Fake videos exploit Germany’s East-West divide before key elections
Coordinated Disinformation Push Targets German Regional Divide Ahead of Crucial September Polls
Fake videos exploit Germany s East - A sophisticated online campaign has emerged, leveraging fabricated visual content to magnify existing tensions between eastern and western regions of Germany. The operation features AI-generated television segments, counterfeit newspaper front pages, and manipulated images that imitate the visual identity of prominent German media brands. Among the most notable deceptions are reports suggesting that landlords in western Germany prefer renting to foreign nationals over local eastern residents, alongside claims that the majority of younger Germans desire the restoration of East Germany as an independent entity.
According to researchers at Antibot4Navalny, a collective dedicated to monitoring digital influence operations, the scope of this effort is substantial. During the initial seven days of the electoral campaign, they catalogued forty-nine misleading video clips, twelve altered newspaper covers, and a single photograph purporting to display fabricated graffiti. These materials circulate prominently across platforms including X, Bluesky, and TikTok, consistently reinforcing the central thesis that Germany's eastern and western populations are growing increasingly estranged from one another.
Tracing the Origins: The Matryoshka Network
Analysis by the research team indicates strong connections to "Matryoshka," a disinformation infrastructure that European officials have previously associated with pro-Russian activities. This network specializes in impersonating authoritative entities—news organizations, policy institutes, and academic research bodies—to lend credibility to its fabricated narratives. The fake content deliberately mirrors the branding of established outlets like Spiegel TV, Bild, and T-Online, as well as the Institute for the Study of War, making the misinformation more convincing to casual viewers.
The timing of this campaign is strategic. Researchers note that the operation has specifically targeted eastern Germany, aiming to capitalize on societal and political friction before two critical state elections scheduled for September. Both Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are being closely monitored as potential barometers for the electoral viability of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's governing coalition, which unites the centre-right Christian Democratic Union with the centre-left Social Democratic Party.
Recent polling data reveals that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party currently leads in both states. Party strategists are optimistic about securing more than forty percent of the vote, a threshold that could enable them to form a state government independently for the first time in their history.
Expert Perspectives on Foreign Influence Tactics
"Foreign influence campaigns aim to destabilise targeted societies," Lea Frühwirth, a senior researcher at the Centre for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS), explained to Euronews' verification team, The Cube. "It is common practice to attempt this by fuelling polarised debate on sensitive topics and hot-button issues."
Frühwirth, who works for the German non-profit extremist monitoring agency, emphasizes that such operations typically amplify pre-existing social fractures rather than creating entirely novel divisions. Although Germany celebrated over thirty years of reunification, she notes that persistent differences in collective identity and unresolved historical grievances continue to make East-West relations politically volatile.
"Reunification did not take place at eye level, and many people in the East report profound grievances at the hands of West German people," Frühwirth stated. "Structural differences persist to this day."
The political dimension of this phenomenon cannot be overlooked. According to the researcher, Russian and pro-Russian messaging surrounding German elections generally benefits parties aligned with Moscow, such as the AfD, while simultaneously casting negative light on other political actors. These campaigns work by positioning different social groups against each other, thereby intensifying political polarization across the country.
Measuring the ultimate impact of such operations on voter behavior remains challenging, as does determining their true audience size. Some reports suggest that the campaign artificially inflates viewership metrics to create the impression of greater public engagement than actually exists. This is not an isolated incident; during the 2025 federal elections, German authorities and independent researchers documented multiple influence campaigns—including Doppelgänger, Storm-1516, and Matryoshka—that attempted to disseminate false narratives while impersonating trusted news organizations.