Inauthentic posts are circulating German social media targeting the elections this fall, aiming to discredit candidates and portray Germany as divided.

The DW Factcheck investigated Russian disinformation targeting German elections in a conversation with ISD’s Pablo Maristany de las Casas and Julia Smirnova from CeMAS.

Germany’s elections are not an unsurprising target for the Russian influence operation Matryoshka, also known as Operation Overload. Nonetheless, its scale has raised concerns.

What is unusual for Russian influence campaigns is to target specific candidates from regional elections, in this case in support of candidates perceived as more Russia-friendly while attempting to discredit those who are not.

Pablo explained that the narratives mirror earlier Russian influence operations with “pro-Russian, anti-German and anti-EU messages .”

The full article is available on DW.