Ddos 
A new report from Insikt Group reveals that CopyCop, also known as Storm-1516, is rapidly expanding its disinformation infrastructure and deepening its global influence operations. Since March 2025, the Russian covert influence network has established over 200 new fictional media websites targeting audiences in the United States, France, Canada, and beyond, in addition to impersonating media brands and political parties across Europe and the Caucasus.
According to the researchers, “this amounts to over 300 websites established by CopyCopʼs operators in the year to date, marking a significant expansion from our initial reporting on the network in 2024, and with many yet to be publicly documented.”
The analysis highlights that CopyCop is increasingly relying on large language models (LLMs) to produce and amplify propaganda. Insikt Group observed that “CopyCop uses these websites as infrastructure to disseminate influence content targeting pro-Western leadership and publish artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content with pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian themes.”
Unlike other Russian networks that rely on commercial AI providers, CopyCop operators have turned to self-hosted, uncensored versions of Meta’s Llama 3 models, including dolphin-2.9-llama3-8b and Llama-3-8B-Lexi-Uncensored, enabling them to mass-produce fabricated narratives without restrictions.
CopyCop’s campaigns are no longer limited to NATO countries. The group is pushing narratives in Moldova, Armenia, and Africa, leveraging regionalized networks disguised as fact-checking organizations. Insikt Group notes: “CopyCop has widened its target languages to include Turkish, Ukrainian, and Swahili, and its geographic scope to include Moldova, Canada, and Armenia while sustaining influence operations targeting the US and France.”
These operations aim to erode support for Ukraine while destabilizing democratic processes elsewhere. One tactic involves deepfakes and fabricated dossiers intended to discredit political leaders. The report points out that “tactics and techniques used for content dissemination typically include deepfakes, lengthy dossiers intending to embarrass targets, and fake interviews of alleged whistleblowers making claims about political leaders in NATO member states.”
In the United States, CopyCop websites such as All States News and USA Times News have laundered forged documents alleging corruption by Ukrainian officials and Western journalists. In France, the group has created over 140 fake media outlets, including impersonations of public broadcasters like France Télévisions.
Canada has also become a target. The website albertaseparatist[.]com impersonates a grassroots independence movement in Alberta, complete with social media accounts to amplify separatist narratives. The goal is to exploit regional tensions and “exacerbate domestic polarization in Canadian politics amid calls for an independence referendum.”
Despite its widening geographic scope, CopyCop’s mission remains consistent: “undermining support for Ukraine and exacerbating political fragmentation in Western countries backing Ukraine.” By aligning closely with Kremlin influence objectives, the network seeks to legitimize Russia’s war aims and weaken Western unity.
The report warns that AI-driven disinformation poses new risks to the global information environment. “Russian influence networks like CopyCop that use generative AI to produce biased content at scale risk degradation of the global information environment and threaten information integrity, especially during democratic processes.”
Insikt Group stresses the importance of continuous monitoring, stating that “persistently identifying and publicly exposing these networks should remain a priority for governments, journalists, and researchers seeking to defend democratic institutions from Russian influence.”
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