Disinformation update: Germany stays in focus for Storm-1516, CGE reacts to our publication
In case you missed it
Sanctions against Storm-1516 operators
On New Year’s eve, OFAC introduced sanctions against Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE), the organisation behind Storm-1516 disinformation campaigns and Valeriy Korovin, the head of CGE.
John Dougan's "Cuban" connection to Valery Korovin and CGE
Our team made a publication on the long lasting connection between John Mark Dougan and CGE, additionally we were able to uncover an affiliated parallel import enterprise, which is involved with Russian military
CGE’s reaction to our investigation
By Natalya Makeeva (automated translation):
An "investigation" about our activities was published by a website cobbled together by clumsy idiots. Read it, it's funny! The text itself is in English, but it can be read via automatic translation.
By Valery Korovin (excerpt, automated translation), also linking to the publication by NewsGuard:
And as the cherry on the cake - competent investigations of American analytical centers regarding the activities of the CGE with a detailed analysis of photos from open sources taken in the CGE office at different times (right down to who grew a beard, and what picture appeared on the wall, and what disappeared). Of course, we all always and to this day serve in the GRU, there is nothing new here, we work for the Kremlin, and we do not like American Democrats (and why should we like them, after all, they arrested our accounts).
Don’t want to ruin Valery’s worldview, but Gnida Project team members are all Russians, who very much despise Putin’s regime and people like Korovin and his employees, who are among the ones directly responsible for making up an absolutely falsified propaganda base for justification of utterly criminal and barbaric invasion of Ukraine. And for never-ending attacks against the members of Russian civil society, which eventually turned into the outright repression backed by the state, against the very people who actually care about the better future for our country.
A particularly interesting piece from his publication is mention of a supposed Rewards for Justice campaign targeting CGE and its employees in telegram channel, which is not linked from any official program resources. We weren’t able to find this campaign on RfJ website and other resources linked on the program’s website. Additionally, we have no other indications of Mira Terada’s employment by CGE.
Germany stays in focus for Storm-1516
For the real-time updates, we suggest to follow our Bluesky or X account.
Storm-1516 is preparing for German federal election with a network of 90+ fake media outlets
Our team, together with Correctiv (in German) and NewsGuard, was able to discover a network of at least 95 websites (94 of which weren’t previously used in campaigns or reported), which we were able to attribute to Storm-1516 operators. Shortly after the joint publication, 27 of websites hosted on Hostinger were shut down. We believe that they may be replaced in near future, as election date comes closer.
From what we have observed so far, their current approach appears to be as follows: create a large network of fake media outlets, all of which would be updated regularly with AI-generated filler articles, then activate them by one at a time when required for a specific campaign.
A few campaigns we missed
There are a few campaigns targeting Germany that we missed before the previous disinformation update, but were able retroactively discover with the help of Correctiv team.
(FAKE) Bundeswehr website alleging a coming mobilisation of 500 000 people for a military operation in Easter Europe
Campaign was launched around November 26, 2024. The website has been taken down by now.
(FAKE) accusation that Marcus Faber is working for Russia
Campaign was launched around November 5, 2024 and didn’t get much traction.
Allegations were published in a currently taken down website anderemeinung[.]de together with a video in a typical style for Storm-1516. While we weren’t able to find an archived copy of the original publication, we found the same materials published on obscure russland-aktiv[.]de website.
Newer campaigns targeting Germany
(FAKE) video with a “murdered girl” who was killed for “insulting the prophet”
Campaign was launched around January 22, 2025 and can be traced to two freshly activated X accounts: AndreiaBInter (who did the “translation”) and MuhammadAliZu (not archived).
(FAKE) Robert Habeck and Claudia Roth involved in sale of stolen art from Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie to Ukraine
Campaign was launched on January 30, 2025.
This campaign is directly linked with nrtv[.]online, one of the websites belonging to the fake media network created by the Storm-1516 operators in light of the upcoming German federal election. Shortly before the campaign and likely in attempt to boost an appearance of legitimacy, Impressum section was added, which was not present several days before.
Person in the video somewhat resembles CGE employee Alexei Kiristaev.
Campaigns targeting France
For the reasons not entirely clear to our team, France appears to be a secondary focus for current Storm-1516 campaigns
(FAKE) migrant from Chad who raped 12-year old girl caught by mob after being released by French police
Campaign was launched around December 23, 2024. Campaign employs only a single video in French.
(FAKE) Zelensky purchased a villa on St. Barts island
Campaign was launched around January 7, 2025 and employs only a video “investigation” in French.
(FAKE) HTS threatens to burn Notre Dame
Campaign was launched around January 22, 2025 and can be traced to an account, which became active shortly before the campaign began.
Other campaigns
(FAKE) Ryan Routh worked with Ukrainian intelligence
Campaign was launched around January 3, 2025, campaign can be traced to an account, which became active shortly before the campaign and posted only the related video.
“Oreshnik” advertisement
Campaign was launched around January 10, 2025.
A somewhat unusual campaign for a Storm-1516 operators, but all the signs are there. With medium confidence, we believe that it’s a campaign related to Storm-1516 operators. Campaign is also linked to a website warstudiescentre[.]co[.]uk, which was crafted to mimic an organisation of the nature similar to Institute for the Study of War.