Russia’s plan for Tulsi Gabbard She is the ideal weapon in Putin's propaganda war

Naturally, Gabbard has become the subject of bipartisan opprobrium. Her unfounded assertion that Joe Biden’s government was covertly funding a series of secret biolabs stuffed with deadly pathogens in Ukraine and around the world led Mitt Romney to warn that her “treasonous lies may well cost lives”. One Democrat congresswoman received news of Gabbard’s proposed new role as intelligence chief in a similar vein: “There’s no question I call someone like her a Russian asset.” Even Trump supporter Nikki Haley was critical.

The accusations levelled against Gabbard are fuel for fiery Russian propaganda networks, which have in recent weeks been cock-a-hoop over news of Trump’s plan. State media channels have been quick to remind their audiences of Gabbard’s apparent support for some of Russia’s more outré claims. The Telegram channel of Vladimir Solovyev, Russian TV’s loudmouth propaganda ringmaster, showed clips of Western media coverage that discussed how Americans were questioning Gabbard’s allegiances. The channel, which has 1.3 million subscribers, then posted a series of images of Gabbard, plastering the congresswoman’s “friendly” words about Ukraine, Russia, and the potential for peace over each image. A series of warm profiles have hailed Trump’s pick, which has the FBI and CIA “trembling”.

However, much of this cheery Russian propaganda is laced with irony. In the Kremlin’s narrative, Ukraine seems comically incapable of deciding whether or not Gabbard is a Russian agent. Gabbard is as much an object of mockery as a source of pride: a sign that Russia’s control over the Western information space is so complete that Americans will spend more time arguing over Gabbard’s allegiance than countering Russia’s very real threats against their homeland. The more that Gabbard becomes a central figure in Donald Trump’s pantomime, the more the Russian propaganda apparatus will use her to divide and inflame opinions abroad.

What the Russian state’s propagandists have been less keen to reveal, of course, is Gabbard’s repudiation of some of her own beliefs. Outlets have drawn attention to her comments about biolabs, for example — but they have not mentioned her claim that her support for the erroneous theory was based on “miscommunication and misunderstanding”. Gabbard is a familiar face on Russian TV, but the Russian audience is led to believe — as are many Westerners — that she is a one-dimensional propagandist or agent.

Moscow relishes precisely this sort of uncertainty, ironic distancing, and mockery, which it sees as part of an information warfare strategy designed to encourage the West to tear itself apart. Placed at the heart of the national and international intelligence apparatus, Gabbard will become an ideal weapon in that war. A woman who, with her mixed European and Samoan ancestry, ought to be the perfect fit for Democratic identity politics instead joined the military, took increasingly provocative positions on national security topics, and switched her party allegiance twice. She makes claims and walks them back, indulges in conspiracy theories, and seems incapable of making many decisions for herself. Her career is a spectacular tangle of contradictions and uncertainties, and is ripe for Russia’s propaganda narratives. Gabbard is just one of dozens of prominent Americans — from Tucker Carlson to the influencers at the heart of the Tenet Media scandal — who play this role.

As Putin ratchets up the pressure in Ukraine, and mulls the fate of Syria, the Senate and the American media are about to become embroiled in what is certain to be a bitter battle over Gabbard’s confirmation hearings. The Kremlin is already trying to dial up the uncertainty even further by using sympathetic voices in the West to suggest, as the pro-Kremlin influencer Jackson Hinkle has done, that Gabbard is the innocent victim of a series of “fakes” produced by Russophobes and war hawks. Exactly how and why Gabbard’s own comments can have been faked is left unsaid. Instead, uncertainty is left unresolved to bewilder the American audience.

If her appointment is confirmed, nobody is quite sure how Gabbard might act as America’s intelligence chief. International and internal intelligence sharing and, presumably, morale within the national security agencies and departments will suffer as a result. In an era of global fragmentation and warfare, and when the Russian Federation believes it is locked in a grand geopolitical battle with the West, this lack of trust may be hugely corrosive.

According to the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, one of the fundamental rules of warfare is to “know the enemy and know yourself”. Whether Gabbard is a Russian agent or not is irrelevant; she will remain an unknown quantity. The very idea that her loyalty may not be to the United States is enough to embroil America’s politicians, intelligence workers, and security operatives in a deep battle that will see Putin and his allies rubbing their hands with glee. In the disinformation era, it is no longer clear who is a patriot and who a traitor, nor where the war begins and where it ends. A divided and paranoid America can only benefit the Kremlin.

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Dr. Ian Garner is assistant professor of totalitarian studies at the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw. His latest book is Z Generation: Russia’s Fascist Youth (Hurst).

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