“Doppelgänger”, diverted articles and fake news… Dozens of newspapers “cloned” in a disinformation operation led by Russia

The conflict launched two years ago is coupled with an “informational war” led in particular by Russia against Ukraine’s supporters.

A silent but continuous war. In the early days of the conflict, the “informational war” targeted Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers as a priority; it now attacks Ukraine’s foreign supporters, primarily European countries, including France.

Beyond Russian propaganda sites and media, there are more insidious ones like “Doppelgänger” operations. These are fake articles from authentic and recognized media. “If you were in Paris, and you went to the page of Worldyou were diverted to a fake pageexplains Christine Dugoin-Clément, specialist in influence communication at IAE-Université Paris 1. And we got that in a massive way. That is to say, we have more than 50 newspapers that have been cloned like that all over Europe.”

The newspaper The world has been cloned several times, most recently in the spring. “The article in question said that France had no kind of consideration for the Russians who had died in the conflictexplains Damien Leloux, journalist at World. It was broadcast to people who considered that the war in Ukraine was not completely the fault of the Russians.”

The Affair of the Tagged Stars of David

These “Doppelgänge operationsr” have not necessarily had much impact. Except for one recently, the Stars of David painted on walls in Paris and the suburbs. “It’s a fairly ambitious operation, rather well executed, in which a physical action of the stencils which are affixed to the buildings and then, an operation carried out onlinerecalls Damien Leloux. From the start, Doppelgänger operators had access to photographs taken after the stencils were applied. So that’s a disinformation operation that really worked and fortunately it’s ultimately quite rare.”

Sometimes the goal is not so much to influence the French public, but the Russian public itself. A recent Russian disinformation operation involving France mentioned around sixty “French mercenaries” killed in Ukraine in a bombing. Moscow went so far as to summon the French ambassador to demand explanations. We have heard little about it in France and for good reason: the fake news mainly aimed at the Russian public. “The special military operation, therefore the invasion of Ukraine, is going very badly and not at all as planned. So what are you going to explain? That you, the largest army in the world, are not capable of…? So the means you have are to explain that ultimately you are not playing because you have foreign fighters.”indicates Christine Dugoin-Clément.

Internal propaganda, but which can also rebound abroad, particularly in Africa. Russian disinformation and influence operations in Africa targeting France have been legion since 2020. They have copiously accompanied the three recent military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.