A pro-Russia propagandist pumped Stop the Steal -- and then fled to Moscow after Jan. 6: SPLC

Editorial note: This story has been updated to reflect that the information indicating Charles Bausman was at the US Capitol on Jan. 6 is solely based on his own account and has not been independently verified.

A pro-Russia propagandist promoted the lie that Donald Trump won the election in Pennsylvania and, by his own account, went to the US Capitol on Jan. 6, before abruptly disappearing and later resurfacing in Moscow, the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch reports in a new investigation.

As Hatewatch previously reported, Charles Bausman moved to Lancaster, a key region in the battle for Pennsylvania's electoral votes in 2018. He purchased a home there for $442,000 after spending almost three decades as an American expatriate in Russia. Hatewatch's previous investigation revealed that Bausman established the pro-Russia website Russia Insider in 2014, and also that two racist junk websites shared the same Google Analytics account with Russia Insider. All three websites featured bylines from members of the white nationalist organization The Right Stuff. As an example of Bausman's open support of Nazism, Hatewatch reported that a 2019 post on Russia Insider was entitled "Adolf Hitler's Spot-On 1936 Speech on the Evil of Soviet Bolshevism (Transcript)."

Hatewatch has also previously linked Bausman to a far-right junk news site called Lancaster Patriot that sprung up in late 2020 and then went dark after a local news outlet exposed its editor as a white supremacist. But a physical version of the publication has appeared in recent months promoting vaccine skepticism.

In addition to promoting anti-lockdown activism in 2020, Bausman joined protests seeking to overturn the presidential election in Lancaster County in late 2020, including one outside Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler's House that included several members of Rod of Iron Ministries, which venerates the AR-15 in its worship services. As Raw Story has previously reported, Rod of Iron Ministries member Robert Pickell scuffled with police outside the Columbus Doors on the east side of the Capitol on Jan. 6 and cult leader Sean Moon led members into the scaffolding on the west side of the building.

Hatewatch reports that Bausman said he was present during the Jan. 6 insurrection, advancing "as far as the Capitol's balustrades after Trump's speech," although the outlet did not present any additional information that independently verifies his claim. Soon after Jan. 6, according to Hatewatch, Bausman left the country for Moscow.

Hatewatch confirmed that Bausman was in Russia earlier this year "after translating into English three Russian television appearances he made," the outlet reported. The appearances show that Bausman was in the studio during the interviews, and Hatewatch reports that it "geolocated a Moscow television studio which hosted Bausman in June."

In one interview that aired in the immediate aftermath of the US Capitol attack, Bausman told a Russian interviewer that "America is awake now," according to Hatewatch. And referring to the willingness of Trump supporters to embrace Russia as an ally, Bausman reportedly said Russia "now has the chance to build big bridges with half of the United States." Hatewatch reported that Bausman "described the US as being irrevocably divided following Biden's election."

Charles Bausman's father, Jack Bausman, served as the Associated Press's Moscow bureau chief from 1968 to 1972, introducing him to life in the Soviet Union as a child.

Bausman's LinkedIn profile lists him as being employed by several agriculture-related enterprises in Russia since 2010, but Hatewatch reported that it "found little verifiable information" about his business history in Russia before he founded Russia Insider in 2014. The HR director of one agriculture company at which Bausman listed himself as a "director" from 2010 to present "told Hatewatch in emphatic terms that he never worked for them."

Bausman's sister told Hatewatch that Bausman denied to her that Russia funded his activism. She also said that her brother was always dependent on their parents for money, which he has inherited since their passing.

Hatewatch's investigative reports cites emails published by the online journal The Interpreter "showing Bausman asking for money through an associate of pro-Kremlin oligarch Konstantin Malofeev," who, like Bausman, "views himself as a promoter of the Russian Orthodox faith, and is known for his far-right political views and ties to anti-LGBTQ hate."

Marlene Laruelle, a political scientist at George Washington University, explained to Hatewatch how Russian influence over worldwide far-right nationalist movements can work.

"Each ideological entrepreneur has his own portfolio and is put in competition with others; nothing is secured or guaranteed," she said. "They create new networks and platforms that may be later approved or disapproved by the Kremlin. This is a largely decentralized process: The centralization only comes later, post-factum — if successful."

In one television appearance in Moscow in January, Hatewatch reported that Bausman told host Arkady Mamontov that "it would be naïve to believe the FBI didn't have provocateurs among the protesters" who stormed the US Capitol. Tucker Carlson suggested a similar theory months later on his Fox News show.

In another television appearance in Moscow in late June, Bausman reportedly told the host that "the US Deep State is exploiting the whole world," going on to denounce transgender people, Black Lives Matter and President Biden.

"Satan is in charge of the US government right now," he said.