Russia’s new hybrid warfare and disinformation campaigns targeting France

A US-based network combating foreign disinformation has detected another wave of information attacks from Russia aimed at the French audience. France has been the target of a disinformation campaign: five fake news stories identified by NewsGuard on social media have received almost 56 million views.

“As Paris emerges as the West’s top supporter of Ukraine, the infamous John Mark Dougan-powered Storm-1516 Russian disinformation operation is now targeting France,” NewsGuard wrote.

“AI is accelerating this phenomenon. The operation is unparalleled in scale: it combines images of violence and sexual and financial scandals. A well-known Russian network is behind it, and artificial intelligence tools are behind the scenes,” the Ukrainian international weekly ‘Tyzhden’ and the French magazine Les Échos wrote.

The disinformation campaign was spread on all leading social media platforms (X, Facebook, Instagram…). According to NewsGuard, between December and March, Russian disinformation actors posted almost 39,000 posts that received 55.8 million views.

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou noted that France is “the second country after Ukraine that is in the constant crosshairs of Russian disinformers.”

Personalities targeted by Kremlin fake stories include Emmanuel Macron, his wife Brigitte, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and an anonymous “migrant from Chad” who allegedly confessed on video to raping a 12-year-old, the study says.

NewsGuard found that the Russian network Storm-1516 was behind this massive disinformation campaign. Fact-checkers believe that it is run by US-born Russian propagandist John Mark Dougan, a former Florida deputy sheriff who now lives in Moscow.

We flagged this fake journalist in 2023: Fake journalist John Dougan invents conspiracy theories for Russia.

Targeting France is not something new for the Kremlin’s hybrid warfare machine. In our research last year, we identified French news websites that quoted Russian state media, received citations from them, and spread claims that support Kremlin propaganda in France. Read the research and see 40 outlets that disseminated pro-Kremlin narratives in this article.

Our team also identified several Russian disinformation attacks against France in 2024:

“Disinformation posts do not happen at any time, but primarily during periods when France strengthens its military support for Ukraine or when Emmanuel Macron makes clear statements in support of Kyiv,” the French TV channel LCI clarifies.

“The effectiveness of the disinformation campaign is such that 8 out of 10 French people have seen at least one of the fake stories at least once. The most viewed video is a video where “terrorists in balaclavas” warn of a new terrorist attack to be committed in Notre Dame. It was viewed 17 million times. The pseudo-rapist got 13 million views. The third place goes to the fake that Volodymyr Zelenskyy allegedly bought the Milleis bank in France for 1.2 billion euros, which Western countries are providing to help Kyiv.”

The French press emphasizes that Storm-1516 is actively cooperating with bot farms founded by Yevhen Prigozhin, the deceased leader of Russia’s private military company Wagner, accused of war crimes in Ukraine, Syria, and Africa.

Moreover, Russian disinformation spreaders are actively using artificial intelligence. A fake about the First Lady of France, who allegedly sexually harassed one of her students, was voiced by a character who does not exist in reality. Her face and voice are completely fabricated by AI tools.

According to the French LCI TV channel, France and the United Kingdom are now the targets of Russian disinformation campaigns, as these two countries are currently providing the most active support to Ukraine. More and more, the French are beginning to realize that the Russians are hostile to them, using disinformation against them as a tool to destabilize French society and sow discord.

However, the Kremlin’s unfriendly activities began not a few months ago, but at least in 2018-2019, when Russia’s Wagner contributed to the uprisings in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso and infringed on French interests in Africa. Back then, 7-8 years ago, only the expert community recognized the Kremlin’s openly hostile policy toward Paris. Now, finally, civil society and the French press have begun to sound the alarm.

Radio Francinfo has drawn attention to the activities of another Russian propaganda structure, the Agency for Social Design (ASD). The journalists of this media outlet got their hands on an internal document titled “International Conflictology.” The intentions of the compilers are spelled out in black and white: “increasing internal tensions in the territory of US allies,” “artificially creating conflict situation’s, “influencing public opinion’ … All this is to “promote the interests of the Russian Federation.”

Read more: Agency of Social Design disclosed as a tool of Russian disinformation machine.

“This agency is led by Ilya Gambashidze. Unlike other well-known disinformers, Gambashidze does not come from the special services, the criminal world, or Vladimir Putin’s circles. Nevertheless, he has been a leading communication manager for fifteen years, working for Russian public institutions. In the promotional video, he praises his work while wearing a military uniform with the badge of Russia’s imaginary ideological troops on his lapel,” France Info clarifies.

In one of the documents developed specifically for France, ASD is working on a methodology to increase the popularity of the far-right National Rally party, as well as “increase fear in the country and weaken support for Ukraine.”

Ihor Petrenko

I'm a passionate journalist based in Ukraine, specialising in covering local news and events from Ukraine for the Western audience. Also, I work as a fixer for foreign media. Whether I write an article, report from the conflict zone or conduct interviews with political leaders and experts, I'm focused on delivering informative, engaging, and thought-generating content.