Russia’s war on Ukraine is not only fought on the battlefield. Through its “digital army”, Moscow floods the information space with falsehoods to undermine Ukraine, divide the West, and destabilize democracies. …
Storm-1516 [a Russian propagandist group which creates and spreads online disinformation to further the interests of the Russian government] has been active since August 2023 and has since launched multiple aggressive operations producing “AI-powered disinformation at industrial scale” aimed at discrediting Ukraine and eroding trust across the West.
The group creates a false narrative, generating deceptively convincing articles and AI-generated videos, relying on its vast network of propagandists and pro-Kremlin voices to push their fake narratives.
Gnida Project reported that this is the first time Storm-1516 has impersonated real living journalists to spread its propaganda. Although Russia has deployed similar tactics, such as stealing the identities of deceased civilians to create fake profiles of “writers” and “experts” to spread its propaganda.
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I’ve learned that I’ve been writing for this fake news outlet since March. It’s quite disturbing when you see my photo, my name, and my first name associated with conspiracy theories. I’m a journalist; I have absolutely nothing to do with this content. – Audrey Parmentier, journalist at French newspaper Le Monde
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Fake news stories spread across Europe using stolen identities across Europe [the article provides examples for Storm 1516-propaganda in Romania, Moldova, France, Germany, Armenia, Norway].
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Who are Storm-1516’s key figures?
- John Mark Dougan: In June 2025, US-based fact-checker NewsGuard named John Mark Dougan—an ex-Florida deputy sheriff who fled to Moscow—its “2024 Disinformer of the Year.” Dougan engineered Storm‑1516, a Kremlin-linked disinformation network behind over 171 fake news sites and 32 false narratives, racking up over 67 million views in 16 languages—reaching audiences worldwide and even influencing US congressional debate.
- Alina Lipp: a German citizen with nearly 180,000 followers on Telegram, “News from Russia and Donbas,” runs one of the most popular Russian propaganda outlets in Germany. She has spread multiple disinformation campaigns outlined above.
- Lucas Leiroz is a key amplifier of Kremlin-linked disinformation from the “Foundation to Battle Injustice” (R-BFI), founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin—leader of the Russian PMC Wagner Group until his 2023 demise—and run by Mira Terada, a former US prisoner narrowly avoiding a drug trafficking conviction.
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French disinfo watchdog VIGINUM considers Storm-1516’s activities “meet the criteria of foreign digital interference, and represent a significant threat to the French and European digital public debate.”
VIGINUM labels Storm-1516 a “significant threat” to European digital debate. France strongly condemns Russia’s destabilizing campaigns, and Storm-1516’s actions make Russia unworthy of a UN Security Council seat.
French authorities urge social media platforms to take responsibility in fighting this foreign interference, affirming that no manipulation will deter France’s support for Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression.
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So yes, if it was exactly like you say that concept is called “critical support”. It is possible and often necessary to align with imperfect allies against the greater foe.
However, since we are in the Europe comm I assume you are implicitly alluding to the Ukrainian conflict. Once you believe that Russia is allowed to have national security interests, the whole conflict is quite cut and dry. In the decades since the fall of the Soviet Union, The West has repeatedly promised that NATO would not expand East, and has repeatedly broken that promise. Would you trust the West? What if a right-wing government took over in a Western-backed coup and banned the use of the Russian language, while making overtures to join NATO?
This analogy is imperfect but imagine if the Quebecois seized power in Canada and banned the use of English, while also trying to join the SCO quasi-alliance. Do you think the US would wax poetic about self-determination or would we immediately see Abrams tanks rolling north?
When and where was it promised that NATO wouldn’t accept candidates from the east? Nowhere. It wasn’t included in any treaties.
Russia wants it’s area of influence ie hold power over other smaller countries. They instead chose to apply for membership in NATO. Go figure.
Russia still thinks the big players decide everything amongst themselves. They think the us decides everything that happens in NATO alone. Guess what. There are alliances like the EU of smaller countries that wool stand up to Russia. Guess what. The us isn’t the dictator that controls NATO.
The only thing Russia has left is the information war and we now must beat them at that before they use this tool to damage our societies.
NATO enlargement hasn’t done any real harm to Russia. It has only harmed their ability to bully their small neighbours.
This was done by James Baker, US Secretary of state in 1990:
Yes, this is a universal feature of great power geopolitics going back centuries.
LOL who could even argue otherwise after the utter humiliation of US treaty allies in recent tariff agreements?
Well that and also winning the land war and the economic war…do you really not see what is going on?
Ok first of all this is a direct quote from the first secretary general of NATO from the literal website:
The Soviets applied to join NATO in 1954 but they were denied. Also NATO bombed Yugoslavia in the 90s.
