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Sergey Mulivanov, a 59-year-old activist with the Latvian Russian Union who moved to Russia two years ago ... left Latvia because he disagreed with its policies. He supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and criticized the Latvian authorities for supporting Kyiv, forging closer ties with the West, and restricting the use of Russian. He ran a blog and contributed to Russian propaganda outlets, including an article for the Tsargrad television channel’s website.

...

After arriving in Russia, Mulivanov obtained citizenship.

...

Mulivanov’s loved ones say he was tricked into signing a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry ... In late October, word came that Mulivanov was about to be sent to the front.

...

People close to Mulivanov say he has type 2 diabetes and polyneuropathy.

...

Archived

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Sergey Mulivanov, a 59-year-old activist with the Latvian Russian Union who moved to Russia two years ago ... left Latvia because he disagreed with its policies. He supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and criticized the Latvian authorities for supporting Kyiv, forging closer ties with the West, and restricting the use of Russian. He ran a blog and contributed to Russian propaganda outlets, including an article for the Tsargrad television channel’s website.

...

After arriving in Russia, Mulivanov obtained citizenship.

...

Mulivanov’s loved ones say he was tricked into signing a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry ... In late October, word came that Mulivanov was about to be sent to the front.

...

People close to Mulivanov say he has type 2 diabetes and polyneuropathy.

...

Archived

[Original in Russian. This is an automated and paraphrased translation.]

Russian financial intelligence needs to strengthen control over “suspicious” financial transactions in the market, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a celebration dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Rosfinmonitoring, the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring of the Russian Federation.

According to Putin, the Russian financial system is threatened by foreign criminal groups and foreign special services. They use various tools, including cryptocurrencies and other payment mechanisms, to “cover up shadow settlements” and involve young people in illegal activities.

"Your [Rosfinmonitoring's] task is to see, as they say, at distant posts, before they cause real damage, and to do this, effectively use financial intelligence tools, more actively introduce advanced analytical models and artificial intelligence technologies,” he said.

The Russian authorities are systematically tightening financial regulation, which leads to massive blocking of bank transfers and cards of Russians, increasing the complexity of crypto turnover and restrictions on the use of foreign currency.

In September, Rosfinmonitoring proposed to introduce a new basis for blocking bank accounts of citizens: operations are going to be suspended if the data of the bank’s client coincides with information about the person whose funds were frozen. Access to money is expected to be restored in five days, unless a decision is made to extend the restrictions.

In the summer, Putin signed a law allowing banks to suspend customer remittances for up to six hours if they appear suspicious.

Archived

...

Sergey Mulivanov, a 59-year-old activist with the Latvian Russian Union who moved to Russia two years ago ... left Latvia because he disagreed with its policies. He supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and criticized the Latvian authorities for supporting Kyiv, forging closer ties with the West, and restricting the use of Russian. He ran a blog and contributed to Russian propaganda outlets, including an article for the Tsargrad television channel’s website.

...

After arriving in Russia, Mulivanov obtained citizenship.

...

Mulivanov’s loved ones say he was tricked into signing a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry ... In late October, word came that Mulivanov was about to be sent to the front.

...

People close to Mulivanov say he has type 2 diabetes and polyneuropathy.

...

Archived

Russia’s disinformation war on the UK has reached new highs as Kremlin-backed media seek to sow chaos amongst Britons and ramp up attacks on their “main adversary”, experts warn.

In the past six months, state-affiliated media have pushed hundreds of thousands of stories on social media portraying Britain as ungovernable, defenceless, and a legitimate Russian target, The Independent can reveal.

Analysis by risk intelligence firm Osavul, which tracks global hybrid threats and supplies technology to Nato, shows such media output rose by around 15 per cent in September, when it produced around 40,365 stories about the UK, while similar levels of disinformation pushed in October.

False claims that the UK bombed the city of Voronezh with storm shadow missiles, that British police were threatening to arrest people for using air conditioners, and that Andy Burnham was “powerless to stop the UK's collapse” are among several posts seen by The Independent.

Osavul said the aim was “to leave British readers with a lower opinion of their own state, and readers abroad with the sense that Britain is not a serious power”.

...

Archived

With the French presidential election months away, Russia's disinformation machine works to ensure no pro-Ukraine candidate enters the Elysee Palace.

