Competition in lies: the main Russian lies on the eve of the elections and the Olympics in France

Where Russia lacks weapons or money, it attacks with information. More precisely, the lack of truthful information and an oversaturation of lies. This happened this year in the elections to the European Parliament and will probably happen during the upcoming elections in the United States.

Over the past month, France has become a priority target for the Kremlin fake makers. Several news events coincided at once: growing support for Ukraine by President Macron, preparations for the 2024 Olympics and early parliamentary elections.

Moreover, propaganda does not necessarily arise in the form of odious “Solovievism” – fakes are also getting smarter. Staged videos, fake reports and websites, fictitious publications from well-known publications, photos or videos taken out of context – any methods are used to disguise lies in a more acceptable format. And all this is translated into English, French and other European languages. So, how to expose these fakes and what the new wave of disinformation from Russia against France means for Ukraine – in the material for 24 Channel Kirill Perevoshchikov from VoxCheck tells .

Staging “French mercenaries in Ukraine”

The story about the “French mercenaries” at the front in Ukraine has already turned into a kind of series – new stuff appears every month. With the same “convincing” evidence.

So, in early June, the Russian embassy in South Africa posted a video of “the Russian army capturing” a French soldier. The fake soldier's chevron and the French one with a noticeable accent gave away the fake. The local French embassy even responded to it, advising the occupiers to take French courses.

Last week they published another “episode”: they say, the French from Ukraine dressed up … a pig as Macron and criticized their president for domestic and foreign policy.

The authors “stumbled” on the same details – chevron and French pronunciation. The “military” in the video wears a rectangular chevron with the flag of France on his left hand. Although usually the chevrons of French soldiers contain the inscription “France” and are made in the shape of a shield.

Screenshot from a fake Russian video about an alleged French military man

Original form of French military/Screenshot from the Armée de Terre video

A French Random OSINT analyst pointed out that the pronunciation of “soldier” also gives away the fake, calling it French “ bad.”

In addition to staging, another common method of Russians is creating fake magazine covers. One of the enemy’s “favorites” is the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo – new fake cartoons are constantly being invented for it. This time, allegedly in issue No. 1665, the cartoonists depicted the French military in the form of tombstones, on which the year of death is indicated – 2024.

On the left is the fake cover of the issue №1665, on the right is the real cover

The Charlie Hebdo website has a section called Unes with an archive of all the covers of the publication, in particular the original issue of the magazine №1665 from June 19, 2024. Of course, there are no French soldiers on it – the cartoon is dedicated to the dissolution of the lower house of parliament and the elections.

Regarding the professional military, there has so far been no evidence of sending the French army to Ukraine. In May, Emmanuel Macron said that he “does not exclude” the possibility of introducing a military contingent into Ukraine, but so far there is no talk of specific plans. In June, he indicated that France plans to create a coalition of partners willing to send their instructors to Ukraine. They will not participate in hostilities, but only train Ukrainians.

Foreigners, including the French, fight on the side of Ukraine solely of their own free will, signing contracts with various units Defense Forces. They are not military personnel of other states or “mercenaries”. And after signing the contract, the volunteers become Ukrainian military.

Fictitious “Greek family” in the elections< /h2>

On June 30, the first round of early parliamentary elections was held in France, in which the far-right National Rally won 33% of the votes, the left New Popular Front – 28%, and Macron’s Together coalition – 20% of the votes.7.

As in the case of other elections, for Russians the situation is simple – democracy does not exist (except, of course , Russian), and in the West elections are regularly rigged. On the eve of the first round, Russian channels distributed a screenshot from the website of the Together coalition, which, in particular, includes the party of the French President. On it, voters were allegedly offered 100 euros if they voted for candidates from the coalition.

Such a site does exist, but it is fake. The address of the original site is https://ensemble-2024.fr, while on the fake page it is listed as https://ensemble-24.fr. In addition, the domain of the original coalition website was registered on June 12, 2024, and the fake one was registered on June 19.

