The analysis found that a network dubbed \u201cStorm-1516\u201d \u2014 which has a history of producing staged videos and deepfakes that parrot the Kremlin\u2019s propaganda \u2013 has close connections with a group created by the late Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. <\/p>\n
The Russian Foundation to Battle Injustice (R-FBI), founded by the former Wagner mercenary boss in 2021, is part of a multi-pronged disinformation effort that has increasingly pivoted from false claims about the Ukraine war to focus on the 2024 US presidential election. The group, which casts itself as a \u201chuman rights\u201d organization, is led by Mira Terada, a Russian woman who served more than two years in a US prison on money laundering charges. <\/p>\n
The R-FBI organization and the Storm-1516 campaign are among a multitude of active Russian disinformation efforts, many of them overlapping, according to US and European intelligence sources. They use American and foreign social media influencers to promote propaganda and disinformation in the West. <\/p>\n
In recent weeks, the network has invented stories out of whole cloth targeting Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. They range from fabricated claims that Harris was responsible for a hit-and-run in San Francisco and shot an endangered rhino while on safari in Zambia, to a baseless allegation that Walz sexually assaulted a student. <\/p>\n
The Harris campaign has previously expressed concern that media coverage could amplify false Russian claims. Responding to a request for comment on the Russian disinformation narratives attacking Harris and Walz, Morgan Finkelstein, national security spokesperson for the campaign, said: \u201cVladimir Putin wants Donald Trump to win because he knows Trump will roll over and give him anything he wants. We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections.\u201d <\/p>\n
NBC and Wired have also covered the narratives, attributing them to Storm-1516. <\/p>\n
Clemson said it was able to connect Storm-1516 to R-FBI by using scraped data and social listening software to analyze their historical, technical and organizational ties. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have found Storm-1516 to be tightly connected to the Russian Foundation to Battle Injustice (R-FBI). Their behavior is much too closely linked than would reasonably occur by accident or simple correlation in aims,\u201d Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren, co-directors of Clemson University\u2019s Media Forensics Hub, wrote in their report published Wednesday. \u201cR-FBI affiliated individuals also frequently share Storm-1516 narratives on their own blogs or news pages. All of this is done at strategic times and routine rates not possible by chance.\u201d <\/p>\n
The disinformation campaign has ramped up ahead of the November 5 election, and as US intelligence agencies warn of a major Russian government-backed effort to influence the vote in favor of former US president Donald Trump, who they assess is the Kremlin\u2019s preferred choice. The Biden administration in September announced a sweeping set of actions to tackle the Russian campaign, including unveiling criminal charges against two Russian nationals, sanctions on 10 individuals and entities, and the seizure of 32 internet domains. <\/p>\n
Warren and Linvill note that the themes and methods used by Storm-1516 and R-FBI are consistent with those deployed by Prigozhin\u2019s now defunct Internet Research Agency (IRA), widely known as Russia\u2019s troll factory. <\/p>\n
One of the recent fake Storm-1516 videos, which was shared by R-FBI network members, showed a man alleging an endangered black rhino was killed during a \u201cdiplomatic visit\u201d to Zambia. \u201cIt was a female American politician. Her name was Kamala,\u201d the ranger said, claiming that she shot a young rhino while on safari at North Luangwa National Park, and the incident was \u201cswept under the rug.\u201d <\/p>\n
Another staged video attributed to the network featured a young woman claiming that Harris paralyzed her in a hit-and-run in San Francisco in 2011. US intelligence agencies assessed that a Russian operation produced the video. Like other disinformation that has gained traction, the video appeared to be staged with an actor rather than manipulated using AI. It was shared by a fake news outlet, \u201cKBSF-TV.\u201d <\/p>\n
Many of the websites associated with the Russian disinformation network sound like American media outlets, with names such as The Miami Chronicle, The Boston Times and DC Weekly \u2013 a technique that was also used by the IRA. <\/p>\n
But they are just fronts for narratives invented in St. Petersburg, where Wagner has its headquarters \u2013 an office also used by R-FBI, according to Russian media reports. <\/p>\n
Influencers linked to R-FBI come from around the world and, according to Clemson, are often the first social media accounts identified \u201csharing specific Storm-1516 narratives.\u201d <\/p>\n
One American has been actively involved in spreading the fake stories: John Mark Dougan, a former Florida sheriff\u2019s deputy who fled to Moscow in 2016 after facing felony charges of wiretapping and extortion in the US. Granted asylum in Russia, Dougan has become a vocal player in the Kremlin\u2019s disinformation ecosystem, but a senior European intelligence official says he is a small cog in a much larger wheel. <\/p>\n
Dougan is part of a constellation of characters promoting pro-Russia talking points through fake videos and websites. A Clemson report last year connected Dougan to the fake news website DC Weekly through a domain and internet protocol address shared by his personal website and two sites marketing his books. The use of real people is a departure from tactics used by Prigozhin\u2019s IRA, which often distributed disinformation through bot networks, but much of the messaging is the same. <\/p>\n
An official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) told reporters last week that the content contained \u201cseveral indicators of manipulation that are consistent with the influence efforts and tactics with Russian actors.\u201d The US State Department said there was no record of a Kazakh exchange student at the Minnesota school at that time. <\/p>\n
On October 24, the same X account carried fake video purporting to show an individual ripping up mail-in ballots for Trump in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Within three hours it was reposted tens of thousands of times. <\/p>\n