Russian disinformation surge 'hijacks' Europe media: report

PARIS: Russian influence operations have increased their use of a key disinformation tactic, creating hundreds of fake reports mimicking traditional European media in the past year and ahead of the French elections, researchers said on Monday.

In France alone, 85 fake reports linked to the presidential election have circulated since the summer, Chine Labbe, NewsGuard’s top editor for Europe, told AFP.Russian disinformation campaigns often intensify ahead of elections, but Labbe noted that in France, the activity had begun unusually early, months before the 2027 vote.

Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian influence operations have created 906 fake news reports masquerading as legitimate media outlets, NewsGuard’s report said.The number of fabricated stories surged to 421 in the first half of 2026, an 850-percent jump from the same period a year earlier.

European news outlets were the “primary target”, likely because of the region’s support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, the report said.Out of the 15 most frequently impersonated outlets, eight were French, it added.

Pan-European broadcaster Euronews topped the list, with 82 fake reports identified between March 2023 and September 2026.Other frequently targeted outlets were Liberation (39), Charlie Hebdo (35), and Agence France-Presse (20).

Outside France, the BBC, Deutsche Welle, and Politico were also targeted.“In every case, the Russian campaign hijacks the brands’ logos and layouts, sometimes creating a new site using a URL similar to the authentic one, making it difficult for the typical user to discern that it is counterfeit,” the report said.

“The stories often include invented quotes from actual subject experts.”This tactic not only makes false claims appear more convincing but also erodes public trust in media, the report warned.

NewsGuard attributed the campaign to a Kremlin influence operation known among researchers as Matryoshka (Russian doll) and a pro-Russian influence network dubbed Storm-1516.

“These practices have now come to dominate contemporary Kremlin-linked information operations, largely because the rise of artificial intelligence has enabled them to produce fakes quickly and easily at scale,” the report said.

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