Contributing to the higher levels of energy around Jim Balmer's campaign was Chris Dixon spending every episode of his show boosting Jim Balmer by repeating his talking points on his show and using his show as a communications channel through which he communicated new talking points for Jim to try out on the campaign. Chris was immune to the criticism that he received for being not just overtly political but overtly supportive of a candidate who had named him as one of his senior advisers. Chris addressed his critics by slamming them as cosmopolitan elites who didn't understand what it meant to be willing to do whatever you had to do to fight for your country. He was similarly unmoved by the criticism he received when the minutemen, armed militia guarding the southern border, shot and killed seven migrants, including two children, while they were crossing the Rio Grande. Chris's response to this was that it was fake news, that the elitist mainstream media had doctored the images and was running a fake story as part of a coordinated attack on him and Jim Balmer from the deep state. There was pressure on FOX to take Chris off the air for at least a little while but Chris's popularity among their viewers made that impossible. The vitriol from Jim Balmer and Chris Dixon kept being pumped out at a prolific rate, and the instances of their supporters going too far and acting on what they were hearing kept increasing, all without Jim or Chris accepting responsibility and acknowledging the need to tone down their rhetoric.

Meanwhile, over in Russia, a highly publicized meeting took place in the Kremlin between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Kolschonski and Fyodor Milichenko just days after Fyodor had returned from his trip to the United States. Fyodor was meeting with the Prime Minister in his capacity as the unofficial leader of the REJOIN campaign to discuss what the nature of Russia and Ukraine's relationship would be like in the event of REJOIN being successful. The meeting was held behind closed doors and lasted for over two hours. When the meeting was over the two men emerged from the room in which they'd had their conversation and held a joint press conference. They were asked a variety of questions by the reporters regarding any action that Russia was taking to influence the outcome of the referendum, whether Fyodor was working on behalf of the Russians, what level of autonomy Ukraine could expect to have if the referendum went REJOIN's way, and whether, no matter what the outcome of the referendum was, both sides would commit to ensuring that nothing would be done to provoke violence. The majority of the questions were responded to with perfectly banal and diplomatic answers, but on the question of violence in the aftermath of the referendum Fyodor gave an answer that gave serious cause for concern.

"There will be no violence if it is a fair election, but if it is not a fair election then I cannot guarantee you that people aren't going to react with violence."

"What do you mean by fair?" One of the reporters asked.

"That there are no irregularities in the campaign or in the voting."

"What kind of irregularities?"

"Interference from the media, interference from groups that are against us succeeding, fake votes, people not counting votes properly, votes being thrown out, that sort of thing."

"Are you saying that if you lose this election you won't accept the outcome?"

"I'm saying that the outcome had better not have been manipulated."

"Why are you all of a sudden talking about the vote being manipulated?"

"Because I am traveling and campaigning all over Ukraine and with the levels of energy and support that I am seeing for our campaign I can safely say that there is no way that we lose this election without either election interference and/or voter fraud having played a significant role."

"Prime Minister, what do you make of Dr Milichenko's comments?"

"If there is cheating, there will be consequences," the Prime Minister answered inscrutably.

"What kind of consequences?"

"Consequences," he answered, even more inscrutably.

Prime Minister Kolschonski and Fyodor shared a warm smile and a handshake and walked off the stage together. Fyodor had accomplished two important goals on his trip to Moscow: he had managed to infiltrate the highest levels of power in Russia and ingratiate himself with the people there, and he had made the issues of election interference and voter fraud major talking points among the public. Jim Balmer started talking increasingly about election interference and voter fraud during his rallies and so did Chris Dixon on his show, both of them warning that the enemies of America were cunning and were not above stooping to any low to thwart their campaign to save America. Their warning to their supporters was followed by a warning to their enemies, that their cunning would not be left to prevail, that the second amendment existed to be used as a counter measure against just such threats.