The aggressor creates media doubles and spreads fake news.
In other countries, in particular the European Union, the Russian Federation conducts certain special operations against Ukraine, among them “Dvoinik”, “Matryoshka” and Portal Combat.
As Ukrayinska Pravda reports, in France it was possible to discover the information special operation “Double”, which was led by Russia. It is noted that the exposure was facilitated by the Viginum structure, which has an indirect connection with the General Secretariat of National Security and Defense of the country. As it turned out, “Double” is not the only operation of the aggressor country.
According to profile analyst Christine Duguin-Clément, as part of Operation Double, Russia has been creating clones of mainstream media for about a year. This was done to spread reputational attacks against Ukraine and try to “split” the member states of the European Union.
Another Russian special operation called “Matryoshka” has influence on fact-checking – the process of verifying the factual accuracy of dubious messages and statements. The essence of “Matryoshka” is that fake accounts turn to fact checkers or the main mainstream media with a request to check obviously fake data. At the same time, according to the expert, the Russians will benefit, regardless of whether they check this lie or not.
“If you refuse, they can feed their narrative: ‘See, this is censorship. They say they want to check the facts, but they don’t do it when we give information.” On the other hand, you can say, “Okay, I’m going to check these things.” However, this greatly diffuses the attention of the fact checkers. So the Russians benefit from both cases,” explains the analyst.
It is noted that another Russian special operation, called Portal Combat, was recently exposed in France. This is a network of approximately 193 websites that work to create a kind of virality of hostile narratives in European and Southern countries.
“A network of approximately 500 such websites has been discovered that produce narratives in 15 different languages, which can be created using generative AI and large language models that increase the speed of narrative production,” says Duguin-Clément.
The goal of Portal Combat is to distribute content consistent with the Kremlin’s geopolitical goals.
Troll farms in Russia – details
Russian troll farms linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin remain active even months after the mercenary leader died in a plane crash, according to foreign media reports. Several different online influence campaigns with covert or financial ties to Prigozhin were active throughout 2023, and their activity continued even when the Russian government dismantled propaganda units more overtly linked to Prigozhin after his death in August.
While none of the campaigns have gained significant traction online, the groups’ continued activity suggests Russia could increase its influence as the U.S. election approaches, analysts say.
Russian disinformation tactics have changed since 2016, researchers say. While earlier efforts focused primarily on attracting large audiences to viral content on social media platforms, the focus is now on creating websites that present themselves as legitimate news sources. Some new methods also include paying actors to post fake videos that, for example, accuse Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of being a drug addict.
