Paragraph 1: The Shadow of the Kremlin Looms Over the Midterms
With the midterm congressional elections less than seven weeks away, a familiar anxiety grips American democracy: the fear that Russian President Vladimir Putin will once again attempt to tilt the scales in favor of Donald Trump and the Republican Party. For nearly a decade, Trump has dismissed all talk of Moscow’s interference as a “hoax,” but the evidence is unequivocal—Putin has waged clandestine information warfare against the United States in every election cycle since at least the 2016 campaign. As documented extensively in David Corn’s new book, How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America, the Kremlin’s meddling has been most ferocious during presidential contests, but it has never spared off-year elections. The pattern is deeply ingrained: Russian operatives use social media, fake news sites, doctored videos, and a sprawling network of bots and trolls to sow chaos, amplify division, and boost candidates who are favorable to Moscow—chiefly Trump and his allies. The question now is whether these same forces are mobilizing for the 2024 midterms, and the first signals suggest they are already at work. The Kremlin’s toolbox has only grown more sophisticated since 2016, incorporating artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and relentless adaptation to platform algorithms. As American intelligence agencies fell into disarray under Trump’s second term, the door for such interference swung wide open. The stakes are enormous: control of both chambers of Congress, the future of domestic policy, and the integrity of the electoral process itself. With the Republican Party increasingly aligning with Putin’s worldview—from opposition to Ukraine aid to echoing Kremlin propaganda—the midterm outcomes could reshape American foreign policy for years. Yet Trump’s administration is not only failing to counter these efforts but actively dismantling the very agencies built to detect and thwart them, leaving the nation blind to the coming storm.
Paragraph 2: A Lavish Wedding and the First Signs of a New Onslaught
The latest evidence of Russia’s reach into Trump’s inner circle emerged with the revelation that a Russian oligarch tied to Putin’s security apparatus financed Donald Trump Jr.’s recent opulent wedding celebration in the Bahamas. That financing may be the tip of a far more sinister iceberg, as the Kremlin’s disinformation machinery appears to be gearing up for the midterms. Indeed, the first concrete indications have surfaced: a Russian disinformation operation has been posting doctored videos to social media platforms that show Hollywood celebrities supposedly denouncing Democrats and endorsing the GOP. In one video, Sarah Jessica Parker appears to say, “When I hear about Democrats, I immediately think of corrupt Nazi whores. If you love America, never vote for Democrats.” Another shows Julia Roberts supposedly charging that Big Pharma and the Democrats are scheming to promote a transgender agenda. A third depicts Ed Begley Jr. slamming Democrats as “perverts.” Each video carries a phony CNN logo and the hashtag #AllDemocratsAreCriminals. Disinformation researchers have attributed these fakes to a clandestine Kremlin operation known as Storm-1679 or Matryoshka—named after the iconic Russian nesting dolls. These are not isolated pranks; they are the opening salvos of a coordinated campaign designed to exploit authentic-looking media and social trust to influence American voters. The choice of celebrities is deliberate: their faces and voices lend an aura of legitimacy, and the fabricated CNN branding lends the patina of breaking news. Even if these videos have not yet gone viral, their creation proves that Putin’s operatives are warming up, testing new methods, and preparing to flood the information ecosystem with even more sophisticated falsehoods in the final weeks before Election Day. The real danger lies not in the individual absurdity of these clips but in the cumulative effect of thousands of such fabrications on a polarized electorate. In an era where trust in institutions is at historic lows, even a single convincing fake can ignite a wildfire.
Paragraph 3: Matryoshka’s 2024 Playbook: From Fake Billboards to Nuclear Threats
The Matryoshka operation is no newcomer to U.S. elections; it was one of several secret Russian outfits that injected disinformation into the 2024 presidential race. After Joe Biden withdrew and passed the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris, Matryoshka disseminated a video of tourists in Times Square encountering a bizarre and obscene message on an electronic billboard. Against a backdrop of scissor imagery, a false claim appeared: “Vote for Kamala Harris! She’s promising free gender re-assignment surgery for your kids, whether they like it or not. Make Boys Girls Again!” The billboard never existed in the real world, but the fake video was posted on Telegram and within four hours had over 100,000 views on X. This was just one of many productions from the operation, which churned out social media posts and videos falsely branded as reports from Fox News, BBC, CNN, government agencies, and research outfits. The barrage of disinformation included claims that Harris had an abortion at 17, was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s, had a communist grandfather, and that her family was connected to Pfizer and Big Pharma. Matryoshka also disseminated a report claiming Ukrainian refugees were smuggling fentanyl into the United States, and it generated material designed to stoke fear of civil war, post-election violence, and a full-scale conflict between the United States and Russia that could culminate in nuclear catastrophe. The sheer volume and variety of these falsehoods reveal a deliberate strategy: overwhelm the public with so many competing lies that the truth becomes indistinguishable, thereby eroding faith in democratic processes. The operation’s ability to produce content rapidly and adapt to current events—whether it was a fake billboard, a fabricated news report, or a deepfake—demonstrates a level of sophistication that outstrips the piecemeal responses of American platforms and civil society. Matryoshka’s success lies not in any single story but in the systemic noise it creates, which polarizes voters and amplifies existing divisions. For midterm audiences, we can expect similar tactics: fabricated endorsements, fake scandals, and manufactured controversies designed to depress Democratic turnout and energize Trump’s base.
