French military and cybersecurity specialists have unveiled a Moscow-based network allegedly engaged in propagating disinformation across Western Europe. This revelation comes from France’s Viginum agency, established in 2021 to combat digital interference from abroad.
The agency identified the network, dubbed “Portal Kombat,” responsible for circulating pro-Russian narratives and targeting individuals with conspiracy theories via social media and messaging apps. “Portal Kombat” reportedly consists of at least 193 websites promoting the Russian stance on the Ukraine conflict and vilifying the Ukrainian government.
Researchers from Viginum traced the network’s activities from September to December of the previous year, pinpointing the origin of this extensive disinformation campaign to Moscow. This network includes a channel on the French Telegram app that disseminates up to nine articles per hour.
At a recent conference in Brussels, disinformation has been labeled by the European Commission, NATO, and UN agencies as one of the gravest threats to democracy in 2024. A senior NATO official has underscored disinformation as a “national security issue,” acknowledging that hybrid attacks could equate to an armed assault.
Melissa Fleming, the UN’s communications secretary general, voiced at the conference that disinformation is “being used to create not just the fog of war, but more suspicion, and more hatred,” disrupting the efforts of peacekeeping forces.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, reflected on the nature of modern warfare, emphasizing that it’s now centered on words and ideas that “can colonize your mind” rather than traditional weaponry.
The EU’s Věra Jourová, responsible for media and disinformation portfolios, commended the efforts of France, Germany, and Poland to counteract these actions, stating, “Every day we see the Kremlin’s action to spread propaganda and interfere in democracies.”
The report also sheds light on the modus operandi of the network, which repurposes content from Russian and pro-Russian sources rather than creating original material, aiming to inundate the internet with Kremlin-aligned messaging.
Despite its scale, the campaign’s efficacy seems limited, with the portals attracting an average of 31,000 visits in November 2023, and the French-targeted portal receiving the least traffic. The comprehensive report outlines the network’s strategies, including content automation and search engine optimization, to polarize public debate and influence perceptions of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.