Viginum, the French agency that counters foreign interference, has already detected hundreds of disinformation operations targeting the vote, whose outcome will have major ramifications for Ukraine and Europe.

Moscow-linked campaigns have spread false claims that center-left Raphael Glucksmann helped set up torture prisons in Ukraine, that President Emmanuel Macron's protege Gabriel Attal inherited a drug empire, or that the centrist candidate Edouard Philippe suffers from dementia.

A victory by one of these three candidates would signal that Paris will stay on its pro-Ukraine, pro-European course — making them a primary target for Russia.

...

Undermining them ahead of the April 2027 election could pave the way for a runoff between far-right Marine Le Pen and far-left Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Smearing France's pro-Ukraine candidates

Glucksmann, the co-leader of the center-left Place Publique (PP) party, ranks among the most decisively pro-Ukraine voices on the French political scene.

The social democratic MEP lambasted European leaders for not doing enough to help Kyiv and urged the seizure of immobilized Russian assets.

It comes as little surprise that he found himself one of the primary targets of Russian-backed disinformation.

...

Two notorious Russian-linked campaigns have targeted French elections.

Matryoshka, which pushes out a dozen false reports a day while posing as established media outlets or experts, is the most prolific, says Chine Labbe, the senior vice-president for partnerships and managing editor for Europe at NewsGuard.

"As of mid-October 2026, we had counted 89 fake Matryoshka reports targeting French presidential candidates."

The other is Storm-1516, a more sophisticated campaign linked to the GRU that uses generative AI to set up whole new websites.

"Since this summer, we have counted seven claims from this operation targeting French candidates, three of which imitated real news outlets," Labbe told the Kyiv Independent.

According to Viginum, the fake news stories targeting Philippe and Glucksmann in the summer were carried out by Storm-1516.

The same operation was behind more recent false reports — posing as the French environmental news site Reporterre — that Glucksmann spent over 2 million euros ($2.2 million) on private jet flights, the independent Gnida Project reported.

....

The fact that the three centrist, pro-Kyiv candidates are the main target of these operations is also a clear clue of Russian involvement.

"The false claims typically portray them as mentally unstable, corrupt, and generally unfit for office, echoing the Russian-backed false claims that have targeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in recent years," Labbe said.

Paris has emerged as one of Kyiv's key military allies since Russia launched its full-scale war, providing long-range missiles, fighter jets, artillery, and more.

Macron has also played a leading role in the Coalition of the Willing, a group of nations committed to providing aid and post-war security guarantees to Ukraine. A victory by far-right or far-left candidates would likely call this role into question.

...

But support for Ukraine is far from the only issue that Russian disinformation seeks to exploit.

Amelie Jaques-Apke, a disinformation and foreign influence expert at Sciences Po's CEVIPOF research center, identifies the erosion of trust in French democratic institutions as the chief goal.

"Damaging individual candidates is the visible tactic. The more durable objective is to make whatever result emerges look illegitimate," Jaques-Apke told the Kyiv Independent.

However, the actual impact of these campaigns on French voters is more difficult to gauge. Viginum described the operations as "mediocre" and "lacking visibility."

"The real risk lies in amplification," Jaques-Apke says.

"These fakes gain reach when they are picked up by Russian officials or state media, by pro-Russian figures in the West, or when politicians denounce them loudly and unintentionally spread them further."

Furthermore, Russian disinformation continues to evolve, deploying generative AI to produce more convincing fakes, professionalizing its operations, and monetizing divisive content, the expert warns.

"(The campaigns') limited impact so far is therefore no guarantee for April."

...

Archived

With the French presidential election months away, Russia's disinformation machine works to ensure no pro-Ukraine candidate enters the Elysee Palace.

Viginum, the French agency that counters foreign interference, has already detected hundreds of disinformation operations targeting the vote, whose outcome will have major ramifications for Ukraine and Europe.

Moscow-linked campaigns have spread false claims that center-left Raphael Glucksmann helped set up torture prisons in Ukraine, that President Emmanuel Macron's protege Gabriel Attal inherited a drug empire, or that the centrist candidate Edouard Philippe suffers from dementia.

A victory by one of these three candidates would signal that Paris will stay on its pro-Ukraine, pro-European course — making them a primary target for Russia.

...

Undermining them ahead of the April 2027 election could pave the way for a runoff between far-right Marine Le Pen and far-left Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Smearing France's pro-Ukraine candidates

Glucksmann, the co-leader of the center-left Place Publique (PP) party, ranks among the most decisively pro-Ukraine voices on the French political scene.

