Pro-Russian troll network targets Sweden’s 2026 election

A pro-Russian troll network has spread false claims about electoral fraud in Sweden and made fabricated accusations against Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, SVT reports. “We see this across Europe. The Russians target countries that support Ukraine,” Kristersson told SVT.

The campaign may also have another purpose. Seven fake videos were posted on the social media platform X within one hour on Tuesday evening.

According to the Russian opposition analysis group Antibot4navalny, the posts can be linked to a pro-Russian influence campaign called Matrjosjka, named after a Russian nesting doll.

The videos, shared with SVT by the analysis group, were presented as news reports from established media organisations. Two carried the logos of SVT and Dagens Nyheter, while two others copied the graphic profiles of Euronews and Der Spiegel. The videos were fabricated and had never been published by the media outlets.

Matrjosjka is mainly active on X. An earlier SVT investigation found that most of the network’s posts contained messages intended to influence Western support for Ukraine.

Campaign targets journalists and fact checkers

Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the BfV, has warned that the campaign is targeting local and regional elections to be held in the country in September. Viginum, the French government agency that works against foreign information influence, has also identified a Matrjosjka operation targeting presidential candidate Gabriel Attal. France will hold a presidential election in 2027.

The false posts rarely achieve wide reach, and typically receive no more than a few hundred or a few thousand genuine views, Antibot4navalny told SVT.

Several media organisations’ social media accounts, including those of SVT and Dagens Nyheter, were tagged in the posts targeting Sweden’s election.

According to a Viginum report, the operators actively distribute the false posts to journalists and fact checkers, often disguising them as requests for verification. The approach suggests that the campaign aims to distract and overload newsroom fact checking resources through large numbers of targeted requests.

The campaign may also seek to generate media coverage that amplifies its messages or makes it appear more influential than it really is, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

Disinformation campaign identified in 2024

Matrjosjka, also known as Operation Overload and Storm-1679, was first exposed by Antibot4navalny in 2024. It is one of several pro-Russian information influence campaigns, alongside the so-called Doppelgänger campaign and Storm-1516.

The campaign uses inauthentic bot accounts to publish and circulate false images and videos, including to fact checkers and news organisations. It is mainly active on X, and to a lesser extent on TikTok and Bluesky.