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639 Posts, 7.4 Million Views—Russia-Linked Network Targeted French Anger Over Ukraine Aid
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Russia-linked Doppelganger disinformation network accounts spent six weeks before France’s October 17 protests turning cost-of-living anger against Ukraine aid.
This was reported by Alliance4Europe in a study published on October 21, covering data collected from October 11 to 18. The protests themselves were French in origin and grievance, the researchers emphasized.
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The network’s messaging fused real hardship with hostility to Kyiv. One French-language post, published on October 14 at 08:18 UTC, read, in the report’s translation: “Every euro for Kyiv is a euro stolen from our common prosperity.”
From September 2 to October 14, the network posted 639 messages in 22 coordinated waves in French, German, English and Polish, Alliance4Europe noted. The posts drew about 7.4 million views. The largest wave, on October 8, produced 97 posts within three minutes, with each wave running in German, then French, then English, a minute or two apart.
The posting accounts were created in tight cohorts, the researchers wrote, with 163 opened within three days on August 12–14. They used Western female persona names with random handle suffixes.
The posts linked through 51 throwaway or hijacked domains, mostly ending in .ch, and the German-language articles carried “DER SPIEGEL” branding. Of the 34 domains that still resolve, 23 sit on a single IP address, the report added.
The content blamed high energy and fuel prices, wages, pensions and hospital funding on Ukraine, Brussels and rearmament. Headlines also recalled the 2018 Gilets jaunes fuel revolt . According to the report, the posts attacked Macron, his possible successors Attal and Philippe, and Raphaël Glucksmann, whom Alliance4Europe described as the most pro-Ukraine candidate.
They promoted Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s wage proposal, the French left and an unnamed “patriot” candidate. Le Pen and the National Rally appeared only once.
Alliance4Europe assessed that coordinated inauthentic behavior is almost certain and that the Doppelganger operation is highly likely behind it. It indicated that the network backed no single French party. The aim, it concluded, was highly likely to weaken centrist and pro-Ukraine voices and to boost opponents of Ukraine support on either flank.
The network’s last detected wave came on October 14, three days before the protests. The researchers found no posts about the unrest itself between October 15 and 19. They acknowledged that about two-thirds of the posts could no longer be read because the accounts were suspended, so the totals are a floor.
The report drew on independent findings from the research firm Alethea, which reported on October 16 a Doppelganger wave between October 7 and 9. Alethea tied that wave to the Social Design Agency and Structura and to targets including France’s 2027 presidential race, according to Alliance4Europe.
The report noted that the tactic has precedent: during the 2018–19 Gilets jaunes protests, up to 600 accounts affiliated with the Russian government, along with RT and Sputnik, heavily promoted the movement.
Earlier, on October 21, Polish Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski threatened major platforms with financial penalties, accusing them of effectively supporting Kremlin-linked information warfare. Platforms acted on fewer than a quarter of more than 65,000 reports of fake accounts and disinformation filed in Poland during the first half of 2026.
They removed content or accounts in just 7% of cases, and Warsaw warned that every unmet request from Polish authorities would trigger penalty proceedings.
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