France exposes mega Russian disinformation campaign

The disinformation campaign was named Reliable Recent News, after the pro-Russian website. It's the second wave of the so-called Doppelgänger operation which was uncovered last year by NGO EU DisinfoLab and Meta, AFP reported, adding that German media such as FAZ, Der Spiegel, and Bild were also targeted.

Despite the shutdown of Kremlin-backed outlets RT and Sputnik, Russian disinformation is still spreading across EU countries. Earlier this month, Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová told POLITICO that Russian narratives are finding fertile ground in her country.

The main narratives pushed by the disinformation campaign are the ineffectiveness of sanctions against Russia; the alleged Russophobia of Western states; the supposed predominance of Nazi ideology among Ukrainian officials; and the negative effects of welcoming Ukrainian refugees to European countries.

In 2021, France created an agency — Viginum — to spot manipulation of information coming from outside the country, which is under the secretariat-general for defence and security's authority.