France the target of widespread Russian disinformation campaign

On June 13, 2023, the French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, accused Russia of orchestrating a widespread disinformation campaign against France. In a press release, the minister stated that “[they] had evidence of an info manipulation campaign against France, involving Russian players, as well as Russian State or State-affiliated entities, who are amplifying false information.”

The French State agency Viginum revealed this operation. Founded in 2021, it is tasked with combating “State information attacks” under the supervision of the General Secretariat for Defense and National Security (SGDSN).

According to the Viginum report, a Russian agency, Reliable Recent News (RRN), created imitation webpages for French and foreign media, by typosquatting 355 domain names. Le Parisien, 20 Minutes, Le Monde and Le Figaro were among the falsified websites, as well as the German, Bild, and British newspaper, the Guardian. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also believed to be a target.

RRN then relayed pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian misinformation, with fake articles by the targeted newspapers. One of them, still online, blames the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage on the United States.

It is believed that two Russian digital marketing companies, ASP and Struktura, also created fake Facebook accounts to spread the content. Viginum believes these different entities are all part of the same Russian network, named Doppelganger. In mid-December, 2022, Meta condemned these moves by ASP and Struktura, pushing the network to change tactics and rely more on Facebook pages and Twitter bots.

Viginum points out that “despite being exposed by civil society members and a number of moderation measures enforced by Meta and Twitter,” the campaign is “still ongoing”. The inability to quietly put an end to the disinformation may explain why French authorities decided to go public with it, in order to curb its effects.