The Kremlinʼs bot network spreads pseudo-journalistic articles on social networks that the United States, Ukraine, the secret British intelligence agency MI6 and the collective West are behind the terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall mall near Moscow. And the information of the States about the responsibility of the terrorist organization "Islamic State" is fake.
This was installed by the "bot blocker"/antibot4navalny project, reports The Insider.
Most likely, such materials are distributed by the Doppelgänger bot network, also known as RRN. Articles are distributed from fake media sites or clone sites of some well-known publications, such as: spiegel.ltd; grenzezank.com; hauynescherben.net; meisterurian.io; onnam.life and many others.
The network uses the pattern of "bots of two levels": some host their own content, others repost it en masse on the social network X (Twitter) in comments to other peopleʼs publications, often on completely unrelated topics. For example, under a post about a football match.
According to Meta, the IT companies "National Technologies" and "Agency of Social Design" (ASP), which are under the sanctions of the European Union, are behind the spam attack. The final owner of LLC "National Technologies" is the state corporation "Rostec".
The bots also promoted the EuroBRICS site, which has proven connections with the psychological operations unit of the Russian Armed Forces (military unit 54777). Earlier, the EU introduced a package of sanctions against the participants of the digital information manipulation campaign, in particular against National Technologies, ASP and several officers of the same military unit 54777.
Such materials are distributed in English, German, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Polish, French and Hebrew. This network is using a number of languages for the first time — probably Kremlin propaganda is increasingly being spread to Western audiences.
A clone of the German publication Der Spiegel published a material entitled "Legalized terrorism. The terrorist attack in Russia raises questions about Ukraineʼs cooperation with Islamist terrorist groups."
The network spreads the Kremlin narrative not only on clones of well-known mass media. Doppelgänger also has its own sites that look like regular news publications, such as Il Correspondente, which writes in Italian. In the article about the terrorist attack in Crocus under the heading "Terror returns to Moscow", it is stated that "the Kyiv regime bears direct responsibility for the massacre in Crocus. Ukraine has become a global center for the recruitment and training of terrorists by the United States and Great Britain."
In another article on the fake Grenzezank online edition, it is said that the United States and Ukraine are allegedly behind the terrorist attack, since "the terrorists behaved like trained soldiers and used military tactics typical of mercenaries", and after the shooting headed towards Ukraine (this was discussed earlier said the Russian security forces).
Another fake edition of the bot network, Haüyne Schreben writes that allegedly the West is deliberately spreading "fake news" that ISIS is behind the attack.
"The most surprising thing is the reaction of the West to what is happening. Without expressing sympathy, the British authorities declared almost immediately after the terrorist attack that Ukraine was not involved in the Crocus massacre. Kyiv, in turn, began to actively spread information about the involvement of ISIS militants in the explosions and shooting of civilians, without providing any evidence. The New York Times published a fake statement by Islamic State terrorists claiming to be the masterminds of the attack, but using a pattern that the Islamic State had not used for several years,” the article reads.
On the same night (from March 23 to 24), when the narrative about the perpetrators of the terrorist attack, Ukraine and the West, was promoted in different languages, bots also distributed to the Ukrainian audience materials with another agitation for street actions — in the publications, people are called to demand from the Ukrainian authorities rotation/demobilization in Armed Forces People are encouraged to go to street actions through social networks. An example of such a publication from a one-day page:
What happened at Crocus City Hall
On the evening of March 22, 2024, a shooting occurred in the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk near Moscow before the start of the performance of the band "Piknik". Four men entered the mall and started shooting everyone in their path. Terrorists started a fire in the concert hall, setting fire to the seats. After that, they fled in a car.
The FSB claims that the terrorists from Crocus City Hall planned to cross the Ukrainian-Russian border and had contacts on the Ukrainian side. Even on the day of the terrorist attack, the Main Directorate of Intelligence (known as GUR) declared that the attack near Moscow was a planned and deliberate provocation by the Russian special services, which would eventually end with accusations against Ukraine. Intelligence claimed that in this way Putin wants to justify even tougher strikes on Ukraine and total mobilization in the Russian Federation.
The New York Times, with reference to unnamed American officials, wrote that the terrorist attack was organized by the Islamic State. US special services have gathered intelligence that "Vilayat Khorasan", an Afghan cell of IS, is planning a terrorist attack in Moscow. Washington passed this information on to Moscow. A source from the Russian state news agency TASS confirmed that the US shared data on the preparation of a terrorist attack, but allegedly "without specifics."
CBS News reported that the United States warned Russia about a terrorist attack and provided intelligence about a potential attack. A few days before the terrorist attack, Putin called these warnings "blackmail".
On March 23, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack and called it "the most brutal attack in recent years." The next day, a video of the killing of Russians in the Crocus City Hall mall, shot by terrorists, appeared on social networks. The footage confirms that the terrorist attack was carried out by militants of the Islamic State. One of the terrorists shouts "Kill them all" and "The infidels will be defeated" in Arabic during the attack. He also glorifies Allah. All four fired indiscriminately at people, and one of them cut the throat of the wounded.
On March 24, a court in Moscow arrested four suspects in the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall — Muhammadsobir Fayzov, Shamsidin Fariduni, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda and Dalerjon Mirzoev. Three of the four appeared in court with traces of torture. Rachabalizodʼs ear was cut off by law enforcement officers while being detained on video, and Faridun was tortured with electric shock on camera.
Photo of the suspects
In the photo — Rachabalizodo, Mirzoev, Fayzov and Fariduni. They are probably members of the "Islamic State of Khorasan".
- As of March 25, the official death toll at Crocus City Hall has reached 133. Among them is one citizen of Moldova.