Russian Propagandist Turns His Sights to German Election
Having honed his craft seeking to confuse American voters with fake websites and false claims, John Mark Dougan is now apparently taking aim at Germany’s upcoming vote
Special Report
By Leonie Pfaller, Roberta Schmid, and McKenzie Sadeghi
A network of 102 AI-generated German-language websites, apparently linked to U.S. fugitive turned Kremlin propagandist John Mark Dougan, is spreading disinformation and amplifying pro-Russian narratives ahead of Germany’s Feb. 23, 2025, snap elections, a joint analysis by NewsGuard and German non-profit investigative newsroom Correctiv found.
The first site in the network was registered as early as July 2024, but the network started expanding significantly after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Nov. 6, 2024, announced the break-up of Germany’s governing coalition, spurring the upcoming elections.
Similar to Dougan’s U.S. network of 171 sites, which is no longer active, the German domains mimic authentic local and national German news outlets, with some carrying names of historic, now defunct regional newspapers such as “Berliner Tageblatt” and “Hamburger Anzeiger.” The network, which was first identified by Correctiv and has not been previously reported, comprises 102 websites.
For more on Dougan and how he operates, see this report from NewsGuard published earlier this month.
In addition to identifying the network’s spreading of divisive narratives, NewsGuard has so far detected three false claims on Dougan’s network (more on this below), and he appears poised to release more disinformation and polarizing narratives as the election draws nearer. The election is important to Russia’s geopolitical strategy, as a German government less aligned with NATO and Ukraine and more skeptical of European integration would be beneficial to Moscow.
Toward that end, the Dougan network promotes voices of populism and Euroscepticism, publishing content favorable to the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a party known for its nationalist and anti-EU stance. At the same time, the network regularly targets mainstream parties such as the German Green Party, whose views on energy independence from Russian fossil fuel and support for Ukraine and NATO are contrary to Russian interests.
The network emerged as German officials warned about foreign election interference. “There are forces inside and outside Germany that have an interest in attacking the election process and disrupting the democratic order," Claudia Plattner, president of Germany's nonpartisan Federal Office for Information Security, said during a press conference in November 2024.
Dougan, asked about the network of German news sites and his reported ties to Russia, told NewsGuard in a Jan. 21, 2025, Signal message, “I am not associated with, or paid by, or work for, or receive any money from the GRU or any Russian government entity. That’s all made up. In fact, I find the Russian government to be rather useless for anything, a bunch of idiot bureaucrats who never get anything done. So, I don’t know why everyone thinks I work for them: I don’t. And I wouldn’t have that kind of patience.”
Nevertheless, NewsGuard, The Washington Post, CNN, CBS News, and others have reported that Dougan is part of a Russian influence operation dubbed by Microsoft as Storm-1516 that appears to be an offshoot of the Internet Research Agency, the disbanded Russian troll farm. The Washington Post, citing European intelligence documents, reported that Dougan is paid and directed by the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service.
The Post found that the GRU financed a dedicated AI server coordinated by Valery Korovin, Dougan’s apparent boss and head of the Moscow-based institute Center for Geopolitical Expertise, and managed by Dougan. This arrangement was later confirmed in a Dec. 31, 2024, press release from the U.S. Treasury Department announcing sanctions against Korovin and the Center for Geopolitical Expertise, accusing them of “attempt[ing] to interfere in the U.S. 2024 elections” and building a “server that hosts the generative AI tools and associated AI-created content” — which Dougan appears also to be putting to use for the German campaign.
A Network of 102 Fake German News Sites Ready to Jump into Action
Carrying a nearly identical layout and the same sections for politics, business, society, culture, and sports, many of the sites in the network have mostly published pro-Kremlin news content at regular intervals. Dougan seems to be populating the sites with just enough content to create an appearance of an authentic news outlet before launching a disinformation campaign.
NewsGuard found that the German-language content is apparently AI-generated and that the articles are typically rewritten from other sources without crediting the original publishers. The sites primarily rewrite content from German news outlets known for their polarizing reporting, both right-wing and left-wing, including Report24, Philosophia-Perennis, Compact-Online, NachDenkSeiten, and Russia state-run RT. All these sites have been found by NewsGuard to have spread false or misleading information about the Russia-Ukraine war, among other topics.
Max Spero, founder of AI detection company Pangram Labs, who analyzed the network’s use of AI for this report, told NewsGuard on Jan. 21, 2025, “The articles all seem to be roughly the same length, which is the standard length for a ChatGPT generation… Between the low effort that was seemingly put into the care of the website design and formatting, and the firehose of content, it is clear that these sites are full of AI content.”
Articles posted on the network often advance narratives about a corrupt Ukraine, a weakening Ukrainian military, and a strong Russian economy. The network also reports positively on the German right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the Austrian right-wing party Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ), and Donald Trump ally and X owner Elon Musk. For example, articles have described Musk as a “modern visionary” and “innovative spirit whose boldest ideas become reality.” Alice Weidel, the party leader and candidate for chancellor of the German right-wing party AfD, has been called “the voice for German interests”.
Coverage of Ukraine, the German Greens, including politicians Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock, and Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union is consistently negative. For example, a December 2024 article on network site Unmittelbar-medien.de described the performance of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of the Green Party as “ill-considered and embarrassing.”
While the network carries Dougan’s signature tactics, the signs of AI are subtler and more likely to go unnoticed by the average reader. Unlike the U.S. network, which included blatant AI error messages, no such indicators were found in the German network. However, some articles do indicate the use of AI. For example, articles show embedded advertising texts from the original source that mistakenly appear within the body of the generated text. In one case, promotional content for a discount on dietary supplements was mistakenly embedded into an article — likely because the AI failed to distinguish it from the original sourced material. Other articles lead readers to nonexistent newsletters or include calls for donations via PayPal links without providing the necessary link.
