Blogger John Dougan Flagged at Borders Over Shared Name with Russian Propagandist John Mark Dougan — Who Says He’s ‘Sorry’ and Invites Him to Dinner
What happened: A Scottish blogger named John Dougan has found his hitchhiking trip from Scotland to Hong Kong repeatedly disrupted with border agents mistaking him for a former Florida deputy sheriff turned Russian propagandist with the same name — John Mark Dougan — who was named NewsGuard’s 2024 Disinformer of the Year.
The mix-up: On May 15, blogger John Dougan posted a series of frustrated Instagram videos explaining that he had been stopped and questioned at multiple border crossings because he was confused with John Mark Dougan, an ex-Florida cop whose home was raided by the FBI in 2016 and who was charged by Palm Beach County prosecutors in 2018 with wiretapping and extortion. He then fled to Moscow and has emerged as a prolific and high-profile Russian propagandist.
“Being mistaken for someone else and being hauled into all kinds of security rooms at border controls is a nightmare scenario for anyone on any trip,” blogger John Dougan said in an Instagram video. “This is exactly what keeps on happening to me and now I’m seriously worried that it’s going to derail my whole trip.”
To review John Dougan’s videos explaining his plight, you can watch the videos here:
Blogger John Dougan told NewsGuard in a WhatsApp message that he was first stopped at the border about two years ago when he was coming back to the U.K., and his passport stopped working at the electronic gates. Since then, he said he “has been stopped in varying capacities at several borders.” He referenced an incident this week where he was “held up” in Bulgaria, and said that for the most part, he was released by border patrol agents soon after they looked at additional documentation.
“Greece was the most extreme case where I was taken into an interrogation room and asked lots of questions,” Dougan said, adding, “pretty much any Western country that I've tried to enter in the past years, I've had some sort of delay.”
Further connections: The two men don’t just share a name. According to the blogger, they also share a birthday — and briefly interacted nearly 20 years ago on Facebook. Blogger Dougan says John Mark Dougan added him as a friend in the early years of the social media platform because of their shared name and once asked him to record a voicemail message for his legal industry company. John Dougan declined.
Enter the real Dougan: In response to the blogger’s videos, John Mark Dougan posted a message of his own to Instagram. You can watch the video here:
“The guy in this video is very cool, his name is John Dougan. But he’s not John Mark Dougan. That would be me,” propagandist Dougan said in the video. “That is the guy that they keep stopping this poor soul for, and I’m really sorry. But do me a favor. Every border that you get stopped at, let me know which ones it is so I know what countries to avoid.”
He went on to offer help to the other Dougan, including producing personalized messages verifying the blogger’s distinct identity, and he invited him to visit Russia “for steaks and drinks — we will have a good old time.”
As for John Mark Dougan’s invitation to Russia, the blogger said, “He's always been nice to me, but I'm not sure it would help my ability to travel freely if we had an in person relationship in Moscow.” Dougan added that he does not “know much about the situation with John [Mark Dougan]” and his background in spreading Russian disinformation, adding, “I think the less I know, the better.”