Stormkiller: A Russian IO Coverup

Alethea identified a network of X accounts assessed as a subset of Russia’s broader network of accounts used in ongoing influence operation efforts, including those seeking to impact the 2024 Presidential Election. 

While investigating this network, Alethea observed a shift in the behavior of some accounts, potentially reacting to the September 4, 2024, DOJ affidavit which implicates Social Design Agency—a Russian firm suspected of operating at the behest of the Russian government—in operating the influence campaign known as Doppelgänger, known for its use of cloned websites of legitimate news outlets. This shift included faked claims by prominent disinformation experts, including Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat, and Christo Grozev, the former lead Russia investigator at Bellingcat. Often, this apparent new effort to cast doubt on Russia’s involvement in these influence campaigns shifted the blame to Ukraine—who relies on democracies for financial and geopolitical support and is often itself a target of the campaign.