How Russia Used A Fake Video About RSF As War Propaganda

Russian authorities and pro-Kremlin influencers have been spreading false information about alleged Reporters Without Borders (RSF) research into Nazi tendencies within the Ukrainian military, which was featured in a viral video falsely attributed to the BBC. RSF exposes the inner workings of a disinformation campaign designed to justify President Vladimir Putin's war narrative.

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” This quote is often attributed to Mark Twain, but it could just as well be the slogan for Russia’s propaganda machine. At the time of this writing, a video with the BBC’s logo about an alleged RSF study that found 1,000 cases of Ukrainian soldiers showing sympathy for Nazism has racked up over 400,000 views, mainly on X and Telegram. The BBC never produced this video, and RSF never published this study. At no point did Antoine Bernard, RSF’s Director of Advocacy and Assistance whose likeness appears in the video, call on other media to cover this fabricated story, as the video suggests.

"The Russian authorities launder deceptive information by using the reputation of certain Western organizations (in this case the BBC and RSF) to lend credibility to their war propaganda, allowing disinformation to manipulate public opinion. They act like a criminal organization, applying methods used by traffickers to create value for illegal revenue within the information space: disinformation is produced, laundered, then re-injected into public discourse to be reused and perceived as credible information."

Arnaud Froger
Head of RSF's Investigations Desk

According to RSF’s investigation – conducted in collaboration with Bloom Social Analytics, a French start-up that detects influence operations – the video first appeared on X on August 24 at 1 p.m. It was posted by "Patricia," who claims to be a translator and geolocates herself in France on her X profile. The account posts content in English, German, French, and Russian, averaging around 40 posts per day since its creation in February 2024. The profile photo appears on a Russian site featuring photos of blond women "to make avatars." The account name appears to have been automatically generated by X. According to Grok — Elon Musk’s ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence tool with a database that includes tweets on X — the account has "very strong opinions, often in support of Russia and Vladimir Putin, while severely criticizing Ukraine and its supporters in Europe." To put it simply: a troll.

The fabricated BBC video began circulating from this fake account, which is very active in relaying Kremlin propaganda in several languages – but with a limited audience. A few hours after the video was posted, it was picked up by Chay Bowes, an Irish entrepreneur known for his previous career in journalism and, above all, his position as a Western powerbroker in Russia, where he now lives. Moscow invited Bowes to address the UN Security Council in June 2023, where he publicly accused NATO of waging a "proxy war" in Ukraine.

The next day, "Aussie Cossack," a propagandist contracted by the Kremlin whose real name is Simeon Boikov, amplified the fake video on Telegram by sharing it with his 83,000 subscribers. Boikov is known for taking refuge in the Russian consulate in Sydney to escape prosecution after assaulting a pro-Ukrainian protester. He has since obtained Russian citizenship.

Social media platforms complicit in the spread of disinformation

As the fake video spread on Telegram – the messaging platform that generates the most traffic in Russia – the disinformation within its content slipped into the discourse of Russian authorities. Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, was the first official to share this false information at her press conference on August 28. It was then spread by the Russian embassies in Chile and Bulgaria, and was eventually posted on the Foreign Ministry website.

Once officials relayed this disinformation, its dissemination grew. Well known players in the Russian information space amplified the video, notably on Telegram. On September 4, Ruslan Ostachko – a presenter on Channel One, the country's leading propaganda channel, and member of "Team Putin," the group supporting Putin's re-election in March 2024 – reposted the video on his Telegram account. The same day, the video reached a peak audience of over 156,000 views after being picked up by military blogger Sergei Kolyasnikov. In France, it was relayed by Brainless Partisans, an anonymous pro-Kremlin X account already known for broadcasting a fake video attributed to USA Today claiming that the Church of Satan had thanked the organizers of the Paris Olympics.

RSF sent 12 alerts to X about this video, but the platform has yet to follow through on our requests to remove the posts that first relayed or helped amplify the spread of this false information. While most of the reports are under review, one of them "is not likely to be removed" under the legal framework of the European Union’s Digital Services Act, X replied. It is a surprising response considering RSF provided X with all of the elements that justify the removal of the deceptive content and identity theft via the established procedure.

At the time of this writing, Telegram had not yet responded to RSF’s requests concerning four posts sharing the video.

Bowes, the first to relay the video, took down his post after being contacted by RSF.

Zakharova, contacted by e-mail and on Telegram, did not specify whether she intended to issue a public correction at her next press briefing or whether this false information would be amended on the Russian Foreign Ministry website.

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