Section “Our candidates” on a fake website

Candidates section original site

The real Vmeste website does not have an offer of 100 euros. The design of the “Our Candidates” section differs from the design in the screenshot. For example, on the original website, candidates are listed in a column with their district, without a photo. At the same time, in the screenshot circulated online, several candidates are listed in one line with their photos.

Playing Revolution

After the first round, Russian and pro-Russian channels described the French protests as if a second French revolution had begun in the country: “mass riots, pogroms, arson, looting and barricades.” And although protests did indeed take place in France, there were some fakes. Propagandists presented the actions of previous months as current events or invented the idea that protesters had set off a large-scale arson in the suburbs of Paris.

Screenshot of a fake from Russian telegram channel

For example, a video of a fire in the city of Bobigny, which was “started by left-wing activists” after the announcement of the election results, was distributed online. In fact, according to representatives of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, the fire occurred on June 30 at 17:30, a couple of hours before the announcement of the election results. The protesters are in no way associated with this event.

Alternate Olympics

In Europe, few people take official Russian propaganda seriously. So fakers take a detour: they spread their narratives under the guise of publications in Western media or organizations. In the West, this operation has been dubbed “Double” – Russians copy real websites, steal media and brand symbols and use them to churn out fake content.

Recently, enemy accounts combined reports to discredit both the 2024 Olympics and Macron personally. Thus, the “BBC video” cites Bellingcat investigators that Macron may resign a week before the Olympics not only because of his defeat in the elections, but also because he is not ready to host the games and the threat of terrorist attacks during them.

Another fake has already used the logo of the US Embassy in France – they allegedly advised their citizens to move around Paris in groups of at least five people during the Olympics, wear personal self-defense equipment and have a contact person close to them who can be contacted in case of hospitalization or death.

Screenshots of fake videos about the 2024 Olympics:

In both videos, the organizations’ logos were borrowed from their official pages, and photos or videos were taken from open sources published earlier. Moreover, even Eliot Higgins, head of Bellingcat, had to refute the “BBC report” on his Twitter.

The page of the US Embassy in France does not recommend walking in groups of at least five people, having protective equipment or contacts of a loved one. Instead, it contains general information about the Olympics. The website contains advice for citizens, in particular, beware of pickpockets, do not leave your belongings unattended, carry a copy of your passport, embassy contacts, and the like. In general, this does not go beyond standard advice for tourists in any country.

Creating fake reports, as well as entire films like “The Olympics Failed,” is one of the main techniques disinformers before the Olympic Games. This is stated in a report from the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center, released in June.

The range of narratives is wide: from “the threat of terrorist attacks during the Olympics”, “the terrible crime situation in France” to “exposure of corruption in the International Olympic Committee.”

These are organized campaigns, behind which there are large groups of Russian propagandists Storm-1679 and Storm-1099. They began discrediting the Olympic Games in 2023, Microsoft analysts write. The goal is to spread panic about the danger at the Games in Paris, which begin on July 26.

What's more here Ukraine

In conditions of a full-scale invasion, information attacks against our partners are, in particular, attacks against Ukraine. Some fakes, for example about the French military, are directly related to the front, while others are more likely aimed at destabilizing Western societies. And, as a result, a decrease in support for Ukraine in the international arena.

In absolute numbers, France is not a leader in assistance to Ukraine: according to the Kiel Institute Ukraine Support Tracker project, as of at the end of April 2024, France pledged to provide military, economic, and humanitarian assistance in the amount of $7.3 billion, of which it has already actually transferred $4.13 billion. However, it is in recent months that France has increasingly shown primacy: it supports the sending of military instructors to Ukraine, agrees to train Ukrainian pilots and does not take into account the mythical “red lines” of the Kremlin. In addition, the President of France is another pro-Ukrainian voice within the EU and NATO.

The more pro-Russian deputies in the French parliament, and Russian fakes in the information space, the weaker it will be Ukraine's position in Europe. Therefore, the fight against disinformation should lead to the Kremlin’s games with lies ending with a disappointing conclusion: “The main thing is not victory, but participation.”