War in Ukraine: this “coordinated” network to serve Russian propaganda in Europe and the United States

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credits: Annette Riedl / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP 6:50 p.m., February 12, 2024

France reveals on Monday a new digital interference coming from Russia. Called “Portal Kombat”, this network of 193 sites was brought to light after four months of work by Viginum, the French organization fighting against foreign digital interference. Several directly target “Western countries that support Ukraine.”

A “structured and coordinated” network of sites disseminating Russian propaganda in Europe and the United States: France revealed on Monday a new digital interference coming from Russia as the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine approaches. Called “Portal Kombat”, this network of 193 sites was brought to light after four months of work by Viginum, the French organization fighting against foreign digital interference.

“Information portals” targeting Western countries supporting Ukraine

Between September and December 2023, Viginum analyzed the activity of this network of digital “information portals” with similar characteristics, which broadcast pro-Russian content to an international audience. Several of them, belonging to the "pravda" ecosystem - or "truth" in Russian, the name of the former organ of the Soviet Communist Party - directly target the "Western countries which support Ukraine", according to a report from Viginum.

The site intended for Spain is therefore called pravda-es.com, the one intended to be read in the United States or the United Kingdom is pravda-en.com. Germany, Austria and Switzerland have pravda-de.com, Poland pravda-pl.com and the French version is called pravda-fr.com. Between June 23 and September 19, these five portals published more than 150,000 articles, mainly from posts by Russian or pro-Russian personalities, content from Russian press agencies, or the sites of institutions or local actors, points out Viginum.

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More than 180 other sites, with similar graphic charters and which distribute pro-Russian content, but for Russian-speaking or Ukrainian audiences, are digitally linked to the Pravda portals, according to the French organization.

The objective of legitimizing the war led by Russia

The main goal of Portal Kombat appears to be to legitimize Russia's war in Ukraine, a diplomatic source told reporters. “Very ideologically oriented, these contents expose manifestly inaccurate or misleading narratives,” she observed. On January 22, pravda-fr.com published a list of 13 French mercenaries who, according to this site, "were in Kharkiv", in the north-east of Ukraine, during a Russian strike a few days earlier , strike having "eliminated" around sixty fighters "most of whom were French citizens" and injured 20 others, according to Moscow.

While Paris had denounced a "new crude Russian manipulation", the AFP was able to speak to three of these alleged "mercenaries", in fact three volunteers in the Ukrainian army, all alive and well. One of them, met by AFP at the foot of the French Alps, claimed to have left Ukraine in September 2023.

On Monday, pravda-fr.com headlined: "'Enough!' : France calls for radical measures against Zelensky", when these remarks were in fact made by Florian Philippot, the president of a small French far-right party, and do not commit Paris at all.

Moderate repercussions in the French-speaking public debate

Despite a system considered "elaborate", the repercussions in the French-speaking digital public debate remain moderate. "Nevertheless, in view of the nature of the narratives, the means implemented to disseminate them as well as the objectives which are pursued on a European scale, Viginum considers that the criteria for foreign digital interference are met, certain contents being able to harm fundamental interests of the nation", commented the diplomatic source.

“We expect an acceleration of the various Russian actions, even a massification,” also commented a military source, when elections are expected in more than 70 countries in 2024, notably in the United States.

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Portal Kombat sites, for which Viginum provides the names, can thus act as “sleeping” cells, capable of being activated at any time and covering “a very wide range of audiences depending on current events”. Pro-Russian groups had already been singled out by Meta (parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) and the French authorities for their “Doppelgänger” campaign, which since 2022 has consisted of usurping the visual identity of media to spread fake news. .

Since September, another campaign nicknamed "Matriochka", or "Russian dolls" consists of directly calling on the media to encourage them to verify fake news. According to experts, however, it is a question of Russia organizing a “diversionary enterprise” to exhaust Western fact-checkers.