"Oreshnik" with bots

How and why the Kremlin is waging a social media campaign to intimidate the West with ballistic missiles, calling on Europe to stay away from the United States

The bots of two Kremlin networks aimed at the West have been campaigning for three days to intimidate Western countries with Oreshnik ballistic missiles. It was with them that Russia struck the Yuzhmash plant in Dnepr, responding to Ukraine’s permission to fire long-range missiles at Russian territory.

In addition, bots urge Europe to stay away from the United States, whose interests, in their opinion, contradict European ones. This was reported to Novaya Gazeta Europe by Antibot4Navalny, an anonymous analytical group that monitors Russian-related influence operations. We are talking about "Doppelganger" ("Double") - the Kremlin's largest disinformation operation in Western countries (New Europe wrote about it in detail) and about "Matryoshka" - an operation based on the publication of fake content, which is then distributed in a coordinated manner in in the form of responses to posts on the X network.

Maps of Moscow's retaliatory strikes

Doppelganger bots are distributing maps of Russian strikes to Western countries. For example, they intimidate France and Germany (and in their languages - French and German). In all cases, the maps are almost identical, and the essence of the messages is that the United States escalated the situation by allowing Ukraine to use long-range weapons to strike Russia and thereby provoking Moscow to respond.

All posts of Kremlin operations have almost no comments and few likes, but quite a lot of reposts.

Operation Doppelganger influence on France. Text of the post: “After Ukraine was allowed to use missiles on Russian territory with the assistance of the American military, the situation worsened significantly.”

Operation Doppelganger influence on Germany. Post text: “US military involved in missile maintenance and control is contributing to escalation and endangering peace.”

Operation Doppelganger influence on Germany. Text of the post: “If the US intervenes, we could find ourselves in a conflict that affects us all and could have huge consequences.”

Bots use exactly the same cards to scare people in Polish (for example, here and here ).

Putin Quotes

The bots appeal to the words of Vladimir Putin, who on November 21 made an appeal regarding the launch of Oreshnik along the Ukrainian Dnieper. In their posts, they “through the voices of ordinary Europeans” stir up the fear of a full-scale war between Russia and Europe. All this against the backdrop of an epic photo of Putin himself.

Operation Doppelganger influence on France. Text of the post: “It is clear that Russia is not joking with its warnings. If we continue down this path, the consequences will be devastating for the entire continent."

Operation Doppelganger influence on Germany. Text of the post: “Solidarity with Ukraine is important, but not at the cost of a European war that could destroy us all”

“Doppelganger” also uses video materials, accompanying them with text stating that the United States is to blame for the escalation of the conflict. Specifically, the post argues that “the U.S. strategy can be seen as an escalation of war, undermining the peace process and dashing hopes for a diplomatic solution.” All such publications are also disguised as the voices of “ordinary Europeans”.

Caricatures

In posts in X you can also find cartoons, the meaning of which is to show the “power” of Russian missiles, contrasting them with a “weak Europe” that cannot respond in any way to Moscow’s actions. Such messages are also distributed by "Doppelganger".

Operation Doppelganger influence on France. Text of the post: “By allowing Ukraine to strike Russia, the United States is playing with fire and risks turning a local conflict into a global proxy war.”

Operation Doppelganger influence on Germany. Text of the post: “Russia has repeatedly warned that it will change strategy regarding the use of its most powerful arsenal if there are further attacks using American weapons.”

Operation Doppelganger influence on France. Text of the post: “Russia has made it clear that it will not stand by in the face of attacks carried out using weapons supplied by the United States. This should be an alarm for immediate de-escalation."

Intimidation of "Matryoshka"

All videos for “Matryoshka” are deliberately faked, since the essence of the campaign is based solely on falsifications. Authentic recordings will not be distributed. The videos are accompanied by fake facts and non-existent quotes from experts against the backdrop of alarming music.

A case in point is a video about how search queries related to prayers, the purchase of holy scriptures, and the coordinates of the nearest religious center have allegedly increased sharply in Europe. The authors of the video refer to the German theologian David Berger, who claims that this trend “has no connection with any church holidays”: “Obviously, as a result of the strike by the Russian Oreshnik missile, Europeans are thinking about death in a way they never have before during decades” ( such a theologian really exists, but this quote and trend are fake; “New Europe” was unable to find evidence for them in the public domain. - Approx. ed. ).

Another example is a video message that the CIA is allegedly calling on all US citizens to leave Europe by December 14 due to the “escalating geopolitical situation.” American intelligence agencies have not made any such statements publicly.