No, it isn’t in any treaty that NATO won’t accept new countries in the east. That’s propaganda. It was talked about beforehand yes but it wasn’t in the treaty that Russia also signed.
Well I and a lot of countries don’t agree with the premise that the big countries should decide all amongst themselves.
Of course trump is Putin’s wet dream in that he also leans in that direction of thinking but NATO and the west are not built like that and have a lot in place to check the big players. We will see how much trump well take the us in another direction.
Also keeping someone out is not harming them. It simply means they are the aggressor that we have to prepare for and defend against if they come.
The millions of Russians that fled the country disagree with your points.
Right, I never claimed that it was. Saying “well the US promised but they didn’t get it in a treaty haha” is…not the own you think it is?
In your view do the EU and NATO support this vision of national liberation and non-interference in internal affairs in practice? Sounds like you might be a Baltic resident - do you feel like you have independence from French and German national politics or…not?
If NATO somehow limps its way to the other side of the Trump administration after years of economic suicide…
I think this is a pretty naive and ahistorical view of international relations. Great powers don’t think like that. Also, you’re failing to consider what happened before 2022 if you want to really understand the other side of the argument.
Strange argument. What about the Ukrainians that have fled the country, does that condemn the government there?
Listen. Do you support the democrats against Trump? Of course you don’t. But why, it’s aligning with imperfect allies (neoliberals) against the greater foe (nationalist capitalist conservatives)? The answer is the same in both cases. I don’t have to support states. I can already see you typing “but what about Ukraine” and my answer is, I don’t support Ukraine. I support the people in their war against an invader, in the way I support Palestinians without supporting Hamas. Because lesser-evilism is still evil. And there’s a whole can of nuance I have opened right now, so…
Do you believe Israel should be allowed to invade Palestine? Of course you don’t, because you’re not that monsterish. But, using your analogy, they should have the right to invade Palestine. The key is, once again, the people. We can be in solidarity with the people as opposed to states. We can support actual grassroots resistence without being simps for the state. It gets clearer once you understand that democracy is a myth. And that countries don’t act out of the people’s word.
I would probably oppose it, coups are bad for everyone. It’s imperialism, a projection of power by a foreign government. And neither of the countries’ peoples really benefit off it as opposed to a mutual treaty. But I believe you think this has already happened, and I haven’t seen any proof. Either way, Ukraine should let the separatists separate if that is the voice of the people. I have serious doubts over that case however. Invasion is not the answer in any case whatsoever.
Predicting the US is getting harder each day, but they probably wouldn’t waste hours. IDK here. Canada has already done so much shit to its indigenous nations, so many war crimes that don’t get talked about… Did the US intervene back then? Of course they wouldn’t, the self-determination is not the point of any superpower. Also, the same as above.
Trump! What a complex case. First off since you are addressing me personally I will tell you that your assumption is incorrect and I supported Kamala in the general. HOWEVER - assessing Trump’s second term from a materialist perspective has many twists and turns. I would sum it up this way: Trump is clearly the most incompetent and openly fascist president in US history. BUT this is having the effect of RAPIDLY dismantling every single pillar of US imperialism - the Dollar, the alliances, the military, the trade networks, the exploited labor of undocumented immigrants. You know that MLs call him JDPON Don right?
Again speaking personally I have and do align with neoliberals in the very narrow space where they can be trusted (Human rights sometimes? Labor rights sometimes?). They are very imperfect allies and always have been.
I agree with this principle
So here is where we are working off different facts I think. Do you believe that Euromaidan was a right-wing coup sponsored by the US? Everyone knows that they banned the use of the Russian language (I know they reversed it after). Do you believe that the Ukrainians were all too happy to send Neo-Nazi paramilitaries like the Azov Brigade against civilians in Eastern Ukraine in the years before 2022?
Right so I regard the entire modern history of the “State of Israel” as illegitimate settler colonial oppression. Therefore I support violent and nonviolent resistance to the land theft and ongoing genocide. By contrast, given the history and the context I have “critical support” for the Russians in their goal to halt Eastward NATO expansion and stop the expulsion of ethnic/linguistic Russians from the Donbas. I’m not saying I particularly like the current government of Russia (I don’t) but just like with Trump I support their efforts to dismantle the Western imperial bloc.
I think this is again where we are working from different facts. I happen to believe that actually existing Leninist states can and have improved the lives of the people with universal health care and education, land reform, state-owned industries etc. Even Western sources are forced to concede these points to some extent. Perhaps this is the core of our disagreement. Once again, I’m willing to go source-for-source with you if that is where this is headed.
Wait do we have to dig in on this one? The Euromaidan coup was literally and plainly funded by NED and the freshly installed parliament literally banned the Russian language - are these disputed facts in this context?
I think maybe you are missing the point of this analogy but I think we agree on the end facts? Just going to leave it be.