The social democratic MEP lambasted European leaders for not doing enough to help Kyiv and urged the seizure of immobilized Russian assets.

It comes as little surprise that he found himself one of the primary targets of Russian-backed disinformation.

...

Two notorious Russian-linked campaigns have targeted French elections.

Matryoshka, which pushes out a dozen false reports a day while posing as established media outlets or experts, is the most prolific, says Chine Labbe, the senior vice-president for partnerships and managing editor for Europe at NewsGuard.

"As of mid-October 2026, we had counted 89 fake Matryoshka reports targeting French presidential candidates."

The other is Storm-1516, a more sophisticated campaign linked to the GRU that uses generative AI to set up whole new websites.

"Since this summer, we have counted seven claims from this operation targeting French candidates, three of which imitated real news outlets," Labbe told the Kyiv Independent.

According to Viginum, the fake news stories targeting Philippe and Glucksmann in the summer were carried out by Storm-1516.

The same operation was behind more recent false reports — posing as the French environmental news site Reporterre — that Glucksmann spent over 2 million euros ($2.2 million) on private jet flights, the independent Gnida Project reported.

....

The fact that the three centrist, pro-Kyiv candidates are the main target of these operations is also a clear clue of Russian involvement.

"The false claims typically portray them as mentally unstable, corrupt, and generally unfit for office, echoing the Russian-backed false claims that have targeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in recent years," Labbe said.

Paris has emerged as one of Kyiv's key military allies since Russia launched its full-scale war, providing long-range missiles, fighter jets, artillery, and more.

Macron has also played a leading role in the Coalition of the Willing, a group of nations committed to providing aid and post-war security guarantees to Ukraine. A victory by far-right or far-left candidates would likely call this role into question.

...

But support for Ukraine is far from the only issue that Russian disinformation seeks to exploit.

Amelie Jaques-Apke, a disinformation and foreign influence expert at Sciences Po's CEVIPOF research center, identifies the erosion of trust in French democratic institutions as the chief goal.

"Damaging individual candidates is the visible tactic. The more durable objective is to make whatever result emerges look illegitimate," Jaques-Apke told the Kyiv Independent.

However, the actual impact of these campaigns on French voters is more difficult to gauge. Viginum described the operations as "mediocre" and "lacking visibility."

"The real risk lies in amplification," Jaques-Apke says.

"These fakes gain reach when they are picked up by Russian officials or state media, by pro-Russian figures in the West, or when politicians denounce them loudly and unintentionally spread them further."

Furthermore, Russian disinformation continues to evolve, deploying generative AI to produce more convincing fakes, professionalizing its operations, and monetizing divisive content, the expert warns.

"(The campaigns') limited impact so far is therefore no guarantee for April."

...

Archived

Russia’s disinformation war on the UK has reached new highs as Kremlin-backed media seek to sow chaos amongst Britons and ramp up attacks on their “main adversary”, experts warn.

In the past six months, state-affiliated media have pushed hundreds of thousands of stories on social media portraying Britain as ungovernable, defenceless, and a legitimate Russian target, The Independent can reveal.

Analysis by risk intelligence firm Osavul, which tracks global hybrid threats and supplies technology to Nato, shows such media output rose by around 15 per cent in September, when it produced around 40,365 stories about the UK, while similar levels of disinformation pushed in October.

False claims that the UK bombed the city of Voronezh with storm shadow missiles, that British police were threatening to arrest people for using air conditioners, and that Andy Burnham was “powerless to stop the UK's collapse” are among several posts seen by The Independent.

Osavul said the aim was “to leave British readers with a lower opinion of their own state, and readers abroad with the sense that Britain is not a serious power”.

...

Archived

With the French presidential election months away, Russia's disinformation machine works to ensure no pro-Ukraine candidate enters the Elysee Palace.

Viginum, the French agency that counters foreign interference, has already detected hundreds of disinformation operations targeting the vote, whose outcome will have major ramifications for Ukraine and Europe.

Moscow-linked campaigns have spread false claims that center-left Raphael Glucksmann helped set up torture prisons in Ukraine, that President Emmanuel Macron's protege Gabriel Attal inherited a drug empire, or that the centrist candidate Edouard Philippe suffers from dementia.

