ISD identified 10 Twitter accounts with a combined 359,075 followers spreading pro-Kremlin disinformation in Arabic about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Male audiences in the MENA region are engaging enthusiastically with heart and rose emojis.
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Sex sells. It also sells propaganda. ISD has unearthed a network of pro-Kremlin Twitter accounts using stolen photos of conventionally attractive influencers to push pro-Kremlin propaganda in the Middle East and Africa.
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The most obviously fake account is Maria Raskolniov, whose bio reads: “Arab press department of the Russian sputnik_ar Agency”, with a profile picture of a conventionally attractive woman. The photo is of Instagram influencer Dzana Dzzyzzle.
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“The Russian Journalist” is another seemingly attractive woman with 88,300 followers, who claims to be a war correspondent, posting exclusively in Arabic. The account was created in March 2022, along with 5 others created from Feb to April this year.
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‘Elena Kosogorov’ has the most followers (110,600). “Her” first tweet in March said “a lot of countries don’t want to take orders from ‘Uncle Sam’”. It won plaudits from Yemeni separatists advocating southern independence, in line with the Kremlin’s aims.
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On 18 March Kosogorov tweeted about US-run ‘biolabs’ in Ukraine. The Russian Journalist posted an identical tweet 40 mins later. These accounts not only echo the talking points of Kremlin elites, but are spreading seemingly coordinated disinformation.
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Elena also had two Facebook profiles and Facebook page in “her” name. The account linked to a Telegram channel that had shared the full video of the Buffalo shooting with on-screen text that read “street wars in the United States,” as well as disparaging images of Boris Johnson.
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The accounts all follow a similar playbook: photos of women posing seductively or in military regalia, alongside a mix of Hyper-Kremlinism including images of Putin & videos of women singing patriotic songs or military parades.
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Using attractive (fictious) women to sell war isn’t a new phenomenon. Historic examples include “Hanoi Hannah Thu,” who broadcasted North Vietnamese propaganda in English and “Axis Sally”, an American Nazi propagandist. Social media enables it on a new scale.
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Aside from accounts that are obviously fronts for state propaganda like Raskolniov, platforms aren’t obliged to remove these accounts as most don’t violate platform guidelines. However, as with Russia Today or Sputnik, these accounts should be labelled ‘state-controlled media’.
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These accounts are capturing the attention of a primarily male audience that follows and fawns over attractive women and tries its hardest to “slide into the DMs”, all the while echoing Kremlin elites & spreading disinformation.
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