The role of Realpolitik and Santiago Sautel in the Russian network against Milei

The scandal over the Russian disinformation network against the government of Javier Milei also brought Realpolitik and its director, Santiago Sautel, to the center of the scene. The leaked documents of the international investigation point to it as one of the main means that would have served Russian intelligence

.

According to these records, Realpolitik would have published at least 20 articles within the scheme, with an estimated value of 550 dollars each, totaling about 11,000 dollars. These publications were part of a larger operation that, together, would have allocated nearly 283,000 dollars to install more than 250 notes in Argentine media between June and October 2024

.

According to the research, these were critical articles about the economic situation, the impact of government reforms and foreign policy, most of them accompanied by distortions, exaggerations and, in some cases, outright false information. Added to this were references favorable to Russia and contrary to the United States, in line with the geopolitical interests behind the

operation.

One of the most serious elements of the scheme was the use of false identities to sign the articles. The case of Manuel Godsin is the most obvious: presented as an international academic, his identity turned out to be completely fictitious and was used to give the appearance of legitimacy to content for

political purposes.

When consulted by the investigation, Santiago Sautel tried to get away with it. He maintained that his media regularly publishes opinion columns and that he was unaware of the origin of the articles in question, suggesting that, had there been any maneuver, it would not have been organized from the editorial office

.

However, that explanation clashes with the background of the medium itself and its director. Realpolitik had already been singled out for disseminating content aligned with the narrative of the Azerbaijani regime, including attacks against Argentine officials and

publications with personal disqualifications.

Sautel himself traveled to Azerbaijan in 2024 to cover elections and praise the Ilham Aliyev regime, in a context where he also received funding to generate favorable content. In previous years, he also published articles criticizing the then candidate Javier Milei, marking an opposing editorial line prior to his coming to power

.

Some of these operations even included publications signed by Sautel's partner, which reinforces the idea of a framework where editorial and personal are intertwined with foreign interests.

Added to this is a fact that further aggravates the picture: in 2025, Realpolitik was awarded the Martín Fierro award for the

“best research site”.

The coincidence between the leaked documents, the published content and the portal's background brings us closer to the idea that Realpolitik was not simply a passive channel, but a functional part of a larger scale operation.