Fake Videos and Fabricated Headlines: A Coordinated Disinformation Campaign Targeting Armenia and France

Lili Dubois-Harounyan, #CivilNetCheck 

A fake video circulating on X, published on March 10, 2026, claims that “a group of Armenian political strategists secretly arrived in France before the municipal elections to gain experience in vote manipulation”, as part of a “secret agreement” between French President Emmanuel Macron and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The video states that Armenian experts would learn these “manipulation techniques” during the municipal elections in France scheduled for March 14 in order to apply them in the upcoming June Armenian parliamentary elections. According to the video, this technique had allegedly been previously used to secure Maia Sandu’s victory in the 2020 Moldovan elections.

Impersonating global media: False claims spread under recognizable logos

The video uses the NewsGuard logo to create the impression that the information has been published by a recognized media monitoring organisation. NewsGuard is an American company that evaluates the reliability of online news sources and aims to help internet users, platforms, and advertisers distinguish reliable sources from websites spreading disinformation. However, a review of NewsGuard’s recent publications confirms that it has not released such a report. 

This is not the first time that logos of renowned international media outlets have been used in disinformation operations to spread false claims. Such operations are linked to the Russia-associated Matryoshka disinformation strategy, which conducts large-scale, coordinated activities across social media using bots or low-activity accounts. These operations often tag real media outlets and target Armenia and its European partners. More specifically, the impersonation of reputable media formats and logos is associated with the Doppelgänger disinformation strategy.

Other videos have previously used the logos of well-known international media outlets, including CNN, Reuters, Bloomberg, and Euronews, giving the false impression that the content was published by these sources. However, none of the outlets mentioned have published this content, and the claims are entirely unsupported by verifiable evidence or credible sources.

Manipulated dissemination across fake accounts

The accounts that shared the video on X (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) all began their activity in February or March 2026, and have minimal prior activity, mostly limited to entertainment or non-political posts. Many reposted content containing similar or identical false information, notably about the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s entourage, or posts originating from individuals based in Turkey. On the surface, these accounts seem unrelated and bear no clear links to Armenia. 

The account that originally published the information had been inactive since 2013 and resumed activity in early March 2026, which could indicate that the account was recently hacked.

Disinformation campaigns affecting Armenia and its French partner

This circulating video is an example of targeted disinformation aimed at discrediting Armenia’s ties with France, which has strengthened its commitments to Armenia since the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. It falsely claims that Armenian political strategists traveled to France to learn election manipulation techniques, invoking high-profile figures like Emmanuel Macron and Nikol Pashinyan to lend credibility. By referencing past elections in Moldova, the video attempts to create the illusion of a tested strategy. Such content seeks to undermine trust in Armenia’s democratic institutions, cast doubt on its partnerships with Europe, and influence public perception ahead of upcoming elections. 

In the past, other disinformation campaigns on social media sought to discredit Armenia’s cooperation with France. For instance, some narratives falsely claimed that the French company Orano was secretly transporting nuclear waste into Armenian territory. This allegation appeared on June 25, 2025, on CourrierFrance24[.]fr, a newly created website designed to imitate a French local media outlet.

More recently, false claims related to elections in Armenia and France are spreading through Russian-language Telegram channels. The channel "Одесса Zа Победу!" (Odessa For Victory!), which has 23 238 subscribers, published a post featuring images that are claimed to be of the front pages of the French newspapers Liberation and Le Parisien, as well as ActuJ, a publication of the French Jewish community. The circulating images show Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and French President Emmanuel Macron, with headlines claiming that Macron is "pushing Pashinyan to start a war against Russia."

One of the front page headlines was translated as “Macron guarantees support for Pashinyan after the elections if he declares war on Russia."

Liberation was also falsely quoted as writing: "The little conspirator has arrived in France. Pashinyan continues to try to get the best deal from Macron in order to provoke a conflict with Russia."

The post and its "news" were subsequently shared by a number of other Telegram channels.

Checking the purported front pages with the digital editions found on the official websites of Liberation, Le Parisien, and ActuJ, demonstrated the ones on Telegram to be fabrications. The front page of Liberation's March 10 issue features U.S. President Donald Trump, while Le Parisien's front page for the same date focuses on rising fuel prices. ActuJ is a weekly publication and had no new issue dated March 10; the nearest editions are those of March 4 and March 11, whose front pages also bear no resemblance to the images being circulated. Our colleagues at Hetq also covered the story. 

Rising disinformation targeting France ahead of its municipal elections

In recent days, X accounts have spread false claims via video (1, 2), including that "TF1 reports that French police were ordered to conceal crime statistics ahead of municipal elections […] applying to serious crimes and offences committed by migrants" and that "French intelligence agencies asked the French government to postpone municipal elections due to escalating conflict in the Middle East." Legitimate outlets such as RTL France and Le Monde are tagged in these posts to boost visibility and fabricate credibility.

Several of the accounts that circulated the Armenia-France disinformation video also amplified election-related content (1, 2), resharing links to a fake campaign website attributed to Paris candidate Pierre-Yves Bournazel and videos falsely claiming he proposed converting the Centre Pompidou into a migrant reception center with the backing of President Macron. Both the website and the claims are entirely fabricated. Their spread across multiple low-activity accounts reflects the coordinated amplification patterns described above.

Disinformation reliably surges before elections, exploiting heightened public attention to shape voter behavior. This pattern is visible not only in France but also recently in Armenia ahead of its parliamentary and local elections. Overall, these cases point to a coordinated campaign targeting both countries through fake accounts, manipulated videos, and misappropriated media branding to distort political perceptions at critical electoral moments.