Pro-Kremlin Matryoshka bot network blames France and Ukraine’s SBU for assassination attempt on Ukrainian businessman Yermolaiev Fake videos suggest the attack was due to his alleged plans to testify on Zelensky’s activities, @antibot4navalny.bsky.social reports.

Some of flash frames in today's videos of Matryoshka campaign targeting German Sept-2026 elections:

We're launching a funding drive on Bellingcat today. It's a tough funding environment at the moment with global funder cuts & the fear of Trump scaring off donors, so support us here www.bellingcat.com/donate/?utm_... A short video about what your donations will fund www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vzb...

Russische Desinformation mailt jetzt Faktencheckern vorgeblich im Namen des Watchaccounts den eigenen Mist, um Aufmerksamkeit zu generieren (oder Zeit zu stehlen)

🧵 This is new in how Matryoshka works. They are emailing fact checkers impersonating us, @Antibot4Navalny team: asking to "verify" Matryoshka's daily set of fake videos / front covers *on our behalf*.

Russian-state influence campaign targets the Sep2026 elections in 2 states of Germany. It pits East Germans and West Germans against each other. In these (both eastern) states, AfD can potentially secure state power for the first time in German history. www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web...

Pro-Kremlin Matryoshka bot network spreads fakes about purported European conflict over “Russophobia obsession” Fake videos claim there are disagreements between the EU and the Baltics over the region’s “anti-Russian sentiment,” @antibot4navalny.bsky.social says.

Kremlin bots respond with disinfo after former U.S. national intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard publishes report on “biolabs” in Ukraine Matryoshka's latest campaign features posts posing as @politico.com, @theguardian.com, @lefigaro.fr and even The Insider, according to @antibot4navalny.bsky.social.

After 24 Feb 2022, domestic producers stopped forwarding Russian material and started making their own pro-Kremlin synthesis. Bucha denial circulated in NZ Telegram by early April. By October, The Daily Telegraph (NZ) ranked among the top publishers of Russian state content. #nzpol

Pro-Kremlin Matryoshka bot network launches new disinfo campaign claiming France is preparing to turn Armenia into “foothold against Russia” The latest posts mimic @lefigaro.fr, @liberation.fr, @france24.com, @leparisien.fr and even The Insider, according to @antibot4navalny.bsky.social.

Despite record-high foreign influence efforts, the Kremlin failed to achieve any tangible impact on the Armenian elections. Our congratulations to Nikol Pashinyan and his party. Details on these efforts in the quoted thread: bsky.app/profile/anti...

“Zelensky fears coup,” “Russia hasn’t even started yet”: Kremlin bots launch wave of disinfo after the Ukrainian president’s letter to Putin The new campaign relies on content posing as @wsj.com, @bellingcat.com, @thestudyofwar.bsky.social and others, according to @antibot4navalny.bsky.social.

Latest Russian Matryoshka disinfo attack targeting Yerevan says Pashinyan had “meltdown” as France refused to import Armenian strawberries The latest campaign spotlighted by @antibot4navalny.bsky.social was launched days before the June 7 parliamentary elections.

Timeline of Kremlin narratives on Armenia: Mar 6–today | Matryoshka 🪆 bot network: "Pashinyan will start war with RU after elections" May 9 | Putin: "Armenia will face Ukraine's fate if it joins EU" Jun 4 | 🪆: "Armenian TV boasts of drones that can reach Moscow. AM will start war soon"

For those fact checkers / media who choose to cover this campaign of Storm-1516, we have an important development to share. Reach me via Signal for details: ab4n.240216

Viory offers journalists training in fact-checking and #OSINT for verification. OSINT is indeed very useful. Here's how I used it to prove that Viory is not the independent organisation it claims to be.

🧵 How important is the upcoming election in Armenia for the Russian state? Comparing efforts from the Kremlin-aligned Matryoshka bot network across elections in 6 countries over 1.5 years, Armenia is now a leader in 3 metrics (out of 4): 🔭 effort 🔭 duration 🔭 throughput

Russia’s Matryoshka bots use System of a Down concert announcement to launch pre-election smear campaign against Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan The new campaign uses content posing as music magazine NME, CNN Türk, @france24.com, @euronews.com, and others, according to @antibot4navalny.bsky.social.

In recent months, Facebook has been flooded with U.S. state-themed AI-generated images posted by suspiciously similar accounts with names such as "Life in Nevada" and "Utah Life". Despite the theme, the accounts in question appear to be run from Bangladesh. www.conspirator0.com/p/life-in-us...

The latest Storm-1516 disinformation campaign targets Armenia. The campaign promotes a false narrative that the Armenian government is implementing a housing program along the Azerbaijani border to house 600 000 Azerbaijanis.

Very interesting piece by @qurium.org on residential proxies. www.qurium.org/forensics/th...

A truly fascinating visualization (which we only can dream of for our reports) Also an impressive hypothesis —which will hopefully survive peer review.

What's up with all of these Bluesky accounts posting generic-sounding posts about San Francisco, accompanied by (plagiarized) photographs with no alt text? Answer: they're part of a network of (possibly hijacked) spam accounts.

Very interesting mapping of far right in France—many of whom resonate with Kremlin talking points when speaking to a French audience. I wish someone posts a similar thread in English, giving more "so-what" answers to a broader, beyond-France, public. HT to @fugitivamel.bsky.social

For those whose replies are largely *edit post wen?* - do please add your opinion to Alex's thread.

