True or false Did the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky buy a €4.5 million Bugatti Tourbillon during her visit to Paris?

“I am pleased to announce that the first owner of the new Bugatti Tourbillon will be the wife of the President of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska”. A certain “Jacques Bertin”, presenting himself as an employee of the Schumacher automobile group, spread this rumor on Monday, July 1, on his Instagram account, since deleted. According to him, the Ukrainian First Lady would have acquired the luxury vehicle during the last visit of the presidential couple to Paris, at the beginning of June.

In one day, several dubious sources relayed the content of this publication, including the Russian agency Ria Novosti and an openly pro-Russian French-language account on X and on Telegram. “While Ukrainians are dying in an absurd war, Olena Zelenska, the wife of [Volodymyr] Zelensky, buys himself a Bugatti Tourbillon for 4.5 million euros during a stay in Paris. The contrast between their luxury and the misery of Ukraine is revolting”comments the author of the tweet, which has since been deleted. This narrative is repeated by English-language accounts, word for word.

This type of tactic is a classic of Russian disinformation: attacking elites with the aim of discrediting them in the eyes of the public, undermining Western support for Ukraine, or even weakening democratic regimes.

In reality, everything is false. First clue: the sources of this alleged information. The Ria Novosti news agency relies on the Hidden Truth website. According to a report (PDF) Published at the end of June by the American cybersecurity company Recorded Future, Hidden Truth puts online “plagiarized and targeted content from legitimate French media“. In the context of the legislative elections in France, this site, registered on June 22, one week before the first round, could even be “used to publish deepfakes targeting the Macron administration”according to the report.

Hidden Truth is part of an influence network called CopyCop or Storm-1516, spotted in April by Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center. Its modus operandi for “whitewashing disinformation” is as follows, according to Microsoft: an individual posing as a whistleblower broadcasts a story on a video channel specially designed for this purpose, his words are then picked up on sites affiliated with Russia, and then Russian expatriates and officials amplify the fake news.

Several journalists and Internet users have spotted inconsistencies in the narrative proposed by “Jacques Bertin”, starting with his identity, which seems fictitious. Italian journalist David Puente identified a deepfake generated by artificial intelligence, as he detailed on X. Indeed, the face is very pixelated compared to the rest of the scenery. In addition, the profile picture used on Instagram is only a black and white screenshot of the video.

The Parisian suburban town where the car was supposedly purchased, Neuilly-sur-Seine, is misspelled (Neuily-sur-Seine) in the invoice relayed online, as pointed out by Internet user @osint_random on X. In addition, several mandatory details with regard to the Ministry of the Economy do not appear on the document, such as the currency, the address of the head office or the Siren or Siret number.

The Bugatti Paris dealership finally denounced the deception on its Instagram account on Tuesday. “The Car Lovers group [qui exploite la concession] firmly denies both the existence of this transaction and, therefore, the existence of this invoice”the company wrote. “The price of the vehicle is grossly incorrect, the price of the options and their descriptions are inaccurate and inconsistent, the graphic charter is outdated”she explains. A complaint has been filed “for forgery, use of forgery, identity theft and defamation”according to Bugatti Paris, which denounces “with force this campaign of disinformation”.

This is not the first time that the wife of the Ukrainian president has been the target of fake news. Last year, Olena Zelenska was wrongly accused of spending a million dollars on jewelry in New York.