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Russian tech bro with a taste for “girls and cars” figured out how to infect the world’s AI models with the Kremlin’s favorite false claims
Shevchenko succeeds American fugitive John Mark Dougan as the world’s top disinformer
By Alice Lee and Eva Maitland
In a year when Russia redoubled its disinformation efforts and invested heavily in developing its foreign propaganda machine, Yevgeny Shevchenko’s Pravda network stood above the rest for the sheer volume of false claims it spread in 2025.
Named after the Russian word for “truth,” the Pravda network of 286 seemingly automated news sites published a total of 6.3 million articles from pro-Kremlin sources in 49 languages in 2025, NewsGuard found. From fake corruption claims against Ukraine’s leaders to targeting pro-Western candidates in Eastern European elections, the Pravda network produced on average a staggering 17,000 news stories a day.
In light of Shevchenko’s massively effective network spreading Russian propaganda to dozens of countries and infecting AI models with fake news, the 37-year-old Crimea native is NewsGuard’s “Disinformer of the Year 2025.” In sheer volume and scope he has surpassed John Mark Dougan, a U.S. fugitive living in Russia, and the winner of last...
The Department of State Services (DSS) has said its decision to prosecute online publisher and politician, Omoyele Sowore, was based on the perceived security implications of a social media post i...