The Kremlin-linked “Matryoshka” bot network has launched a new series of fake videos in response to a letter from the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
On April 20, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Thom Tillis of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced that they had urged Meta and Google to do more to counter Russian interference in Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections. Researchers from Antibot4Navalny, which tracks the activity of Russian bot networks on social media, shared their latest findings about Matryoshka with The Insider.
Among the falsehoods being circulated are:
- A fake video portraying Canada’s Foreign Ministry as opposing the senators’ letter, falsely claiming that officials in Ottawa had warned Washington that “in an attempt to weaken Europe, the U.S. will spark yet another conflict, and this time, waves of Armenian refugees will flood not only Europe but also Canada.”
- Another falsely claims the senators had a corrupt motive, alleging they were personally buying up farmland in Armenia with help from incumbent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
- In another fabrication, bots attributed a made-up quote to Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait, portraying him as accusing the senators of “hypocrisy” and “stating that the senators are talking about non-existent Russian disinformation while ignoring the fake news spread by Nikol Pashinyan and his supporters.”
- Another fake casts France’s VIGINUM agency, which monitors foreign digital interference, as siding with the Kremlin. It falsely says the agency called the Senate letter “blatant interference,” that it found “no evidence whatsoever” of Russian disinformation over the course of five years, and that it concluded all identified campaigns were false-flag operations orchestrated by Ukraine, Moldova, France, and Germany. The same fabrication also claims VIGINUM is suing the Senate committee in an international court.
- A separate fake post cites a nonexistent report by Canada’s CTV News accusing Pashinyan of “conducting a disinformation campaign for over a year” and alleging that the government of Canada called on “international experts to join the monitoring of the elections in Armenia to prevent manipulation by Nikol Pashinyan and his party.”
- Another video, falsely attributed to Wired magazine, claims a real tactic used by the Russian propaganda group Storm-1516 is instead being exploited by Armenian authorities, who are said to be manipulating search results through a network of “thousands of fake websites”.
- The network’s bots have also promoted the views of made-up “independent experts” who claim the government in Yerevan is “adopting the strategy used by Moldova, which helped Maia Sandu secure victory in 2025,” supposedly by “leveraging Meta and Alphabet platforms to influence the outcome of the democratic process.”
- In another fabrication, Kris Jenner, the matriarch of the Kardashian family, which has Armenian roots, is portrayed as urging Washington to “stay out of Armenia’s affairs” and “suggest [the White House] focus on truly important matters — the war in the Middle East, which they promised us would be over in a couple of days.”
The videos feature the logos of Western media outlets, government institutions, and international organizations in order to create an illusion of credibility. A defining feature of the current wave involves the inversion of real events, taking the facts of the Senate letter, VIGINUM’s work, and the tactics of Storm-1516, and turning them upside down while disseminating them in the guise of authentic sources.
The senators’ letter and Armenia’s upcoming election
On April 17, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis sent letters to Facebook parent company Meta and Google parent Alphabet urging them to devote resources to countering Russian interference in Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for June 7. According to independent experts cited in the letters, Russia is adapting its tactics from past efforts in Moldova for use against Armenia. The letters cite data showing that more than 100 Facebook pages with manipulative content and at least 17 YouTube channels promoting disinformation about the upcoming vote have been identified in Armenia.
Among the issues at stake in the upcoming Armenian vote is the political future of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. His approval rating, according to the International Republican Institute, does not exceed 24%; however, the opposition remains fragmented and is no less unpopular. The central question of the campaign is the fate of a peace agreement with Azerbaijan, the framework version of which Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev initiated in Washington with Trump’s mediation in August 2025.
After talks between Putin and Pashinyan in Moscow on April 1 ended in a public dispute, the Russian regulator moved to revoke the license of a distributor of Armenian brandy — a highly popular drink in Russia and one of Armenia’s major exports.
What is Matryoshka?
“Matryoshka” is a Kremlin-linked network of bots, trolls, and coordinated anonymous media resources specializing in large-scale disinformation campaigns. Its hallmark tools are short vertical videos styled to look like material from respected Western media outlets and organizations, launched simultaneously on X, Telegram, Bluesky, and in closed group chats.
The Antibot4Navalny project coined the operation’s name, describing the structure of the disinfo campaign as being layered like a matryoshka doll: each “doll” hides another, with one set of bots masking others and disinformation circulating on multiple platforms and channels, making it harder to trace.
Matryoshka's Armenia campaign, which began in October 2025, is likely to become the longest-running operation in the network’s history, according to Antibot4Navalny. The previous record was held by Matryoshka’s operation in Moldova.
