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A Russian influence campaign is impersonating NewsGuard as part of a broader disinformation campaign targeting Armenia ahead of its June 2026 parliamentary elections, in an apparent effort to undermine trust in the country’s political process and its growing ties to the West.
The Russian campaign, known as Matryoshka, published a fabricated video on March 10 claiming to come from that mimics NewsGuard’s branding. to target Armenian voters. The video falsely attributed to NewsGuard claims that under a “secret agreement” between French President Emmanuel Macron and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Armenian political strategists traveled to France before the election to “gain experience in vote manipulation.” The Russian campaign was first reported by Armenian pro-democracy news outlet CivilNet.
The bogus video follows a report by NewsGuard about a Russia-linked disinformation campaign targeting Armenia. These efforts have focused on discrediting Armenia’s leadership and its geopolitical shift away from Moscow and toward closer relations with Western countries.
This is not the first instance of the Matryoshka campaign...
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