NewsGuard is an independent journalistic organisation based in New York, whose primary goal is to fight disinformation. The "Matryoshka" campaign is a Russian influence operation aimed at sowing chaos and distrust. As NewsGuard will now reveal, Russian disinformation agents have once again impersonated them, publishing three fabricated videos containing false quotes, alleged lawsuits, and a non-existent journalist.
Each video lasted about a minute, featured an AI-generated voiceover, and was posted from anonymous, newly created accounts — a hallmark tactic of the Russian “Matryoshka” influence campaign. Following NewsGuard’s intervention, the materials were removed from the platform X.
The first video falsely claimed that the German government had sued NewsGuard for €20 million over an alleged article about a supposed “German disinformation campaign preparing the public for war with Russia.” The recording included a fabricated quote attributed to NewsGuard’s editor in-chief, Jim Warren, referencing the “warlike ambitions of Merz’s Germany.” In reality, no such lawsuit existed, and Warren never made such remarks.
The second video “reported” the alleged disappearance of a journalist named Walter Brass, who was said to have been investigating “the suspicious deaths of 16 candidates in Germany’s local elections.” While it is true that 16 candidates had died, authorities deemed it statistically normal given that around 20,000 people were running for office. NewsGuard confirmed that no journalist by that name has ever worked for the organisation and that all quotes in the video were fabricated.
The third fabricated video targeted France, falsely claiming that the French government had sued NewsGuard over an investigation into a bedbug infestation and, according to AI-generated narrative, subsequently lost the case, being ordered to pay NewsGuard €5 million in damages.
French authorities previously acknowledged that the bedbug incidents were real, but their media coverage was the result of a Russian operation designed to incite panic.
Impersonating free media outlets is part of a broader Kremlin strategy designed to erode trust in genuine information sources. The “Matryoshka” campaign exploits local events and political disputes to produce short, professionally looking videos that are published using anonymous accounts.
Their goal is not so much to convince as to weaken the audience’s ability to distinguish truth from falsehood.
All these activities are part of the information war that Russia is waging against democratic countries.
“These campaigns aren’t necessarily meant to persuade,” NewsGuard analysts warned, “but to make citizens doubt everything — even reliable sources of information.”
Source: NewsGuard Reality Check, 22 October 2025
Article: Why Russia Puts Words in NewsGuard’s Mouth Why Russia Puts Words in NewsGuard’s Mouth
By: Chine Labbé and Roberta Schmid
About NewsGuard
Founded in 2018 by veteran media figures Steven Brill (creator of Court TV) and Gordon Crovitz (former publisher of The Wall Street Journal), NewsGuard is an independent journalism organisation headquartered in New York.
Its mission is to assess the credibility of online news sources and combat disinformation. NewsGuard’s international team of journalists and analysts evaluates news outlets using a “green” or “red” shield rating system, depending on whether they adhere to professional journalistic standards.
Beyond these ratings, NewsGuard publishes in-depth reports on influence operations, false narratives, and propaganda campaigns — including Russian efforts such as Matryoshka and Portal Kombat.
Through fact-checking, transparency, and media education initiatives, NewsGuard works to restore trust in online information.
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