Russia Steps Up Election Influence Efforts Ahead of US Midterms, NPR Reports

Russian operatives are pumping out fabricated claims about Democratic candidates, AI-manipulated videos of celebrities and fake posts impersonating real news outlets in a final push to influence American voters before Election Day, NPR reported on October 23 in a story updated on October 24. Researchers who track online influence operations and lawmakers briefed by the intelligence community say Kremlin-backed groups are renewing familiar tactics from past elections, aiming to sow distrust and discord.

The report details one operation attributed by researchers to a network dubbed Storm-1516. Two fraudulent videos targeting a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate were posted on Tuesday on X by an account created last month that the platform publicly flagged as possibly using a proxy to disguise its location. The videos, likely created with artificial intelligence and using real actors whose faces were swapped, were first shared by a network of 15 accounts flagged as bots, then amplified by three large accounts. One video racked up roughly 857,000 views within 24 hours, according to threat-intelligence firm Alethea, before the original account and one large amplifier were suspended and the other two large accounts took their posts down.

The goal, researchers say, is less about persuading voters than inflaming anger and fear to affect turnout — and, crucially, undermining U.S. support for Ukraine. Representative Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, called the flood “a carnival,” saying operatives are “throwing everything out there to generate a sense of chaos and anarchy.” He stressed there is no indication anyone has interfered with the actual mechanics of voting, but warned the same operations have already targeted elections this year in France, Germany and elsewhere, and more false claims are expected around election day, focused on voting and ballot processing.

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