Deepfakes and AI Disinformation: How Russia Fabricates Reality

The Scale

According to NewsGuard (an independent media monitoring organization):

• Over 400 debunked false narratives about the war in Ukraine
• 561 identified fake websites spreading disinformation
• Disinformation is spread in dozens of languages around the world

How It Works

Operation “Doppelganger”

Discovered in 2022 — one of the largest disinformation operations in history:

• Clones of real European media outlets were created — websites that look identical to Der Spiegel, Le Monde, The Guardian, etc.
• Fake articles with propaganda content are published on the cloned sites
• Links are spread through social media — a user sees a “Guardian article” and trusts it
• Scale: hundreds of cloned websites, millions of views

Storm-1516: A Deepfake Factory

Storm-1516 — a group identified by Microsoft:

• Generates video deepfakes using AI
• Creates fake “Zelenskyy” videos — for example, allegedly using drugs
• Fabricates “documents” and “leaks”
• Distributes through a network of anonymous accounts

Social Media Bots

• Twitter/X: thousands of bot accounts spreading Kremlin narratives
• Telegram: a network of channels with coordinated disinformation campaigns
• TikTok: short videos with manipulative content
• Facebook: fake groups and pages

John Mark Dougan

Operating separately is Dougan (a Florida fugitive living in Moscow):

• Created 160+ fake news websites that mimic local American media
• Generates content using AI
• Specializes in fakes about Zelenskyy’s corruption

The Goal: Not to Convince, but to Break

The main goal of Russian disinformation is not to convince people that Russia is right. It is to create the feeling that:

• “There is no truth” — both sides lie
• “It’s all too complicated” — it’s not worth trying to understand
• “You can’t trust anyone” — so it’s better not to support Ukraine
• “War fatigue” — let them sort it out themselves

This is the strategy of the “firehose of falsehood” — flooding the information space with so many fakes that people simply stop distinguishing truth from falsehood.

How to Tell the Difference

Simple rules:

1. Check the source — is this a real media website? (domain, address, other articles)
2. Look for confirmation — are other media outlets reporting on this?
3. Pay attention to emotions — fakes are designed to shock and anger
4. Use fact-checkers — Snopes, PolitiFact, StopFake, EUvsDisinfo

Conclusion

Russian disinformation is not “another point of view.” It is an industrial operation with a budget of millions of dollars, hundreds of fake websites, AI-generated deepfakes, and an army of bots. Its goal is not to tell “its truth,” but to destroy the very concept of truth.