[21] Using the term "Russiagate", Maté covered the story around Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and criticized the mainstream media coverage of the Special Counsel investigation.

[24][25][26][27] In October 2017, Maté discussed the media coverage of the investigation in The Nation, stating that "unverified claims are reported with little to no scepticism ... developments are cherry-picked and overhyped, while countervailing ones are minimised or ignored.

Maté said use of social media by Russia had no effect on the election: "To suggest 200 [Twitter] accounts out of 328 million could have had an impact is as much an insult to common sense as it is to basic math".

[33] Maté earned an Izzy Award in April 2019 for his work "taking a factual, meticulous approach to the overhyped, over-exaggerated Russia election-collusion story" and for challenging press coverage of Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation.

[37][38] In December 2019, Maté appeared on the Tucker Carlson Tonight talk show on Fox News and said that people "are accepting the claim that Russia hacked the DNC, even though there's been no evidence yet".

[42] In September 2020, Maté testified at the United Nations at an Arria meeting hosted by the Russian Federation and China, about the alleged cover-up by the OPCW.

[45] According to Brian Whitaker writing in New Lines magazine, some of the previous winners of the award advocated conspiracy theories and many supported the Syrian government.

[46][44] In June 2022, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) published an analysis of social media accounts, individuals, outlets and organisations who disseminated disinformation about the Syrian conflict.

[48] In February 2021, Maté was the first to report that Amnesty International had removed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny's status as a prisoner of conscience "given the fact that he advocated violence and discrimination and has not yet retracted such statements".

[55] In February 2023, The Bulwark website published an article by Cathy Young in which she accused Maté of sharing a deceptively cut video of an interview by Israel's ex-PM, Naftali Bennett, in which he talked about the breakdown in peace negotiations during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[56] The Canadian University of Calgary's School of Public Policy published a list of "Russian-influenced" social media accounts, which included Maté.