Experts claim that bots with ties to Russia disseminate false information in an attempt to sway the German election. The Kremlin’s campaign targets reducing support for conservative leader Merz and boosting far-right AfD chances. They spread fake warnings aimed at reducing voter turnout and increasing mail voting, Reuters wrote.
According to cybersecurity experts, Russian-affiliated online disinformation networks are allegedly trying to incite panic and lower voter turnout by disseminating fictitious spy agency warnings of terrorist strikes in Germany before this month’s election.
The researchers also claimed that the networks were disseminating baseless rumors to undermine Friedrich Merz, the conservative leader who is ranked higher in polls than Germany’s second-place, Russia-friendly Alternative.
Attacks on Merz and Habeck
Since early February, a number of X users have shared a video regarding Friedrich Merz, the leading CDU contender, allegedly having a mental breakdown. It claims that in 2017, he attempted suicide. In just ten days, one of the posts had over 5.4 million views, DW wrote.
A medical document and a statement from a purported psychiatrist called Albert Mertens serve as the alleged evidence for this. The form’s stamp identifies Mertens as a “psychological psychotherapist.”
The roles of a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist are distinct in Germany and other countries. The Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists informed DW that no “Albert Mertens” registration existed in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Additionally, it said that no practice registered at the address provided in the paper would be permitted to provide these kinds of documents.
The website “Wochenüberblick aus München” (“Weekly overview from Munich”) was the initial source of the video. One significant feature is that viewers frequently bring up Merz’s demand for Taurus missiles to be sent to Ukraine while sharing the video, which is a contentious topic in Germany over how to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia.
The Greens’ leading candidate, Robert Habeck, and his party colleague, Claudia Roth, have also been the victims of disinformation attacks.
According to an article and video published on the website “Narrativ,” the two are allegedly implicated in a €100 million corruption scandal involving several paintings from the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation that were moved to Ukraine and were then sold to private collectors. The foundation told DW that all the allegations were false.
Russian backing for BSW and AfD
Leonie Pfaller from NewsGuard, which offers tools to combat disinformation, said that Russia’s main objectives were “to spread uncertainty and polarize voters.” She also noted that positive reports frequently featured the far-right AfD and its leading candidate, Alice Weidel.
According to research, the Doppelgänger program sought to raise the AfD’s vote share to at least 20% as early as the beginning of 2024. According to the surveys, the AfD is currently in this exact position. The existence of a connection cannot be established.
Because the AfD was more friendly toward Moscow than other German parties, Pfaller had a suspicion that the party was getting backing from Russia. The AfD, a far-right party that has not denounced Russia for the war in Ukraine, demands in its program that economic sanctions be lifted against Russia.
CeMAS’s Frühwirth noted that Russian propaganda had also helped the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). It has called the conflict in Ukraine an avoidable “proxy war” between the United States and Russia. It wants Germany to start purchasing natural gas from Russia again.
According to Felix Kartte of Stiftung Mercator, a private foundation that supports the humanities and sciences, Russia’s long-term approach posed a greater threat than the misinformation surrounding the German elections.
“The topics—the narratives that the Kremlin has wanted to control for years—have become very dominant in the German public debate too,” he stated to DW.
For instance, European far-right groups are also promoting narratives that allege that all European governments are corrupt and restrict free speech.
Storm-1516, Doppelgänger, and Matryoshka
These accusations are similar in that they all rely on fabricated papers and false witness accounts. Websites that promote misinformation and pose as news outlets post these accusations. The strategy was similar to the Russian disinformation campaign Storm-1516, a member of the GNIDA project, a team of internet researchers that studies the topic, told DW.
The GNIDA project, which collaborated with the Correctiv and NewsGuard platforms, found over 100 German-language websites that were initially dominated by pro-Russian, AI-generated content. The websites then published false stories, which “friends” or paid influencers shared on social media sites like Telegram and X.
This is also how the Doppelgänger operation works. According to the German foreign ministry, Russia has been spreading “pro-Russian narratives and disinformation aimed particularly at discrediting Western foreign policy generally and, in particular, support for Ukraine” since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Following the operation’s meddling in the US election campaign last year, the US authorities sanctioned Doppelgänger participants.
The operation’s name was derived from the fact that it initially mimicked the output, including films and websites of renowned media organizations, including the BBC and DW.
Another similar operation, Matryoshka, uses an army of bots to initiate “distraction maneuvers.” The operation bombards reporters with information about fake news and urges them to verify it. According to the French news agency AFP, this serves to both “block” fact-checkers from carrying out their duties and disseminate misleading information.
At least 15 phony movies that appeared to have been produced by DW and the German daily tabloid Bild were disseminated by Matryoshka bots at the end of January, according to the independent Russian media outlet Agentstvo.
According to the movies, which were available in English, French, and Spanish, Germany was reportedly having trouble dealing with the threat of terrorism, an increase in crime, and voter anxiety before the elections.
Propaganda leverages attacks and migrant issues
The stories are aimed at a population already on edge following a slew of high-profile foreign-perpetrated atrocities that killed many people, such as a vehicle crash at a Christmas market and a knife attack that killed a toddler.
An Afghan asylum seeker crashed a car into a crowd in Munich on Wednesday, injuring at least 28 people. There were currently no specifics on any potential motivation.
The specialists, seasoned in countering Russian influence operations, declined to reveal their names due to security concerns. They are working with the human rights organization Robert Bosch Foundation.
Reuters was able to examine the entire messaging database and verify the major points of the posts, which mostly came from X and included videos that were then disseminated on other social media platforms. The researchers discovered that the posts had received almost 2.5 million interactions to date.
Previously controlled by the Doppelganger and Matryoshka disinformation networks, their volume tripled this week when a group called Storm 1516 joined the operation.
John Mark Dougan, an American who lives in Russia and has been connected to the Storm 1516 network in the media, declined to comment on the specific accusations in a text message. The number increased from December due to several variables.
According to Felix Kartte, a disinformation specialist at the Mercator Institute, the messaging from the bot networks appeared to be intended to support the AfD even if the party was not explicitly endorsed.
It would be more difficult to build a stable coalition and raise the possibility that the AfD and another anti-arming Ukraine party may retain enough seats to disturb parliament if turnout and the conservatives’ lead were to decline.
In one post, a phony video allegedly from France 24 displayed a French security service alerting people to the danger of terrorist strikes in German public areas.
The investigative website Correctiv claimed to have found twelve stories propagated by the networks, including false claims that 1.9 million Kenyans would soon travel to Germany and baseless abuse accusations against Greens leader Robert Habeck.
One of the researchers stated that “the goal (seems to be) to drive more Germans to vote by mail, giving pro-Russian parties ammunition to claim fraud” by promoting the idea that there would be attacks, even on voting locations.
German Foreign Ministry seeks to increase awareness
In answer to a question, the German Interior Ministry told the Correctiv research organization that disinformation dissemination “by foreign government agencies in Germany is generally not punishable by law.” However, it announced the establishment of an interdepartmental working group to monitor disinformation threats.
The ministry informed BR that the goal was to increase public awareness of disinformation and to encourage media and news literacy across all age groups. To counter Russian disinformation, Germany is also collaborating with other nations and social media platforms.
