A Trump State Department official who shut down a U.S. counter-disinformation office has Kremlin ties, the Telegraph reported on June 3. The official, Darren Beattie, is married to the niece of a former Russian official linked to Putin and has echoed pro-Kremlin narratives.
Russia-aligned actors are amplifying anti-Ukrainian sentiment through coordinated campaigns across platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Bluesky, Facebook, and Telegram, according to a new investigation by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
Russia has used information warfare to promote its interests and undermine opponents across the world as a part of its foreign policy for decades. The Russian state was spending an estimated $1.5 billion annually on its foreign disinformation campaigns, Christopher Walker, National Endowment for Democracy vice president for studies
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on April 16 the closure of the State Department’s office responsible for countering foreign disinformation, citing concerns about free speech and the rights of American citizens.
"The post about the attack on Czech soldiers is not true," Czech government spokesperson Lucie Michut Jesatkova told Reuters.
"They hit a peaceful residential area. They hit children and civilians with ballistics with cluster bombs," Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rih's military administration, said on April 7.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X may face fines exceeding $1 billion for allegedly violating the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), the New York Times (NYT) reported on April 4, citing four people familiar with the matter.
Born in Crimea and raised in Kherson, journalist Yevheniia Virlych grew up speaking both Ukrainian and Russian in her daily life. It wasn’t until 2022, when she and her family lived through the Russian occupation of Kherson Oblast, that they made the definitive choice to abandon speaking Russian altogether.
The intelligence agency referred to a fake document presented as a report from HUR to Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Havryliuk, which has been disseminated in Armenian Telegram channels.
Ukraine understands that U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that President Volodymyr Zelensky holds a 4% approval rating comes from Russia, Zelensky said during a press conference on Feb. 19.
"This is a lie," spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said in response to Carlson's unfounded claims that Ukraine resold U.S. weapons on the black market.
Elon Musk reposted a fabricated story on X suggesting that USAID financed Western celebrities' visits to Ukraine.
Poland's Office for Foreigners, which the letter falsely attributes as the author, stressed that it did not issue the document and that its content is fake. Ukraine's Embassy in Warsaw also denied the document's authenticity.
"The governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns," said the U.S. Treasury Department's acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
The proposed measures target more than a dozen individuals and three entities, including Russian intelligence officers and media entrepreneurs, according to Bloomberg. The sanctions aim to counter destabilizing operations globally.
Tucker Carlson, a far-right political commentator close to the incoming U.S. administration, released an interview with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Dec. 5. During the 80-minute interview, Lavrov peddled a variety of Russian propaganda talking points with little to no challenge from the interviewer. Carlson has been among
Analysts at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab found that accounts originating in China helped amplify Russian disinformation videos targeting U.S. voters.
Russia is expected to intensify attempts to undermine the U.S. vote on election day with a focus on swing states, U.S. intelligence agencies said in a statement on the eve of the election on Nov. 4.
Throughout the campaign, Russia has been accused of attempting to spread false claims on a number of topics surrounding the election, including disinformation about the candidates and election security.
U.S. officials believe two additional fake videos now circulating online, which the FBI has identified as attempts to spread false claims about election security, are likely part of a Russian-backed influence campaign. The campaign appears to be aimed at swaying public opinion ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.
"I think a lot of countries are going to try to manipulate our voters. They're going to try to manipulate our elections. That's what they do," J.D. Vance told CBS News.
Russian disinformation groups have been linked to viral attacks targeting Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, a U.S. intelligence official said on Oct. 22.
Moldovans headed to the polls on Oct. 20 to elect their next head of state and vote on the future of the country’s European Union integration. With over 99% of the votes counted on Monday, the “yes” vote edged ahead at 50.43%, while the “no” camp, which had
"Russia is currently responsible for 80% of influence operations in Europe. This is four times more than the rest of the world combined," Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said at a conference in Prague on Oct. 9.
Moldovan authorities have revealed a scheme led by a pro-Russian oligarch aimed at influencing upcoming elections by paying ordinary citizens to vote against closer ties with the West.
A poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology also showed that 71% of Ukrainians consider the spread of Russian disinformation and propaganda on social media, including Telegram, a "fairly serious" or "very serious" threat.
According to U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, there is “no doubt” the Kremlin is using propaganda and disinformation to “sow discord” among the U.S. population.
The Telegram messenger app is "harmful" and a "threat to our national security," Ukraine's military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said in an interview published on Sept. 7.
Russian state media channel RT is attempting to push U.S. viewers toward voting for Donald Trump in the presidential election through a network of Western media personalities, Reuters reported on Sept. 6, citing a senior U.S. intelligence official.
The U.S. State, Justice, and Treasury departments have acted jointly against the Kremlin's propaganda machine, seizing web domains, issuing indictments, and imposing visa restrictions against participants in Russia's covert election interference campaign.
A top Ukrainian counter-disinformation official on Aug. 22 refuted Russian President Vladimir Putin's accusations that Kyiv attempted to attack the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant.
The investigation aims to mitigate the Kremlin's interference in the November presidential election.
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