They’re human intelligence operations too-not unlike what you might see in a Hollywood film. Policies that help Russia but to mask them behind a local face. It serves a purpose within Russia too, as domestic propaganda purportedly showing that people in other countries agree with the Kremlin’s positions. Operatives of Russia’s security services meet with politicians, journalists, activists, and other influencers and pay them to carry out certain tasks. The idea is to push narratives. This provides Russia plausible deniability, but it also makes it more likely that audiences will trust the messages.

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The network, according to intelligence sources cited by Czech media and confirmed by the country’s prime minister, was orchestrated by pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk. The case highlights an important misunderstanding that arose during Trump’s first presidential campaign, about how malign influence operations work: They are not simply, or even primarily, bot or troll networks on social media that amplify lies and propaganda. Politicians from Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Hungary were allegedly paid directly with cash or through cryptocurrency exchanges.

The Heritage Foundation-which has spearheaded Project 2025, the authoritarian blueprint for a future Republican administration-has become increasingly cozy with Hungary, and even hosted Orbán privately last month. We now have overwhelming evidence of vast pro-Russian influence operations throughout Europe that seek to exploit politicians, media personalities, and others-and some of these efforts have been successful. She is an expert in Russian influence operations in the West. It is quite possible, perhaps even likely, that some people who are on the Russian payroll were at the Heritage event, their role to influence and build support for pro-Russian policies. Author of the Victor Caro series. Here in the United States, while a pattern has emerged, we don’t know the full extent of the influence yet. Alex Finley is a former CIA officer. But it would be foolish, not to mention dangerous, to think we are immune.

Which Republicans might they be referring to? It raises a legitimate, and deadly serious, question: Have Russian operatives paid any Republican officials? Consider the news last week that authorities in several European countries had uncovered a vast corruption network, in which European politicians were paid to spread anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia propaganda. They’re saying aloud what they once whispered behind closed doors. McCarthy, confronted with the leaked audio in 2017, claimed it was a joke. But anyone paying attention to how Russian intelligence services run influence operations-which I do, as a former CIA officer-knows it is anything but.