Security News > 2023 > December > Hollywood plays unwitting Cameo in Kremlin plot to discredit Zelensky

An unknown pro-Russia influence group spent time recruiting unwitting Hollywood actors to assist in smear campaigns against Ukraine and its president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Exploiting platforms like Cameo, which allows people to pay public figures for personalized videos, usually for events like birthdays, this influence operation compensated US celebrities to record videos for a "Vladimir," supporting his fight against substance addiction.

The videos are then edited to include emojis, links, and overlays to make it seem like they came from the actor's Instagram page, and shared on Russian social media networks to promote the country's long-running claim that Ukraine's leader suffers from addiction.

As well as sharing the videos on social media, Russian state-owned media outlet RIA Novosti published a story in August following the circulation of McGinley's message, again referencing "Vladimir's" drug addiction.

With Ukrainian flags and Zelensky's Instagram account appearing to be tagged in the post, achieved through video editing, the videos were made to appear as if they were addressing the president directly.

It's been previously reported that Russians are using bot farms located in Ukraine and operated by Russian insiders to disseminate fake news and propaganda at scale.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/09/russia_cameo_ukraine_propaganda/