reporter: new evidence suggests russian efforts to meddle in american society stretch beyond elections. documents seen exclusively by nbc news shows another bizarre campaign to sow unrest in the u.s. russian operatives pitched a plot to manipulate african-americans. one especially disturbing proposal suggests recruiting african-americans with criminal records, giving them sabotage trainings at camps in africa and returning them to the u.s. another proposal, encouraging african-americans to push for independent state hood in the south. it does not surprise me at all the extent to which russia would go to undermine our democracy and really target divisions that already exist within our country. reporter: the documents were found in communications between