A Russian Disinformation Campaign is Creating Celebrity…

On September 11, 2026, reports emerged regarding a Kremlin-backed disinformation campaign, known as Matryoshka, Operation Overload, or Storm-1679, actively attempting to influence U.S. midterm elections. The operation utilizes AI-generated audio and manipulated video footage to create fake endorsements from celebrities, specifically targeting Democratic candidates and the party at large.

What happened

The campaign leverages real video footage sourced from public campaigns or personal fan videos, such as those from Cameo, and overlays them with AI-cloned voices. In these doctored clips, actors like Sarah Jessica Parker, Julia Roberts, Emma Caulfield, Christopher Lloyd, and Ed Begley Jr. appear to make inflammatory statements disparaging Democrats. To lend the content false credibility, the videos are branded with unauthorized CNN logos.

Beyond general anti-Democratic messaging, the network has launched targeted attacks against specific politicians, including Chris Pappas, James Talarico, Jon Ossoff, Mary Peltola, Roy Cooper, and Sherrod Brown. These videos promote fabricated claims, such as allegations that Talarico holds prejudices against Hasidic Jews or that Pappas funded doctors performing gender transitions for children.

The content is disseminated across social media platforms like X, Bluesky, and TikTok, supported by bot networks previously observed in European influence operations. Analysts from the group @antibot4navalny first identified the campaign, noting that while the operation aims to erode public trust, its current reach remains limited, with most posts garnering only dozens of interactions. Disinformation researchers warn that the campaign’s tactics—such as sending clips directly to newsrooms—are designed to provoke media debunkings, which the operators may then use to further amplify their reach.