Leak reveals Russian campaign to discredit Milei through Argentine media outlets
In Argentina, the records show at least $283,100 spent on media content, with payments ranging from $350 to $3,100 per article
A spy group linked to Russian foreign intelligence funded the publication of more than 250 articles across at least 23 Argentine digital media outlets between June and October 2024, aiming to discredit Javier Milei’s government, according to an investigation based on leaked documents conducted by an international media consortium.
The files — 76 Russian-language documents totaling 1,431 pages — were obtained by South African outlet The Continent and shared with openDemocracy (UK), Dossier Center and iStories (Russia), Forbidden Stories (France) and Filtraleaks (Argentina), among others. They detail the operations of a structure known as La Compañía (The Company), a successor to the Wagner Group linked to Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR), across more than 30 countries in Africa and Latin America.
In Argentina, the records show at least $283,100 spent on media content, with payments ranging from $350 to $3,100 per article. An additional $343,000 went toward intelligence gathering, fieldwork and other operational expenses. According to openDemocracy, Argentina was the country where La Compañía invested the most in propaganda during August 2024.
The campaign blended real and fabricated stories to erode the government’s image, foster divisions within the ruling coalition, support the opposition and stoke conflicts with neighboring countries. Among the planted stories was a fabricated report claiming Milei had sent a sabotage team to attack a gas pipeline in Chile. Many articles lacked bylines or were published under fictitious identities with AI-generated photographs. The operation’s leaders in Argentina were identified as Lev Andriashvili and Irina Iakovenko, both Russian citizens residing in Buenos Aires.
The primary motivation appears to have been Milei’s alignment with the United States and his support for Ukraine after taking office in December 2023, a stance that included inviting President Volodymyr Zelensky to his inauguration. After Donald Trump entered the White House in January 2025, Argentina distanced itself from Kyiv and the campaign lost its purpose.
Editors at the media outlets named in the leak denied any involvement and nearly all rejected having received payments. Two sources, however, told openDemocracy they had been paid, though for amounts lower than those recorded in the documents, through intermediaries who presented themselves as representatives of Argentine businesspeople opposed to the government.
Milei called the case one of institutional gravity rarely seen in history and vowed to go all the way to identify everyone involved. Argentina’s State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE) said it had detected the operation and referred it to the judiciary in October 2025. The Russian Embassy in Buenos Aires rejected the accusations, calling the investigation anti-Russian material and lamenting that ideological positions once again prevail over common sense. Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno responded that the matter is under review by the Argentine judiciary.
The documents also reveal that La Compañía simultaneously operated in Bolivia to bolster then-President Luis Arce and in Venezuela to burnish Nicolás Maduro’s image after the disputed July 2024 elections.