Kremlin-linked Matryoshka bot network spreads disinfo about a looming hantavirus pandemic in Europe, despite scientists pointing to low risk The latest campaign includes content posing as @france24.com, Deutsche Welle and @liberation.fr, according to @antibot4navalny.bsky.social.

@3627003.bsky.social DMs would be strongly preferred

Matryoshka bot network launches disinfo about Ukraine-Israel grain dispute, alleging attacks on Jewish bakeries and a rabbi cursing Zelensky The latest campaign includes content posing as @thestudyofwar.bsky.social, @euronews.com, @afp.com and others, according to @antibot4navalny.bsky.social.

Although the official Reddit API was locked down and massively paywalled back in 2023, a less official JSON API still exists and (at least for now) still functions. This article contains a brief tutorial. www.conspirator0.com/p/exploring-...

Kremlin-linked Matryoshka bots spread disinfo about “Ukrainian trail” in Trump assassination attempt at White House Correspondents Dinner It includes a fake quote attributed to @eliothiggins.bsky.social and videos posing as @cnn.com, @nypost.com, and others, per @antibot4navalny.bsky.social.

[email protected] now reports that the German government suspects Russia to be behind this espionage campaign, in line with our findings last month www.spiegel.de/politik/deut...

🆕 I am exceptionally pleased to announce the release of the 'twitter' issue of M/C Journal, which I co-edited with @hermida.bsky.social. This celebrates / commiserates / memorialises / laments the 20th anniversary of what used to be #Twitter. #mcjournal journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mc...

Kremlin bot network Matryoshka answers U.S. senators’ appeal to Meta and Google with wave of fakes about Armenia’s parliamentary elections The appeal concerned Russian interference in the elections. @antibot4navalny.bsky.social said Matryoshka’s Armenia campaign may become its longest-running.

How Russian state understands freedom of speech: 🛂 for 🇷🇺 citizens, social media should be tightly controlled—and therefore only access to state-owned ones should be permitted 🤖 for the rest of the world, social media and LLMs should be poisoned with Kremlin propaganda

🧵 Russian state resumes pollution of BlueSky with bots. Nearly the same days it blocks access to BlueSky for 🇷🇺 citizens. Apr11: RKN, Russian censorship body, blocks 🦋 Apr10: Matryoshka resumes activity on 🦋 Apr09: Portal Kombat gets flagged on 🦋 by @fabtab.nafoeverywhere.org with new tactics

An extensive overview of Russian state's attempts to interfere elections in Hungary, with some contribution from yours truly:

Great story by my colleagues on the constant political realignment of Grok, the generative AI chatbot over on the other site. This change to Grok’s answer about the greatest threat to Western civilization is particularly ironic/meta. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/t...

🧵 Russian state is happy to amplify the JD Vance's claim implying that Ukraine attempted to influence US presidential elections. Four fake videos impersonating reputable media has been posted today on Telegram and by Matryoshka bot network on X doing just that:

I've built a free open-source intelligence dashboard tracking every coordinated inauthentic behaviour (CIB) operation Meta has disclosed since 2018. 214 operations. 53 origin countries. $22.7M in ad spend. 71 reports analysed. Access it here! marcowenjones.substack.com/p/i-created-... #disinfo

The claim from Storm-1516 on a planned coup in case Orban loses the elections sounds very close to the narrative previously introduced by Matryoshka. Which is a pretty rare, if not the very first case, in our experience:

Is your iPhone secure? Verifium is a free open-source iOS auditor. It runs local checks against renowned security and privacy guidelines. Zero data leaves your device: verifium.app

Yesterday's Matryoshka campaign targeting June-2026 elex in Armenia alleges a secret agreement between Macron and Pashinyan: "Pashinyan will receive Macron's support in Armenia's parliamentary elections. In exchange, Pashinyan would start a war with Russia after his victory."

New: We looked into the large-scale phishing campaign that's targeting Signal users and found digital evidence pointing to Russian involvement – and a connection to previous attacks in Ukraine and Moldova. Story with @alexejhock.bsky.social for @correctiv.org correctiv.org/en/fact-chec...

🧵 Fake videos from Matryoshka bot network, one year apart: 🗓️ 2026: "62% of Germans would prefer Putin as a Chancellor" 🗓️ 2025: "71% of French people believe their lives would be better if Putin were president" According to the Kremlin, reasons are similar ⤵️

A campaign that can potentially evolve into a pro-Orban effort on the eve of parliamentary elections in Hungary.

In which we effectively disagreed with @ISDglobal.bsky.social, without knowing that we have an opponent on this point, or who is that opponent.

I spent the last few weeks analyzing a network of dating profiles featuring attractive senior women, wealthy singles, and niche romance communities. There’s just one problem. Most of the people in the images don’t exist. 🧵 A thread on our latest @graphika.com report:

Pro-Kremlin Matryoshka bot network spreading terrorist attack scares ahead of Germany’s regional elections The campaign on X includes 10 unique videos related in one way or another to the election, the Bot Blocker Project @antibot4navalny.bsky.social reports.

🧵Milano Cortina Olympics is being targeted by Russian-state disinfo since Feb 04. In 6 days Matryoshka, a long exposed Russian-state disinfo bot network, published 35 fake videos on the topic. If you are a journalist interested in covering them, please reach out for details.

🧵 Matryoshka, Russian-state aligned bot network has introduced a hashtag HollywoodAgainstZelensky on X/Twitter yesterday. With deepfaked audio, multiple manipulated Cameo videos make celebrities to "demand" that European leaders force Zelensky to sign a peace treaty on Russia's terms.