Paris reveals ‘structured and coordinated Russian propaganda network’ targeting Europe and US

This is not the first attempt at Russian propaganda. France has discovered a network of “structured and coordinated Russian propaganda” targeting European countries and the United States, designed to legitimize war against Ukraine and whose content is likely to “harm the fundamental interests of the nation,” diplomatic sources said on Monday.

The network includes at least 193 websites, according to Viginum, a French anti-foreign digital interference organization that publishes the report. They “do not produce any original content, but massively rebroadcast publications emanating primarily from social media accounts of Russian or pro-Russian figures, Russian news agencies, and official websites of local institutions or figures,” the authors explain.

This network of 193 sites, called the “Combat Portal”, was discovered after four months of work by Viginum. Between September and December 2023, the organization analyzed the activities of this network of digital “information portals” “with similar characteristics that broadcast pro-Russian content to an international audience.” Some of them belonging to the “ecosystem Truth ” – or “pravda” in Russian, as the former organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was called – are aimed directly at “Western countries that support Ukraine,” according to the Viginum report.

Therefore, the site intended for reading in Spain is called pravda-es.com, and the site intended for reading in the US or UK is pravda-en.com. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland there is pravda-de.com, in Poland pravda-pl.com, and the French version is called pravda-fr.com. Between June 23 and September 19, these five portals published more than 150,000 articles, mostly from posts by Russian or pro-Russian figures, content from Russian news agencies, or the websites of institutions or local figures, Viginum notes.

“Misleading” stories

According to the French organization, more than 180 other sites with similar graphic design and distributing pro-Russian content, but for Russian-speaking or Ukrainian audiences, are linked to Pravda portals in digital format.

The main goal of Portal Kombat appears to be to legitimize Russia’s war in Ukraine, a diplomatic source told reporters. “This content, which is highly ideologically driven, reveals clearly inaccurate or misleading narratives,” she noted. On January 22, pravda-fr.com published a list of 13 French mercenaries who, according to the site, “were in Kharkov,” in northeastern Ukraine, during the Russian strike a few days earlier, a strike that “eliminated, according to Moscow, about sixty the militants, “most of whom were French citizens,” wounded another 20 people.

Although Paris condemned the “gross new Russian manipulation”, AFP was able to speak to three of these alleged “mercenaries”, but in fact three Ukrainian army volunteers, all alive and well. One of them, whom AFP met at the foot of the French Alps, said he left Ukraine in September 2023.

On Monday, pravda-fr.com wrote: “ Enough ! : France calls for radical measures against Zelensky,” although in fact these statements were made by Florian Philippot, the president of a small French far-right party, and are not at all binding on Paris.

“Double” and “Matryoshka”.

Although the system is considered “complex”, the implications for French-language public debate on digital technology remain modest. “However, given the nature of the narratives, the means used to disseminate them, and the goals pursued on a European scale, Viginum considers that the criteria for foreign digital interference are met, with certain content likely to harm the fundamental interests of the nation,” commented diplomatic source.

“We expect various Russian actions to accelerate, even on a massive scale,” the military source also commented, with elections expected in 2024 in more than 70 countries, particularly the United States. Portal Kombat sites, whose names Viginum provides, can act as sleeper cells that can be activated at any time and reach “a very wide range of audiences depending on current events.”

Pro-Russian groups have already been singled out by Meta (the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) and the French authorities for their “Double” campaign, which since 2022 has involved usurping the visual identity of media outlets to spread fake news. Since September, another campaign called Matriochka, or Russian Dolls, has been running, directly appealing to the media to encourage them to check fake news. However, according to experts, we are talking about Russia organizing a “sabotage enterprise” in order to exhaust Western fact checkers.