Paragraph 4: Storm-1516, Doppelganger, and the Viral Amplification of Lies
Another network, Storm-1516, also worked to affect the 2024 election through a series of highly effective false videos. One purported to show Harris supporters assaulting a Trump rally attendee; it received millions of views. A second presented an actor sharing the fabricated story that Harris had paralyzed a girl in a hit-and-run accident 13 years earlier—also drawing millions of eyeballs. This video was laundered through a fake website posing as a San Francisco news outlet, a tactic that gave it an air of journalistic credibility. Some efforts were so ludicrous they crossed into parody: another video featured a purported park ranger in Africa claiming he had accompanied a diplomatic mission on a safari, during which a woman shot and killed a young rhinoceros named Casuba. The rhino killer, he said, was “a female politician. Her name was Kamala.” Disinformation trackers at the Democratic Party urged YouTube to take down the ridiculous rhino video, but the platform ignored the request. An AI-enhanced deepfake showed Harris joking about the assassination attempts on Trump, and this video was boosted by the social media account of RT, the English-language Russian propaganda organ. A third operation, called Doppelganger, used social media accounts to denigrate Harris and inflame fears about the U.S.-Mexico border. “Aliens are invading our homes,” declared one post illustrated by hordes breaking through barbed wire fencing. These operations collectively constituted what Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center described as “expansive influence efforts” tracked by the tech giant’s researchers. The sophistication and reach of these campaigns are staggering: they exploit recommendation algorithms, use old-fashioned astroturfing, and carefully time releases to maximize impact. They also blur the line between foreign interference and domestic radicalization, as American influencers and MAGA personalities often amplify the Russian material without knowing its origin—or even if they do know, they find it useful. The result is a multidimensional assault on the information environment, one that cannot be countered by simple content moderation alone.
Paragraph 5: The Dougan Network and the Walz Hoax
Perhaps the most consequential disinformation effort linked to Storm-1516 was the network centered on John Mark Dougan, a former Florida police officer who, after being indicted for extortion and wiretapping, fled to Russia and established scores of fake news sites that masqueraded as American outlets. These sites posted bogus stories pushing pro-Russia narratives, such as the allegation that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was stealing millions of dollars. But Dougan’s most audacious operation was the false charge that when Kamala Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, was a high school teacher, he had inappropriately touched an exchange student. This made-in-Russia false claim quickly spread through right-wing accounts, amplified by Jack Posobiec, the MAGA activist and onetime Pizzagate proponent then working for the Trump campaign, and Candace Owens, a right-wing influencer and conspiracist. Millions of voters were exposed to this lie. Did it make a difference in the election? There is no way to tell with certainty, but the episode demonstrates the alarming reach of Russian disinformation. A single fabricated story, laundered through fake news sites and then boosted by high-profile domestic voices, can reach a nationwide audience within days. The barriers for entry are low: a few thousand dollars for a domain, a bit of technical know-how, and a network of social media accounts. Russia has perfected this model, and it can be deployed at will for any race—including midterm contests for Congress, governorships, and state legislatures. The Walz hoax is a chilling case study: it showed how foreign actors can inject a lie into the bloodstream of American politics, forcing the target to spend days or weeks refuting it, distracting from real issues, and eroding public trust. Even if the majority of voters do not believe the story, the uncertainty it creates is a weapon in itself. With the midterms approaching, states and candidates should expect similar attempts to tarnish Democrats, particularly those in competitive districts, with lurid and false accusations that prey on cultural anxieties.
Paragraph 6: Blinded by the White House—The Path to a Surrendered Republic
As the first celebrity videos surface and the Kremlin’s operations warm up for the midterms, one sobering fact casts a shadow over any effort to track or counter them: the Trump administration has systematically dismantled the government units that once monitored and disrupted Russian disinformation and influence operations. The intelligence community’s specialized teams, interagency task forces, and public warnings have been silenced or shuttered. Trump, who has repeatedly praised Putin and questioned the intelligence community’s findings, has unilaterally surrendered the field of information warfare against America’s adversaries. In previous election cycles, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence would issue public advisories, brief social media companies, and share threat intelligence with campaigns. Now, those functions have been gutted, and silence prevails. This means the American people may never know the full scope of what Russia or other adversaries are doing right now to influence the midterm elections. Social media companies have also scaled back their internal threat-investigation units, citing cost and a shift in priorities. The result is a perfect storm: an aggressive, adaptive adversary, a weakened defense, and a polarized public susceptible to manipulation. The very institutions that once served as a bulwark against foreign interference are now either toothless or unwilling to act. Putin’s war on American democracy is not a distant threat; it is happening at this very moment, and the United States is largely flying blind. The first doctored celebrity videos are just the tip of a vast iceberg. Without the infrastructure to detect, label, and counter disinformation in real time, the nation will remain vulnerable to every new deepfake, fake news site, and troll farm. The choice facing voters in the midterms is not merely which candidate to support—it is whether to participate in a system whose integrity is under silent, sustained attack. As David Corn reminds us, the war is already underway, and the opening shots are being fired in living rooms and on screens across the country. The only question is whether we will recognize the assault before it is too late—or, worse, whether we will simply surrender.
