France denounces a campaign of Russian digital interference

For the second time in a year, France officially denounces a campaign of Russian influence targeting the national territory. Thursday November 9, the Quai d’Orsay publicly condemned the involvement of the Doppelgänger disinformation network, or “Recent Reliable News”, in the amplification and dissemination of photos of blue Stars of David tagged on walls in Paris and its near suburbs.

In its press release, French diplomacy explains that numerous accounts on social networks attributed “with a high degree of confidence” to the Doppelganger network amplified the photos of these tags, but above all that they were the first to propagate them online. The investigation was carried out by Viginum, the French organization combating influence operations.

As observed The worldat least two photos of the tags taken at night rue de Rocroy (10^e arrondissement) had been massively distributed on Facebook and Twitter by Doppelganger accounts. If these automated accounts are crude, the photos distributed could not be found anywhere else, suggesting that they had been taken or received by a person linked to the disinformation network.

An ongoing investigation

The Quai d’Orsay specifies that its conviction relates specifically to the dissemination and amplification of these tags, while the very origin of the 250 Star of David stencils found in the Paris suburbs over the last ten days must be determined. by a judicial investigation. Four people of Moldovan nationality (including a couple who were arrested) are suspected of being behind some of them.

The alleged sponsor of the tagging operation, Moldovan businessman Anatolii Prizenko, confirmed daily Release having paid people to paint Stars of David on Parisian walls, ensuring that its aim was to ” sustain “ the French Jews. A dubious assertion, given that Mr. Prizenko has published messages with anti-Semitic connotations on social networks in recent years. The man, who was imprisoned for fraud in 2012, launched various small pro-Russian groups before joining the Moldovan Socialist Party, itself pro-Russian and largely controlled by Moscow.

Contacted by The worldMr. Prizenko only agreed to respond in writing, sheltering behind two unknown organizations, the “European Jewish Community” and the “Shield of David” (he himself explains not being Jewish and repeats having wanted “take away their fear from the Jews”). He refuses to discuss the financing of his operation, denies any link with structures or personalities linked to the Doppelgänger network and affirms “only be aware of actions carried out in France”. “It is possible that there were some in other countries but which were not noticed by the media”, he writes. Photos of tags in German cities have been distributed in recent weeks by Russian propaganda accounts on the Telegram messaging service.

Moscow, for its part, has refuted any link with these operations. “No, there was no external influence, it is not sabotage or provocation”, the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, certified on Thursday during a press conference. Russian diplomacy recently made similar accusations against “Western secret services”designated as those responsible for various anti-Semitic incidents that occurred in the Caucasus on October 28 and 29, in particular the attack on Makhachkala airport, in Dagestan.

This is the second official condemnation from the Quai d’Orsay targeting Doppelgänger, a long and vast online Russian influence operation which relies as much on fake news sites as on copies of French, German or even French media. Ukrainians. This network distributes its content in particular using a network of fake Facebook and Twitter accounts, generally of very poor quality and with limited reach, but also by purchasing advertisements on Meta’s social network using fake pages.