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From Pentagon Veterans to European Lawmakers—Hack Exposes Russia’s Global Propaganda Network
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A hack of a Russian propaganda website has exposed the global reach of Moscow’s state-backed Doppelgänger disinformation network, which featured hundreds of politicians, former intelligence officers, military officials, and academics from more than 50 countries, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) reported on November 10.
Hackers first compromised Recent Reliable News (RRN), one of Doppelgänger’s main websites, in 2024, replacing its banner with the message: “The Doppelganger got Doppelgangered.”
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An anonymous operator subsequently turned the website into an archive documenting more than 500 interviews that the Russian disinformation network used to produce approximately 1,800 articles.
The interviewees included former American, French, and Spanish intelligence officers, as well as retired military commanders from NATO countries.
Among the Americans were retired US Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Karen Kwiatkowski, a former Pentagon and National Security Agency official.
European interviewees included Norwegian political scientist Glenn Diesen, former French member of the European Parliament Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, retired Bulgarian Brigadier General Dimitar Shivikov, and Bulgarian member of the European Parliament Petar Volgin.
In Germany, at least ten current and former politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party gave interviews that appeared on Doppelgänger websites.
In the United Kingdom, the network featured former parliamentarians Lembit Öpik and Matthew Gordon-Banks, political scientist Richard Sakwa, and former Daily Telegraph correspondent Ben Aris, The Nerve reported on November 10.
Gordon-Banks appeared in at least 16 articles but denied knowingly participating in propaganda operations.
The investigation also identified 14 Canadians or individuals residing in Canada, DisinfoWatch reported on November 11. They included Quebec Green Party leader Alex Tyrrell, activist Tamara Lorincz, and retired police officer Vincent Gircys.
Foreign nationals also helped organize interviews. Raphael Machado, leader of the Brazilian branch of the neo-fascist New Resistance movement, arranged conversations with individuals from the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Machado also interviewed Italian media personality Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, who denied knowingly cooperating with the Russian network.
Doppelgänger emerged in 2022, initially impersonating established Western media outlets to undermine international support for Ukraine. It subsequently expanded into operating its own purported news organizations.
The investigation did not establish that all interviewees knowingly participated in the Russian influence campaign.
By June 2026, most Doppelgänger websites had gone offline. Following the hack, RRN relocated to a Turkish domain, rebranded itself as Researchers & Reporters Network, and continued publishing interviews with Western political figures.
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Beyond recruiting Western voices, the network has also tried to turn domestic grievances in Europe against aid to Ukraine.
Between September 2 and October 14, ahead of France's October 17 protests, Doppelgänger-linked accounts published 639 posts in 22 coordinated waves in French, German, English, and Polish, drawing about 7.4 million views.
The posts blamed high energy and fuel prices, wages, pensions, and hospital funding on Ukraine, Brussels, and rearmament, and they relied on 51 throwaway or hijacked domains, with German-language articles carrying "DER SPIEGEL" branding.
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