Kremlin Disinformation Network Deploys 300+ Fake News Sites to Target U.S. and Allies
The Kremlin has launched another offensive in the digital domain, deploying an expanding web of fake news sites designed to discredit Western politicians and sow division across democratic societies.
According to an investigation reported by The Register, Russia’s “CopyCop” network has created more than 200 new websites imitating local media outlets in the United States, France, Canada, and Norway. Together with 94 Germany-focused sites discovered earlier, the total exceeds 300 this year, marking a major expansion. These platforms are not limited to false newspapers; some masquerade as fact-checking sites, further blurring the line between truth and fiction.
Researchers warn that the use of artificial intelligence has turbocharged the effort, making it faster and cheaper to flood the information space with fabricated stories tailored to specific audiences.
At the center of the operation is John Mark Dougan, a former Florida deputy sheriff who fled to Moscow in 2016 and received asylum. Dougan has long been accused of working with the Kremlin’s military intelligence directorate, the GRU, through the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise. U.S. Treasury sanctions and multiple investigative reports tie him directly to Russia’s influence operations. Security analysts say the GRU funds servers running large language models—based on Meta’s open-source Llama 3—to generate rewritten news articles, deepfakes, and targeted political attacks.
CopyCop has already left its fingerprints on multiple elections. Earlier this year, researchers documented nearly 100 fake sites pushing narratives into Germany’s federal elections. Now, with more than 300 such outlets active in 2025, the network is amplifying disinformation on a transnational scale. The effect is cumulative: identical narratives are repeated across countries, creating what analysts describe as an “avalanche effect” that undermines trust in institutions and erodes Western unity.
The United States remains the primary target. Several newly uncovered websites—allstatesnews.us, capitalcitydaily.com, fldaily.news, among others—pose as small-town news portals while running fabricated national stories. A March 2025 article on one of these sites falsely claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had misappropriated U.S. taxpayer money to smear Donald Trump, citing what appears to have been a forged Ukrainian government document. In 2024, the same network spread a bizarre video accusing then-candidate Kamala Harris of poaching rhinos.
Canada has also come under fire. Two new sites, albertaseparatist.com and torontojournal.ca, exploit growing debates around Alberta’s independence referendum to inflame polarization. Similar tactics are being deployed in France, Armenia, and Norway, with fake outlets impersonating political parties or watchdog organizations.
The disinformation campaign is only one part of a broader Kremlin strategy to fracture Western societies. Alongside CopyCop’s digital operations, Russian-backed groups have been tied to physical provocations in Europe. In France, coordinated incidents saw swastikas painted across public spaces and pig heads left outside mosques. French authorities later linked these actions to foreign influence efforts designed to heighten tensions between communities and fuel distrust between Muslims, Jews, and the wider population. Like the online forgeries, these provocations followed a clear pattern: stoking outrage, amplifying divisions, and then allowing Moscow’s online echo chambers to weaponize the resulting headlines.
Experts warn that the timing of this surge is no accident. U.S. efforts to counter online disinformation have been weakened after the Department of Homeland Security scaled back resources for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Election workers preparing for the 2026 midterms have already expressed concern over reduced federal support.
“The expansion of CopyCop’s infrastructure shows intent to persist and evolve in the global information environment,” said Matt Mooney, Director of Global Issues at Recorded Future’s Insikt Group, which conducted the investigation.
The Kremlin’s objective is straightforward: destabilize Western democracies by eroding trust. Every fake news story, every staged provocation in the streets, is designed to drive a wedge between citizens and their institutions. What may appear as graffiti or a handful of obscure websites is, in fact, a coordinated, state-backed campaign of hybrid warfare—one that treats information and division themselves as weapons.