A Recycled Playbook
In addition to the pro-Russia narratives, Dougan and his colleagues appear to be behind at least three viral false claims targeting Germany. Unlike in the U.S. network, where false claims were widely distributed across the network, in Germany, they have thus far only appeared on a small number of sites within the network. The false narratives NewsGuard identified are claims that:
A male prostitute provided sex services for Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock during her visits to Africa.
A woman named Milina Graz was sexually abused by German Green Party candidate Robert Habeck
Germany plans to import 1.9 million Kenyan workers
The claim about the male prostitute surfaced on July 29, 2024, in a YouTube video purporting to show the supposed prostitute, identified only as “Kingsley,” claiming that he provided sex services to Baerbock during her visits to Africa.
The claim is baseless, and the man in the video appears to be a West African actor — a tactic frequently employed in Storm-1516 operations. In an email to NewsGuard, the press office of the German Foreign Office described the claim as a "false, fictitious and completely abstruse story" spread by “pro-Russian disinformation portals.”
By July 31, 2024, the prostitute claim was picked up by Zeitgeschenen.de, an apparent Dougan site posing as an authentic German news outlet. The Zeitgeschenen article was headlined, “Where does German tax money go? Baerbock does sex tourism with an African prostitute on official trips.” It cited the YouTube video as well as a sponsored article from the Nigerian site The Daily Post. The claim then spread widely across social media and on pro-Kremlin sites, generating 4,300 shares in 48 hours, with users citing “Zeitgeschenen” as a legitimate local German news source.
After this initial July 2024 campaign, Dougan’s German efforts appeared to pause, perhaps due to his focus on disinformation campaigns targeting the U.S. presidential election aimed at helping President Trump. However, by December 2024, another false narrative surfaced, this time targeting the Green Party’s chancellor candidate and Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Robert Habeck.
On Dec. 5, 2024, a site within the network masquerading as a German news outlet called “Echo der Zeit” published an article with an embedded video of a woman claiming that she was sexually assaulted by Habeck in 2017. The video spread across X, Telegram, Facebook, generating tens of thousands of views. (A similar video targeted then Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz during the U.S. campaign.)
The video targeting Habeck contains multiple signs of inauthenticity, including unnatural and inconsistent movements, disproportionate facial features, and the supposedly German woman’s Russian accent. A spokesperson for Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a domestic intelligence agency that investigates extremism, told news outlet T-Online that the claim is a targeted attempt aimed at discrediting Habeck.
By Dec. 9, 2024, the “Echo der Zeit” website was inactive. Lithuanian-based internet service provider Hostinger told news site T-Online that it took down the site after learning about the false claim, adding that the company would cooperate with any authorities if asked. The company said it would not comment further due to data protection requirements.
Dougan soon pivoted to a third false narrative, this time apparently aimed at stoking fears about Germany’s immigration policies.
On Dec. 17, 2024, an article appeared on Kenyan news portal Tuko.co.ke reporting that, “Building on a deal established earlier this year by Kenyan President William Ruto and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the new agreement will see 1.9 million Kenyan workers travel to Germany to fill roles in industries facing acute labor shortages.”
The Tuko article, which was labeled as “Sponsored,” did not carry a byline and was attributed to “Branded Content,” which the site defines as “a collection of PR and Native articles sponsored by our esteemed partners.” (NewsGuard has found that previous false claims from Storm-1516, the Dougan-connected Russian influence operation, have originated as sponsored articles in African news sites in an effort to give the narratives greater credibility with African audiences and obscure their Russian origins.)
Hours later, the claim was advanced by Presseneu.de, an apparent Dougan-linked site purporting to be a German news outlet, in an article titled “Germany plans to import 1.9 million Kenyan workers: A new migration crisis on the horizon?”
The Presseneu.de article, in turn, cited the sponsored article in the Kenyan news outlet Tuko, which claimed the supposed 1.9 million figure was contained in the Kenya-Germany labor agreement. (The Kenya-Germany bilateral labor agreement, signed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Kenyan President William Ruto in September 2024, makes no mention of importing 1.9 million Kenyan workers.)
The three false claims identified by NewsGuard embody the same tactics used in disinformation efforts during the U.S. election. These include the planting of disinformation as sponsored news content in African outlets to obscure its Russian origins, the fabrication of sexual abuse allegations to discredit officials, and the leveraging of West African diaspora actors in staged “testimonies.”
Dougan’s disinformation efforts in Germany so far are not achieving the same level of reach as his campaigns in the U.S. — where the false claims generated 67 million views by NewsGuard’s calculation and were even cited by some high-profile U.S. lawmakers.
In response to NewsGuard’s inquiries, Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution said in a Jan. 22, 2025, email that it was aware of the "use of pseudo-media sites for the dissemination of disinformation [...] as well as false allegations about Ms. Baerbock and Dr. Habeck.” The office also stated that "such disinformation campaigns are particularly suitable for weakening trust in state institutions and discrediting individuals in the run-up to the Bundestag elections."
The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in response to NewsGuard’s inquiries, said in a Jan. 22, 2025, email that its research team was “monitoring the campaign” and that this network of sites “overlaps with known disinformation campaigns.” The ministry also said that it "has expanded its analysis capacities and is exchanging information closely within the department and with international partners."
Editor’s Note: This report was produced in collaboration with the nonpartisan, German non-profit investigative newsroom Correctiv, which first uncovered the German network of websites linked to Storm-1516 with the help of Gnida, an anonymous group of volunteers that tracks Russian influence operations. NewsGuard and Correctiv shared information and agreed to publish the findings simultaneously. Read their report here.
Edited by Eric Effron