russian fake about “massive election fraud in Germany”
Fake videos are being circulated on X and by pro-russian sources, allegedly showing men destroying mail-in ballots cast for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party or displaying voting papers from which the AfD has supposedly been removed.
All of these videos are fabricated. Their falsity has been confirmed by Germany’s state and district election commissions, as well as German monitoring projects. The AfD is in fact included on the official ballot. The videos showing the alleged “destruction of ballots” also contain numerous anomalies: the “ballot packages” shown lack mandatory voter cards, the envelopes do not have sealing strips, and the ballots differ in size and folding method from the official forms. In addition, analysis of the audio tracks featuring alleged “voters’ voices” in the background showed that they were generated using artificial intelligence.
▫️ The tactics used to create and distribute this fake fully correspond to the methods of the pro-kremlin influence network Storm-1516.
The goal of this disinformation campaign is to discredit Germany’s electoral system, cast doubt on the legitimacy of the vote, undermine trust in democratic institutions and benefit pro-russian political forces.
The Center has previously reported on the intensification of russian disinformation operations ahead of the elections in Germany. In particular, the mass dissemination of fabricated materials through the kremlin-coordinated “Matryoshka” network was documented, with German candidates being falsely accused of scandals, crimes and manipulated polling data.
