By Anastasiia Udesiani
Russia is mounting a disinformation campaign aimed at next month’s Paris Olympic games, Microsoft has warned, as researchers uncovered similar attempts to influence public opinion ahead of the weekend’s EU elections.
Experts say the developments are part of a pattern of disinformation to destabilise Western countries and allies of Ukraine, especially ahead of elections. Wired reported last month that Russia is using US college campus protests as part of a disinformation campaign against the United States. The report was based on findings made by Antibot4Navalny, an independent, anonymous group of Russian researchers.
For months, researchers worked on tracking a pro-Kremlin network called Doppelganger. Doppelganger’s strategy is to promote fake articles from leading news outlets. For example, two months ago, bots spread a fake Washington Post article titled “Soros Pays $30/Hour for Anti-Semitism,” claiming that college campus protests “are financed by the Rockefeller and Soros foundations.”
Dr. Stephen G. F. Hall, an Assistant Professor of Russian and Post-Soviet Politics at the University of Bath said: “I think the main reason is to sow discord in the West among the electorates, making it harder for them to come together and maintain unity.”
Doppelganger’s campaign helped direct pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, Russian state-run media, and pro-Putin influencers. st.
Dr Stephen Hall: “Russia is particularly adept at it and is one of the leaders in this field… It simply piggybacked on what were already quite vociferous divides between being pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli.”
Russia is not alone in exploiting the US campus protests. As reported by NewsGuard, a platform which detects misinformation, Iran and China are working in the same direction.
Feature Image: The Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. Photo credit: Michael Parulava