A victory by one of these three candidates would signal that Paris will stay on its pro-Ukraine, pro-European course — making them a primary target for Russia.

...

Undermining them ahead of the April 2027 election could pave the way for a runoff between far-right Marine Le Pen and far-left Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Smearing France's pro-Ukraine candidates

Glucksmann, the co-leader of the center-left Place Publique (PP) party, ranks among the most decisively pro-Ukraine voices on the French political scene.

The social democratic MEP lambasted European leaders for not doing enough to help Kyiv and urged the seizure of immobilized Russian assets.

It comes as little surprise that he found himself one of the primary targets of Russian-backed disinformation.

...

Two notorious Russian-linked campaigns have targeted French elections.

Matryoshka, which pushes out a dozen false reports a day while posing as established media outlets or experts, is the most prolific, says Chine Labbe, the senior vice-president for partnerships and managing editor for Europe at NewsGuard.

"As of mid-October 2026, we had counted 89 fake Matryoshka reports targeting French presidential candidates."

The other is Storm-1516, a more sophisticated campaign linked to the GRU that uses generative AI to set up whole new websites.

"Since this summer, we have counted seven claims from this operation targeting French candidates, three of which imitated real news outlets," Labbe told the Kyiv Independent.

According to Viginum, the fake news stories targeting Philippe and Glucksmann in the summer were carried out by Storm-1516.

The same operation was behind more recent false reports — posing as the French environmental news site Reporterre — that Glucksmann spent over 2 million euros ($2.2 million) on private jet flights, the independent Gnida Project reported.

....

The fact that the three centrist, pro-Kyiv candidates are the main target of these operations is also a clear clue of Russian involvement.

"The false claims typically portray them as mentally unstable, corrupt, and generally unfit for office, echoing the Russian-backed false claims that have targeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in recent years," Labbe said.

Paris has emerged as one of Kyiv's key military allies since Russia launched its full-scale war, providing long-range missiles, fighter jets, artillery, and more.

Macron has also played a leading role in the Coalition of the Willing, a group of nations committed to providing aid and post-war security guarantees to Ukraine. A victory by far-right or far-left candidates would likely call this role into question.

...

But support for Ukraine is far from the only issue that Russian disinformation seeks to exploit.

Amelie Jaques-Apke, a disinformation and foreign influence expert at Sciences Po's CEVIPOF research center, identifies the erosion of trust in French democratic institutions as the chief goal.

"Damaging individual candidates is the visible tactic. The more durable objective is to make whatever result emerges look illegitimate," Jaques-Apke told the Kyiv Independent.

However, the actual impact of these campaigns on French voters is more difficult to gauge. Viginum described the operations as "mediocre" and "lacking visibility."

"The real risk lies in amplification," Jaques-Apke says.

"These fakes gain reach when they are picked up by Russian officials or state media, by pro-Russian figures in the West, or when politicians denounce them loudly and unintentionally spread them further."

Furthermore, Russian disinformation continues to evolve, deploying generative AI to produce more convincing fakes, professionalizing its operations, and monetizing divisive content, the expert warns.

"(The campaigns') limited impact so far is therefore no guarantee for April."

...

Archived

With the French presidential election months away, Russia's disinformation machine works to ensure no pro-Ukraine candidate enters the Elysee Palace.

Viginum, the French agency that counters foreign interference, has already detected hundreds of disinformation operations targeting the vote, whose outcome will have major ramifications for Ukraine and Europe.

Moscow-linked campaigns have spread false claims that center-left Raphael Glucksmann helped set up torture prisons in Ukraine, that President Emmanuel Macron's protege Gabriel Attal inherited a drug empire, or that the centrist candidate Edouard Philippe suffers from dementia.

A victory by one of these three candidates would signal that Paris will stay on its pro-Ukraine, pro-European course — making them a primary target for Russia.

...

Undermining them ahead of the April 2027 election could pave the way for a runoff between far-right Marine Le Pen and far-left Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Smearing France's pro-Ukraine candidates

Glucksmann, the co-leader of the center-left Place Publique (PP) party, ranks among the most decisively pro-Ukraine voices on the French political scene.

The social democratic MEP lambasted European leaders for not doing enough to help Kyiv and urged the seizure of immobilized Russian assets.

It comes as little surprise that he found himself one of the primary targets of Russian-backed disinformation.

...

Two notorious Russian-linked campaigns have targeted French elections.

