Reportedly Viral USAID Disinformation Video Linked to Russian-Aligned Campaign Known as Matryoshka
Description
A video that reportedly went viral on X in early February 2025 claimed USAID paid celebrities to visit Ukraine. The clip mimicked E! News branding and included a narrator with a British accent. Individuals and organizations named denied any involvement. Researchers attributed the video to Matryoshka (AKA Operation Overload and Storm-1679), an influence campaign suspected of using AI-generated narration and editing, though tool use has not been independently confirmed.
Actors
Alleged Deployers
- storm-1679
- russian-linked-disinformation-network
- operation-overload
- matryoshka
Alleged Developers
- deepfake-technology-developers
- synthetic-audio-generation-technology-developers
Harmed Parties
- usaid
- the-new-york-times
- sean-penn
- politico
- orlando-bloom
- new-york-university
- e!-news
- ben-stiller
- bbc
- angelina-jolie
- epistemic-integrity
Classification
Risk Domain
Malicious Actors & MisuseRisk Subdomain
4.1. Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
MIT Risk Profile
Source
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