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By Alice Lee
Russia is already the world leader in interfering in other countries’ elections. The Kremlin perfected use of state media, fake social media accounts, and impersonating reliable news sources. NewsGuard has discovered a new tactic Russia uses to power its influence operations: Spreading claims by apparent independent voices who are aligned with Kremlin interests.
A NewsGuard investigation released today into Armenia’s parliamentary elections to be held on June 7 shows this latest innovation: Okay Deprem, who identifies as an independent Turkish journalist, originated nearly 40 percent of the false claims spread by Storm-1516, a Russian disinformation network targeting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ahead of the elections. The claims included that Pashinyan’s wife was having an affair with a Turkish actor, and that Pashinyan was planning to remove all mentions of the “Armenian people” from the country’s constitution.
Instead of appearing on fake websites, which is how Russia’s Storm-1516 usually operates, Deprem’s articles ran on real Turkish nationalist and pro-Russian media outlets. This gives the disinformation a veneer of legitimacy, increases its spread, and may be more persuasive to undecided voters.
Read the full report here.
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