Matryoshka, which pushes out a dozen false reports a day while posing as established media outlets or experts, is the most prolific, says Chine Labbe, the senior vice-president for partnerships and managing editor for Europe at NewsGuard.

"As of mid-October 2026, we had counted 89 fake Matryoshka reports targeting French presidential candidates."

The other is Storm-1516, a more sophisticated campaign linked to the GRU that uses generative AI to set up whole new websites.

"Since this summer, we have counted seven claims from this operation targeting French candidates, three of which imitated real news outlets," Labbe told the Kyiv Independent.

According to Viginum, the fake news stories targeting Philippe and Glucksmann in the summer were carried out by Storm-1516.

The same operation was behind more recent false reports — posing as the French environmental news site Reporterre — that Glucksmann spent over 2 million euros ($2.2 million) on private jet flights, the independent Gnida Project reported.

....

The fact that the three centrist, pro-Kyiv candidates are the main target of these operations is also a clear clue of Russian involvement.

"The false claims typically portray them as mentally unstable, corrupt, and generally unfit for office, echoing the Russian-backed false claims that have targeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in recent years," Labbe said.

Paris has emerged as one of Kyiv's key military allies since Russia launched its full-scale war, providing long-range missiles, fighter jets, artillery, and more.

Macron has also played a leading role in the Coalition of the Willing, a group of nations committed to providing aid and post-war security guarantees to Ukraine. A victory by far-right or far-left candidates would likely call this role into question.

...

But support for Ukraine is far from the only issue that Russian disinformation seeks to exploit.

Amelie Jaques-Apke, a disinformation and foreign influence expert at Sciences Po's CEVIPOF research center, identifies the erosion of trust in French democratic institutions as the chief goal.

"Damaging individual candidates is the visible tactic. The more durable objective is to make whatever result emerges look illegitimate," Jaques-Apke told the Kyiv Independent.

However, the actual impact of these campaigns on French voters is more difficult to gauge. Viginum described the operations as "mediocre" and "lacking visibility."

"The real risk lies in amplification," Jaques-Apke says.

"These fakes gain reach when they are picked up by Russian officials or state media, by pro-Russian figures in the West, or when politicians denounce them loudly and unintentionally spread them further."

Furthermore, Russian disinformation continues to evolve, deploying generative AI to produce more convincing fakes, professionalizing its operations, and monetizing divisive content, the expert warns.

"(The campaigns') limited impact so far is therefore no guarantee for April."

...

Archived

Russia’s disinformation war on the UK has reached new highs as Kremlin-backed media seek to sow chaos amongst Britons and ramp up attacks on their “main adversary”, experts warn.

In the past six months, state-affiliated media have pushed hundreds of thousands of stories on social media portraying Britain as ungovernable, defenceless, and a legitimate Russian target, The Independent can reveal.

Analysis by risk intelligence firm Osavul, which tracks global hybrid threats and supplies technology to Nato, shows such media output rose by around 15 per cent in September, when it produced around 40,365 stories about the UK, while similar levels of disinformation pushed in October.

False claims that the UK bombed the city of Voronezh with storm shadow missiles, that British police were threatening to arrest people for using air conditioners, and that Andy Burnham was “powerless to stop the UK's collapse” are among several posts seen by The Independent.

Osavul said the aim was “to leave British readers with a lower opinion of their own state, and readers abroad with the sense that Britain is not a serious power”.

...

Archived

Russia’s disinformation war on the UK has reached new highs as Kremlin-backed media seek to sow chaos amongst Britons and ramp up attacks on their “main adversary”, experts warn.

In the past six months, state-affiliated media have pushed hundreds of thousands of stories on social media portraying Britain as ungovernable, defenceless, and a legitimate Russian target, The Independent can reveal.

Analysis by risk intelligence firm Osavul, which tracks global hybrid threats and supplies technology to Nato, shows such media output rose by around 15 per cent in September, when it produced around 40,365 stories about the UK, while similar levels of disinformation pushed in October.

False claims that the UK bombed the city of Voronezh with storm shadow missiles, that British police were threatening to arrest people for using air conditioners, and that Andy Burnham was “powerless to stop the UK's collapse” are among several posts seen by The Independent.

Osavul said the aim was “to leave British readers with a lower opinion of their own state, and readers abroad with the sense that Britain is not a serious power”.

...

Archived