Pro-Kremlin Matryoshka bot network spreading terrorist attack scares ahead of Germany’s regional elections

In total, the current Matryoshka campaign includes 10 unique videos, all of which relate in one way or another to the election. One claims that the CDU’s approval rating — falsely given as no higher than 7% — is too low for the party to be able to win the election; however, various real-world opinion polls estimate the figure at between 25% and 27% as of early March, slightly ahead of the second-place Alternative for Germany (AfD), which attracts between 23% and 25%. Another video alleges that the CDU’s rating dropped significantly after Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s recent visit to the United States, which is also untrue.

Ahead of the Bundestag elections of February 2025, Russia organized a large-scale disinformation campaign targeting German voters. It involved hundreds of fake news websites that spread fabricated “exposés” on German politicians. The operation was carried out by a group known as Storm-1516, which has been linked to the late Yevgeny Prigozhin’s troll factory and to Russian military intelligence (GRU). The Cyabra analytical group identified at least 1,000 fake X accounts created to influence the election. Many of them were used to amplify support for the far-right AfD. Simultaneously, the Bot Blocker Project uncovered a network of more than 700 accounts on X that were circulating AI-generated caricatures of Friedrich Merz in an effort to discredit him. Despite its scale, the campaign failed to have a significant impact on public opinion.

The elections to the state parliaments of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria will take place on Sunday, Mar. 8, and will be the first elections of this level to be held during Merz’s chancellorship.