French prosecutors have opened an investigation into an alleged Russian disinformation campaign targeting centrist candidates in next year’s presidential elections. They are investigating deepfakes and false video materials on social networks about two of the main electoral competitors – former prime ministers Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal.
Prosecutors had already opened an investigation into a disinformation campaign that targeted the French left-wing MEP Raphael Glucksmann, a vocal critic of the Kremlin, writes hotnews.ro. He has not yet officially announced his candidacy for next year’s presidential elections, but he is considered a potential election participant.
The content found on X was falsely attributed to legitimate French press institutions and falsely claimed that Attal had Parkinson’s disease and that Philippe was also ill. Glucksmann was targeted with false information about his partner, journalist Lea Salame, who presents the main evening news program on France 2 TV channel.
Viginum, the French agency for combating foreign disinformation campaigns, has attributed “with a high degree of confidence” the campaign targeting Attal to the pro-Russian network “Matryoshka”.
A source from the security field stated that another propaganda network with ties to Russia, Storm-1516, is behind the campaigns targeting Glucksmann and Philippe.
According to Viginum, from the end of 2023 until March 2025, Storm-1516 was behind at least 77 disinformation operations targeting Western countries.
Similarly, the German special services suspect that they have detected a disinformation operation coordinated by the Storm-1516 group.