How a Russian Attack on the Midterms Deepfaked Mother Jones

Por David Corn — Mother Jones Magazine

A few days ago , an X user called роман—which is Russian for the name “Roman”—posted a purported Mother Jones video that reported that the Democratic National Committee paid a whopping $259 million to Mark Thompson, the head of CNN, so the cable news network would promote “gender transition among children.” The video—falsely branded with a Mother Jones logo—noted that CNN had aired “8,970 reports, programs, and shows that in one way or another promote gender transition among minors” and that the basis for this story were personal emails from Thompson pilfered by Anonymous, the hacker collective. The video featured Clara Jeffery, the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones, hailing this “great gift from Anonymous, which exposes the moral decay of the Democrats and the Democratic media that collaborate with them.” The video ended with the card that appears at the end of most Mother Jones videos: “Read more at MotherJones.com.”

Within a day, the video was viewed 155,000 times, according to X. Posted on another X account attributed to a user named James Deans Hick, it drew another 50,000 views.

The video was a fake—part of a Russian attack on the 2026 midterms that appears designed to help Donald Trump and the GOP. The “роман” account bore the tell-tale signs of a bot; it was set up in 2018, had zero followers, and had published no previous posts. And the amount of impressions recorded, according to disinformation researchers, were likely elevated and exaggerated the reach of these posts among authentic users.

As MS NOW and The New York Times have each reported, in the past two weeks, a Russian disinformation network disinformation analysts have dubbed Storm-1679 or Matryoshka (the Russian word for those iconic nesting dolls) has begun to inject false election-related material into US social media.

Most notably, its phony posts include purported videos of Hollywood celebrities disparaging Democrats and urging votes for Republican candidates. In one, actor Sarah Jessica Parker appears to say, “When I hear about Democrats, I immediately think of corrupt Nazi whores. If you love America, never vote for Democrats.” The video was branded with a CNN logo and contained the hashtag #AllDemocratsAreCriminals. Other deepfakes in this campaign have used doctored footage of Christopher Lloyd, Ed Begley Jr., and Julia Roberts.

This latest Matryoshka operation was first identified by @antibot4navalny, a small group of anonymous activists who track Russian influence operations. This outfit has revealed that Matryoshka has been disseminating on social media fake CNN reports with false allegations about Democratic senatorial candidates. One targeting James Talarico of Texas declares he “despises Hasidic Jews because their faith does not allow children to change their gender.”

The @antibot4navalny trackers have spotted dozens of false reports spewed out by Matryoshka that are created to look as if they come from The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Politico, PBS, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, MS NOW, and other major American media outlets. Many stick to the celebrity-says-Democrats-are-horrible theme. Others spread false reports about corruption at US media outlets, and some pretend to be news reports showing that stories about Russian disinformation are phony.

This is not Matryoshka’s first rodeo. In my new book, How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America, I covered the network’s role in the massive Russian disinformation operation that targeted the 2024 presidential campaign to tarnish Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and boost Trump. I wrote:

The Matryoshka operation produced numerous social media posts and videos falsely branded as reports from major news outlets (such as Fox News, BBC, and CNN), government agencies, and research outfits. It spewed a barrage of disinformation: Harris had an abortion when she was seventeen (Fox News). She was exhibiting early-­onset Alzheimer’s (USA Today). Her grandfather was a communist (BBC). Her family was connected to Pfizer and Big Pharma (Bellingcat). It also disseminated a report supposedly from USA Today claiming Ukrainian refugees were smuggling fentanyl into the United States, and it generated material to stoke fears of civil war in the United States, postelection violence, and a full-­scale conflict between the United States and Russia that could result in nuclear catastrophe.

In the first three months of 2025, Matryoshka tried to undercut Western support for Ukraine by putting out false news reports depicting Kyiv as corrupt and belligerent and claiming Europe was being dragged into World War III. These messages, according to disinformation researchers, did not gain much traction.

But during one of Elon Musk’s tirades against the US Agency for International Development, which he was then trying to abolish, he shared with his 216 million followers on X a clip from E! News reporting that the agency had paid millions to celebrities to travel to Ukraine. The roster included Angelina Jolie ($20 million), Orlando Bloom ($8 million), Sean Penn ($5 million), and Ben Stiller ($4 million). Donald Trump Jr. reposted the video as well; it quickly drew more than 11 million views. That video was a Matryoshka fake.

After Mother Jones was alerted by @antibot4navalny, a lawyer for Mother Jones contacted X to register a complaint about the phony video with the implausible claim the DNC had paid more than one-quarter of a billion dollars to CNN’s chief. “Thanks for bringing this to our attention,” X responded. “We’ve removed the reported post(s) for a violation of X Rules and specifically our trademark policy.”

As of now, Matryoshka’s current operation does not seem to have achieved great reach on X, Bluesky, or other social media platforms. But in 2024, the Russian disinformation campaign placed false anti-Democrats messages in the feeds of millions of Americans. One bogus allegation—Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, had inappropriately touched an exchange student when he was a high school teacher—did go viral and was amplified by Jack Posobiec, the promoter of Pizzagate and a MAGA provocateur who had been working with the Republican Party, and Candace Owens, a popular right-wing influencer.

Matryoshka’s new operation aimed at the midterms may not yet have produced viral content, but it signals that Putin is at it again. He has mounted disinformation and influence operations in every national US election since 2016 (as my book chronicles)—to sow discord and to help Trump. This time, Russian disinformation warfare is occurring with the United States less able to defend against this threat. The Trump administration has shuttered the units at the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the State Department that once tracked Russian disinformation (and disinformation from other foreign adversaries) and sought to counter it.

With Trump leaving the door wide open (purposefully?), Matryoshka and other Russian disinformation ops will have a clear shot at influencing the midterm elections—to help Republican candidates and, perhaps more important, exacerbate any chaos or conflict that might arise. This could be a far bigger and more consequential operation than a fake Robert De Niro, Charlize Theron, or Cher post.

Fonte: Mother Jones Magazine