The recent German state elections were the focus of coordinated Russian information operations, causing large amounts of false information to spread online.

A recent AFP piece quoted ISD Analyst Pablo Maristany de las Casas’ analysis on this concerning development. Pablo highlighted that Russian influence operations previously focused only on national elections, and this recent activity means that researchers will have to monitor a greater number of elections.

Pablo explained to AFP that the campaigns, such as Matryoshka, are intended to sow chaos and uncertainty before the vote. The operation’s posts are written in English and show signs of automation, publishing Monday to Friday in a tight time window.

Pablo also compared Matryoshka’s approach to that of information operation Storm-1516, which has a more complex network of accounts that each publish the same claim as an independent contribution.

Looking ahead, Pablo emphasized that local authorities must strengthen their resources and observation capacity to respond to these misleading claims.

The full article is available on AFP.