Russian Bot Farm Network Matryoshka Spreads Election Fraud Disinformation in Sweden

The Russian bot farm network Matryoshka is spreading disinformation about election fraud in Sweden.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson spoke about this in an interview with SVT.

The Kremlin-linked bot network is involved in disinformation campaigns aimed at discrediting Ukraine and Western leaders.

The Russian organization’s activities include fabricating content presented as news reports from well-known media outlets.

“We see this across Europe. The Russians are targeting countries that support Ukraine,” Kristersson said.

According to the outlet, seven fake videos were posted on the social media platform X within one hour on August 18. The posts, targeting the Swedish elections, tagged the social media accounts of several national media outlets, including SVT and Dagens Nyheter.

SVT’s review showed that most of the bot farm’s posts contained messages aimed at influencing Western countries’ assistance for Ukraine.

According to the Swedish outlet, the campaign is not primarily aimed at reaching a large audience directly on social media.

The operators actively distribute fake posts among journalists and fact-checkers, often disguised as requests for verification.

The campaign may be intended to distract and overwhelm editorial fact-checking resources through a large number of targeted inquiries.

The campaign may also aim to generate media coverage that amplifies its messages or makes the campaign appear more influential than it actually is.

On April 29, Matryoshka launched a disinformation campaign on social media targeting Western audiences, claiming that Ukraine was allegedly involved in an assassination attempt against Donald Trump.