Fake News, Forged Covers: How Russia's "Matryoshka" net is trying to turn Yerevan against Europe. 🛑 The aftermath of the Armenian elections has become a primary battlefield for Russian hybrid warfare, aimed squarely at destabilizing the EU's growing influence in the South Caucasus. To maximize damage, the pro-Kremlin "Matryoshka" network has flooded social media with sophisticated counterfeits of leading European print media. The botnet rapidly deployed forged front pages of Libération, Le Parisien, and La Croix dated June 9, all pushing a singular lie: that the election was a total failure for the EU. In a particularly vicious attempt at character assassination, the network fabricated a fake Bellingcat investigation claiming French Ambassador Olivier Decottignies’ son assaulted locals under a top-level diplomatic cover-up. By painting French officials as corrupt, elitist manipulators who treat Armenians like "animals," the Kremlin is desperately trying to freeze Armenia's integration into the European family. #InfoWar #Armenia2026 #EUSecurity #MediaForgery #TchapLeak #FakeCovers #HybridWarfare #Geopolitics

Our collaboration with the team at TUM, specifically focused on detecting and flagging media forgeries, has already led to the publication of several papers that other researchers can build upon. bit.ly/2Vazfwr #collaboration #datasecurity #mediaforgery #munich #tech