exaggerating existing divisions, tailoring its disinformation accordingly. When successful, Russia can make Americans spread its arguments for free, without even knowing its source.

When a train derailment in Ohio caused massive environmental damage last year, Russian voices tried to steer the debate with anti-government posts that were quickly reposted by American users. Some American websites picked up the Russian propaganda and republished it without attribution.

Earlier this year, Russian state media and networks of fake accounts began spreading claims about immigration on platforms used by Americans.

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Russian state media claimed without evidence that the virus was the product of American biological weapons experiments and that the U.S. maintained biological labs in Ukraine. English-language posts soon began appearing on American social media.

Four years later, the conspiracy theory still resonates on far-right discussion forums.

“What if Covid was created in a Ukrainian bio lab and the war was about keeping it a secret?” someone wrote last week on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

The company hired by RT was identified as Tenet Media by two right-wing content creators it paid — Tim Poole and Benny Johnson. Both men said on social media Wednesday that they knew nothing about Tenet’s dealings with RT and that if the allegations are true, they are the victims.

Pool wrote that no one told him what to say on the podcast and condemned Russia: “Putin is a scoundrel.”

Pool, however, has a long history of expressing pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian views, as well as conspiracy theories about Democrats and American democracy.

In one podcast, he said that “criminal elements” in the U.S. government are driving the war against Russia and that the real enemy is Ukraine.

“Ukraine is our enemy, funded by Democrats,” Pool said. “Ukraine is the greatest threat to this nation and to the world. We should withdraw all funding and financing, withdraw all military support and apologize to Russia.”

Trump told Truth Social that the case amounts to “election interference” by federal prosecutors who, he said, are “resurrecting the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax and trying to say that Russia is trying to help me, which is absolutely not true,” and he wrote the last word in capital letters.

Trump’s comments referenced concerns about Russian interference in the 2016 election, when Kremlin-linked groups used social media and paid ads on Facebook and other platforms to support Trump. Russia also sought to help Trump in the 2020 election.

China and Iran have mounted their own campaigns to use social media to shape American views. Iran has secretly supported anti-Gaza war protests and was recently accused of trying to hack into the campaign systems of Trump and Harris, his Democratic opponent.

However, intelligence officials maintain that Russia remains the biggest threat.

In a briefing with reporters last month, an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Russia was increasingly trying to cover its tracks, “outsourcing its efforts to commercial companies to hide its hands and laundering narratives through influential voices in the United States.” The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Russian officials have repeatedly boasted about their ability to shape American views despite the efforts of the U.S. government. RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, who was sanctioned for her ties to the Russian government, has detailed how Moscow tries to hide its fingerprints from American intelligence.

“We’re creating a lot of sources of information that are not connected to us,” Simonyan recently told a Russian talk show. “While the CIA is trying to figure out that they’re connected to us, they already have a huge audience. So we’re chasing each other. It’s really fun.”

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Associated Press writer Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.