France Uncovers Vast Network Of Russian Disinformation Sites 6518362 13

At the end of November 2023, an X account purporting to be that of a journalist named Jules Vincent published a long written and audio message on the social media platform accusing Ukraine of selling land to the son of billionaire George Soros for the burial of toxic waste. In reality, Vincent doesn't seem to exist, speaks with an unidentified accent and falsely claims to belong to an association of freelance journalists. But it doesn't matter, because in the days that followed, his message was picked up by a litany of sites and actors identified as regularly sharing Russian disinformation and conspiracy theories.

One of these sites is a French-language publication, Pravda-fr.com, which is now the subject of an allegation by the French authorities. In a report published on Monday, February 12, Viginum, the prime minister's department for surveillance and protection against foreign digital interference, uncovers a network dubbed "Portal Kombat" by investigators, made up of 193 fake news sites targeting both the Ukrainian population and European countries, including France, Germany and Poland. The existence of this network was to be discussed on Monday afternoon in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, just outside Paris, during a meeting between the foreign affairs ministers of the three countries.