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The Kremlin’s “Doppelgänger” bot network has launched a campaign to spread pseudo-journalistic articles claiming that the decision of newly sworn in U.S. President Donald Trump to freeze aid programs for Ukraine is the right move — and that Europe should also stop supporting Kyiv.
These articles have been published on fake websites mimicking the German outlet Der Spiegel and French newspaper Le Parisien. The “opinion pieces,” allegedly written on behalf of German and French citizens, were identified and shared with The Insider by the Bot Blocker project (@antibot4navalny). The central narrative of these pseudo-publications is that after Trump’s decision, the financial burden of supporting Ukraine will fall entirely on Europe.
One article on the fake Der Spiegel site reads:
“Germany faces a choice: either continue to follow orders from across the ocean, help Ukraine, and increase military spending at the expense of everything else — leading to further economic decline, rising unemployment, and poverty. Or start saving itself, as the country is already on the brink of an economic catastrophe. Much will depend on the decisions we make on February 23. We must approach them with the utmost thoughtfulness and awareness.”
Meanwhile, the fake Le Parisien site declares:
“The U.S. President is cutting aid to corrupt Ukraine, while Emmanuel Macron is ready to keep destroying his own country. The French should prepare for hard times.”
These articles are being widely shared on X (formerly Twitter) by numerous bot accounts, which accompany them with identical messages, such as:
- “I support peace and stability, but not at any cost. We must also think about our own people.”
- “The U.S. is leaving and making Europe deal with the consequences alone? That’s unfair. We can’t bear the entire burden.”
- “I’m worried about the constant discussions about arms supplies. I don’t want Germany to be dragged even deeper into this conflict.”
Doppelgänger is the codename for a Kremlin-led foreign influence campaign, which involves the creation of fake news websites and inauthentic social media accounts. These platforms spread false or distorted information in multiple languages in furtherance of the interests of the Russian government and Moscow’s intelligence agencies.
The campaign has frequently targeted Ukrainian politicians and regularly employs narratives related to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For instance, in late 2023, hundreds of fake accounts on Twitter (X) and other social media platforms began spreading quotes critical of the war and of Western financial aid to Ukraine. Some of these posts used images of celebrities like Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Angelina Jolie, and Cristiano Ronaldo, falsely claiming that these figures had spoken out against aid to Ukraine and against President Volodymyr Zelensky.
German investigative outlet Correctiv exposed direct links between the Doppelgänger campaign and the Russian government. Their investigation revealed that one of the IP addresses used by operators of the disinformation campaign was connected to an employee of the Main Communications Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Information Processing Center.
The IP address was part of the network of “Voentelecom” — a virtual mobile operator jointly created by the Russian Ministry of Defense and Russian telecom provider T2.
Correctiv’s earlier findings revealed that European companies were involved in supporting the Kremlin's Doppelgänger bot network, but that they gradually ceased providing services for the propaganda campaign. Two Russian entities behind the campaign — the companies “Struktura” and “Social Design Agency” — have been under EU sanctions since mid-2023.
One of Doppelgänger’s disinformation attacks was investigated by French authorities. In early 2024, they determined that sanctioned European IT companies “National Technologies” and the “Social Design Agency” (SDA) had been responsible for republishing massive amounts of false stories sourced to pro-Kremlin entities. The ultimate owner of National Technologies LLC is Rostec — Russia’s sprawling state-owned defense corporation, led by former KGB agent and close Putin associate Sergey Chemezov.
The bots also promoted the EuroBRICS website, which has proven links to the GRU's Special Service Center (Military Unit 54777) — the agency’s psychological operations unit. In July 2023, the European Union imposed sanctions against those involved in the misinformation campaign. The list included the above-mentioned National Technologies and Social Design Agency, as well as several officers from GRU Unit 54777.