Here’s how Russian propaganda keeps stealing the identity of RSF to manipulate public debate
Since July 2024, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has been targeted by a disinformation campaign that advances Russia’s agenda. Several videos circulating online credit the NGO with statements, information and positions it has never said or held. The videos use the credible reputation of RSF to make the Kremlin’s narrative seem legitimate and fact-based in the eyes of the public.
RSF has identified six online videos posted in just over six months that have stolen its identity and graphic charter — and almost all of these videos are about the war in Ukraine. In September 2024, we exposed the “information laundering” process behind one of these videos: the false information that first appeared in the clip became “legitimate” when it was repeated by several Russian authorities. That particular video claimed that RSF identified “1,000 cases of Ukrainian soldiers sympathizing with Nazism”; another states that “Reporters Without Borders recorded more than 4,300 cases of pressure on journalists working on Ukraine-related issues.” These are classic and completely false narratives used in Russian disinformation against Ukraine, which has become more brazen and widely disseminated since Russia’s large-scale invasion of the country on 24 February 2022.
The only video that is not about Ukraine claims that RSF lost its legal case against the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). In reality, the proceedings are still ongoing: this very real complaint against Elon Musk’s company was filed by RSF in November 2024 — and revolves around these very videos.
“Six false videos in just over six months: the relentless nature of this Russian propaganda reflects how effective RSF is. This false and misleading content — which uses the credible reputation of RSF to spread untrue information — illustrates not only the dangers of Russian disinformation but the consequences of the inaction of platforms like X, how ineffective the current fight against informational interference is, and how dangerous the news media’s passivity in the face of these attacks can be. These videos are not mere anecdotes but part of a massive strategy to influence and manipulate public opinion and legitimise the Kremlin's discourse, particularly on Ukraine. Who benefits from this crime? The Kremlin and its allies.
Bots and propagandists
While some of these videos circulated quietly, several seem to have been massively disseminated on platforms such as X and Telegram, sometimes accumulating hundreds of thousands of views. On X, some of these videos were viewed and shared hundreds of times in mere minutes by bots, creating the false impression they were viral – and therefore more credible. Despite the numerous reports RSF filed with X, the platform did not remove the misleading content. These videos continue to circulate today, months after they were posted, further proof of the platforms' complete lack of regulation.
Worse, the spread of this false information was exacerbated offline as it was repeated by high-level officials of the Russian state. On 28 August 2024, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova relayed the inexistant RSF study on Nazi leanings of Ukrainian servicemen during a press briefing, giving the false information more validity.
The Russian propaganda machine
In parallel, pro-Russian influencers on Telegram are helping spread this content. The “Ucraniando” channel is the latest example: with over 29,000 subscribers, it helped circulate a video claiming RSF was delighted that grants from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had been frozen. This account is allegedly run by a woman named Lisa Vukovic, who shares content on Ukraine that parrots the pro-Russian narrative to Spanish-speaking audiences. Barely an hour after publication, the video was picked up by the Spanish edition of the Russian propaganda site News Pravda, which cited the Telegram channel as its source. News Pravda is part of a vast, structured network flagged by VIGINUM, the French agency responsible for vigilance and protection against foreign digital interference. Called “Portal Kombat,” the network is comprised of 193 propaganda news portals that defend the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
VIGINUM also spotted another campaign adding to the wave of disinformation against our NGO. Entitled Matryoshka, it disseminates fake content by impersonating mainly Western media outlets, including RSF. Considered malicious digital interference by VIGINUM, Matryoshka is a prime example of the scale and structured nature of these interference campaigns, which target numerous media outlets and fact-checking organisations worldwide. By hijacking the identities of trustworthy institutions and putting their stamp on massively disseminated false content, this tactic deliberately undermines the public’s trust in reliable, journalistic information — and reshapes their perception of events to align with the Kremlin's narrative.
