Speculation about the assassination attempt on Charlie Kirk is spreading online. Russian actors are also involved.

Russian propagandists couldn't have imagined better what happened in the United States in recent days: Charlie Kirk, an influential conservative activist, was shot dead during a speech at Utah Valley University. The perpetrator managed to escape. In the two days leading up to his arrest, an information vacuum developed: Thousands of shocked but curious Americans scoured the internet for news about the perpetrator, his whereabouts, and his motive.

They found a lot, especially on social media. One user claimed to have witnessed the assassin fleeing. Reuters exposed the resulting video as being taken out of context . Two other users claim to have filmed the assassin's arrest. This, too, later turned out to be false. Other users falsified articles from established media outlets about Kirk or spread the myth that the media had been informed about the assassination early on.

Individual users can generate a lot of attention for their profiles with such sensational posts. The video of the user who claimed to have filmed the perpetrator's escape was viewed almost 13 million times.

But disinformation experts believe that, in addition to sensationalist self-promoters, state actors also exploited the information vacuum. This was also confirmed by Spencer Cox, the governor of the state of Utah, where the attack took place. "We are seeing bots from Russia and China trying to stir up unrest," he said at a press conference on Thursday, announcing further information at a later date.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was the most obvious attempt to exploit the assassination for Russian interests. A few hours after the attack, he wrote on X that the attack had been carried out by left-liberal "scum." Until then, nothing was known about the perpetrator's background.

Medvedev further linked the assassination attempt to US aid to Ukraine. He wrote: "Perhaps it's time for the MAGA team to realize that by supporting Ukraine, they are supporting murderers."

For Roman Horbyk, a media scholar at the Slavic Department of the University of Zurich, such statements are part of the information war that Russia has been waging against the West for years. Horbyk observes Russian propaganda for his research and says: "The Russian state apparatus jumps on every important event in the US and tries to exploit it for its own purposes."

Medvedev's venomous tone fits Russian propaganda. "Russia is trying to inflame existing tensions between the political camps in the US," says Horbyk. The aim is to divide the American population to such an extent that democratic consensus is no longer possible and the country sinks into chaos. "The goal of this interference is to deprive the US of its cultural and geopolitical dominance in the world," says Horbyk.

It's unclear how many Russian propaganda trolls addressed the Kirk assassination attempt and what effect they achieved. It's usually very difficult to attribute individual users' postings to a Russian network. Horbyk says, however, that he has discovered several dubious profiles that have spread divisive statements about Kirk and his death.

However, most Americans are still barely influenced by Russian disinformation, says Christian Hoffmann, professor of communication management at the University of Leipzig. "We know from research that Russian disinformation usually only reaches a limited audience."

Hoffmann estimates that about 10 percent of the American population is susceptible to Russian narratives. "These are citizens who are very interested in politics but get their information from very one-sided sources, for example, on portals like Breitbart."

According to Hoffmann, however, the majority of people in the US consume little political news. When they do get their information on current events, they usually rely on reputable media outlets. Therefore, he only sees Russian disinformation as a threat if mainstream media outlets report on it too frequently and in a sensationalist manner.

In their coverage of the assassination of activist Kirk, the most relevant American media outlets have so far adhered to journalistic principles and refrained from premature or one-sidedly distorted attempts to explain the course of events or the assassin's motive. Overall, Hoffmann therefore assesses the impact of the Russian trolls as modest.