OSINTdefender is an American user of social network X. His posts often contain pro-Russian propaganda and outright fakes. For example, he portrayed Ukrainians as perpetrators of a war crime or extolled Russia’s power and geopolitical influence. Elon Musk himself advertised this “analyst.” This is yet another confirmation that Russian disinformation is growing like a fungus on damp walls on Network X.
Who is the author of the OSINTdefender channel?
His name is Simon Anderson. He runs the “OSINTdefender” account, according to the research by Ukrainian OSINT experts Molfar. Simon registered this page in December 2021. Additionally, Leanandice is the OSINTdefender server administrator on Discord.
Simon Anderson was born on November 19, 1999. According to his LinkedIn, he lived in Georgia, USA, until May 2022. According to True People Search, there is only one Simon Anderson in this state, born in November. From 2016 to 2019, he studied to be a military officer, and in 2019 he joined the US Army, where he worked as a radio frequency technician at the US Air Force in Fayetteville. According to LinkedIn, he has been studying at Georgia Military College since 2020. Since May 2020, Anderson has listed himself as an Advanced Electronics and Computer Science Specialist at the U.S. Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois, USA.
In 2016, Anderson posted a photo (https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1188197247869365&set=a.1153781317977625) of himself posing with a Russian flag in the form of a Kadyrov (Chechen) fighter. The picture was probably taken during a military exercise.
Evidence of Simon Anderson’s involvement in the OSINTdefender account
In December 2021, the OSINTdefender account was registered in Simon Anderson’s name. The administrator of the OSINTdefender Discord server signed up as Leanandice. Simon Anderson registered a YouTube channel under this pseudonym in 2011. The channel has 53 videos and 25 short clips on military affairs, NATO, Ukraine, Poland, Russia, and the USSR.
The OSINT analysts discovered Simon Anderson’s email address, [email protected], on his Facebook. It turned out to be associated with the OSINTdefender account in the cash.app payment system. We also discovered that Simon’s father follows the OSINTdefender account on Twitter.
OSINTdefender also wrote that he had served with ethnic Russians (https://x.com/sentdefender/status/1666938687949623300?s=20). Just as Simon Anderson did in 2016.
All these facts indicate a connection between Simon Anderson and the OSINTdefender account.
Russian propaganda from OSINTdefender
He calls himself a specialist in open-source intelligence in Europe and conflicts around the world. The page was registered in November 2021. As of September 2024, the account has 1.2 million followers. Most of the posts on the account’s page are retweets or reposts of news about conflicts in different regions, mostly in Russia. OSINTdefender has recently posted more Israeli and Middle Eastern news, but it regularly includes Kremlin narratives.
| Topic | Date and link | Description |
| Justifies Russian spies and propagandists | September 5, 2024https://x.com/sentdefender/status/1798909360510583067 | The U.S. Department of Justice filed Charges against Two Russian Nationals working for RT News that are accused of funneling over $10 Million to Right-Wing Media Personalities including Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, and Benny Johnson. They released Statements claiming to not know about the Russian Funding or their Influence Operation within Tenet, with them claiming to also be Victims of the Scheme.” |
| Helpes to support Russian nuclear blackmail | June 7, 2024https://x.com/sentdefender/status/1831508224937209939 | The Cuban Ministry of Defense announced today that 3 Russian Naval Vessels, including the Yasen-Class Nuclear Cruise Missile Submarine, will arrive in the Port of Havana. The Cuban MoD has further stated that None of the Russian Vessels will be carrying Nuclear Weapons during their Visit or the Exercises. |
| Praises Russia | August 2023https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1-KcF2y3GN8UWlMn-UqYkRMFCVMxPD_n1 | OSINTdefender wrote that “Russia is the only country (besides Iran) that can prevent Azerbaijan from destroying all of Armenia.” |
| Blames Ukraine | June 2023https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1672986568754188288 | OSINTdefender wrote about Ukrainian military officials allegedly using Nazi symbols. |
| Spreads russians lies | May 2023https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1669583671001579521 | OSINTdefender published a video in which, according to him, Ukrainian soldiers surrender to the Russians near Horlivka. However he did not specify the source. In response to comments that the video could be fake because the military in the video spoke Russian, he noted that almost the entire population of Ukraine speaks Russian. |
| Justifies the Russians | April 2023https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1636577486904467456 | An MQ-9 drone of the US Air Force crashed in the Black Sea near the temporarily occupied by Russia Crimea. OSINTdefender was “surprised that a Russian Su-27 did not immediately shoot it down, even though the MQ-9 was in international airspace and Russia had every right to do so.” He also wrote that the drone would have been shot down if the US was at war with a country in the Pacific and the unidentified drone was flying toward Hawaii. |
OSINTdefender also wrote about the Pentagon explosion without verifying the information and, as a result, published a photo of another building. Later, on July 10, 2023, he shared information about $8 billion in US aid to Israel. This was subsequently denied. The tweet is no longer available. The author probably deleted it.
These are just a few examples; there are many more such publications. This could indicate a lack of a professional and critical approach to data analysis. However, given the American officer’s education and rank, it is more likely to indicate bias or outright sympathy for Russia. Perhaps Anderson, inspired by Elon Musk’s example, is trying to draw more attention to his Twitter account by using provocative content.
An advertisement from Elon Musk.
The owner of the social network “X” recommended subscribing to the OSINTdefender account and @WarMonitors. To follow the war between Russia and Ukraine, or Israel and Palestine live. The former contained blatant Russian propaganda, the latter anti-Semitic posts. After widespread accusations of promoting unverified accounts, Musk deleted his post, but his responses remained.
French officers as the Kremlin’s mouthpiece.
This is not the only example of Western officers who systematically and massively spread Russian propaganda and lies. In 2023, Vice Admiral Patrick Chevallereau published a column for the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche under the headline: “Attention, former French military personnel promote the interests of the Kremlin.”.
Among those suspected of close ties to Moscow were:
- Colonel Jacques Hogard, who is very active on social media and regularly shares tweets from the Russian Embassy in France.
- Colonel Alain Corvez was among the observers sent to Donbas to monitor the pseudo-referendums organised by Russia.
- Jean-Michel Cadenas, a gendarmerie lieutenant colonel and member of the National Rally (RN), previously posted a message on Twitter claiming that the French ambassador to Ukraine had resigned, which was completely false.
- Former military officer Xavier Moreau, who “became the Kremlin’s French-language spokesperson.” This French “activist-political scientist” was granted Russian citizenship and rebroadcast Putin’s speeches through his YouTube channel, which was shut down at the end of 2022 due to the spread of Kremlin propaganda.
Russia systematically seeks out and recruits active and former military personnel, preferably reputable officers. Their use creates the illusion of Russian propaganda’s credibility and legitimacy, helping to promote it in the United States and Europe. According to a recent US report, Russian disinformation campaigns have become more sophisticated, and their new feature is that they leverage “real voices” in the West.
Governments and defense ministries face the need to closely monitor their military’s publications and materials. The Western nations may need to enforce existing restrictive measures that allow for punishment for the spread of Russian propaganda and disinformation.