Konstantin Igorevich Rykov (; a.k.a. Jason Foris; born 27 May 1979) is a Russian politician, head of Newmedia Stars Corporation, owner of the Goodoo production company.
Biography
Rykov was born in Moscow. Since 1998 he made his mark as one of the first professional Russian Internet producers. Rykov, together with Egor Lavrov, created websites and television programs, such as the popular TV show Star Factory. Since 2002, he has been working as head of the Internet department of the First Channel of the state television, where he cooperated with art impresario Marat Gelman in a range of political websites. He is an internet entrepreneur, influential social media manipulator, and the owner of an internet brothel.
Rykov's latest media projects include the production of electronic newspapers Дни and Взгляд (Dni and Vzglyad - "Days" and "Look"), publication and promotion of controversial bestselling novelists Sergey Minaev and Eduard Bagirov, and support of Vladimir Putin via several websites.
Political career
On 2 December 2007, Rykov was elected as a deputy of the Duma representing Nizhny Novgorod as a candidate of pro-Kremlin party United Russia. He served in the Duma through 2011.
Involvement in election interference efforts
Besides his own personal involvement in Russian politics, Rykov has also reportedly used his internet credentials and relationship with Kremlin officials to involve himself in various political campaigns and referendums in both Russia and other countries. Following Russia's invasion and subsequent annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, Rykov and numerous followers flooded social networks with pro-Kremlin narratives and even directly engaged U.S. officials such as the former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul.
The following year, Rykov started a Russian website in support of then U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, and would later boast that he was responsible for Trump's victory in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. This Russian support for Trump was part of the "sweeping and systematic" Russian interference in the 2016 elections. The Senate Intelligence Committee had "concerns" about Rykov and his role in influence operations directed against Ukrainian and United States elections.
Rykov has asserted he began promoting Trump as a future president as far back as 2012.
Peter Jukes cites him:
Jukes described Rykov as "a maverick online entrepreneur, politician and disrupter. An early adopter of internet memes, conspiracy theories and social media disinformation":
Rykov also started a Russian website in 2015 in support of then-candidate Trump and later boasted that he was responsible for Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election.
Rykov has described the history of his working with Trump, how Trump responded to a tweet of his on November 6, 2012, and how that started what Rykov called a "four years and two days" cooperation between Trump, Russians who wanted him elected, and Cambridge Analytica. Martin Longman described the first contact between Rykov and Trump in 2012 and this cooperation in an article for Washington Monthly titled "A #TrumpRussia Confession in Plain Sight. Putin ally Konstantin Rykov explained the #TrumpRussia conspiracy on Facebook over a year ago."
The digital and social media team working for Trump was extensive. According to Brad Parscale, the Trump campaign's digital operations chief, Cambridge Analytica worked "side-by-side" with representatives from Facebook, Alphabet Inc., and Twitter on Trump's digital campaign activities.
Lawfare added more names to that group and mentioned how the Senate Intelligence Committee examined
At the time, Steve Bannon was not only Trump's chief strategist and Chief Executive of the Trump campaign (August 2016-November 2016), he was the vice-president and a co-founder of Cambridge Analytica.
They all worked together to develop methods to influence voters to support Trump using digital analysis, microtargeted social media campaigns, and websites. Rykov implicated Trump in inviting Cambridge Analytica, and he clearly described how their short-term and long-term goals were to
Jukes cited Rykov: "This 'secret super-weapon' cost Trump only $5 million and it was boosted by 'a pair of hacker groups [and] civil journalists from WikiLeaks.'" Jukes concluded that "Rykov has both the credibility, connections and inside knowledge to make claims about Russian interests working in league with Cambridge Analytica during the Trump campaign."
The Economist cited Rykov's description of how Trump could serve Russian interests: "Trump will smash America as we know it, we've got nothing to lose."
With the benefit of hindsight, Longman has written about how "Konstantin Rykov's confession fits what congressional investigators have suspected for months." The Senate Committee was concerned about Rykov's and Klyushin's activities:
Unlike the others who "took steps to hide their activities", Rykov did not hide what he did. Martin Longman wrote about Konstantin Rykov's claim that his collusion with Donald Trump and Cambridge Analytica had been "decisive" in winning the election:
Peter Jukes wrote about two Facebook posts by Rykov, written right after Trump's election in November 2016:
Molly Schwartz wrote: "While the impact of Rykov's campaigning is unknown, Rykov has boasted that he is responsible for helping Trump take the White House. While that claim may be far-fetched, Rykov's influence on Russia's online strategy is undeniable."
Martin Longman wrote about the legitimacy of Rykov's boasting:
He also claimed that, though they succeeded with Trump, they unfortunately failed with Marine Le Pen. These claims, including the role of Cambridge Analytica, were posted a year before Special Counsel Robert Mueller would indict members of the Internet Research Agency involved in active measures to win the U.S. election for Donald Trump and years before FBI indictments revealed the role of WikiLeaks in deploying material hacked from the Democratic National Committee by Fancy Bear, associated with Russian military agency GRU, and by the FSB's Cozy Bear group.
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