Fact-Checking | The Kremlin's Disinformation Machine Continues to Operate

The website 'PoliGraph', a fact-checking project of Voice of America, has reported on one of the latest scenarios of misinformation produced and disseminated by Russia. According to this report, Russia, during a month-long campaign of spreading false information, created a fictitious character as an Egyptian journalist claiming to expose corruption in the Ukrainian presidency, and later stated that this journalist, who essentially does not exist, was murdered by Zelensky. This news was widely covered by Russian and international media. The Egyptian news site 'Al-Mustaqbal', which claims to be affiliated with 'Fox Technology', reported on December 23 that Mohamed Al-Alawi, an Egyptian investigative journalist, mysteriously died in the resort city of Hurghada on the Red Sea. Al-Mustaqbal, citing police reports and relatives' testimonies, stated that Al-Alawi died from multiple fractures, bruising, and severe brain injuries leading to a brain hemorrhage. This report included two videos that were later removed from YouTube. The first video claimed to be filmed at the crime scene but did not show the victim's body or the presence of police. The second video showed a man sitting in front of the camera while covering his face with his hand. This man introduced himself as Ahmed Al-Alawi, the brother of the allegedly murdered journalist. Mohamed Fathi, the interviewer, was also hidden from the camera's view. Ahmed responded to Fathi's questions by stating that his brother had been threatened after revealing information regarding the villa of Zelensky's mother-in-law, and that the Egyptian police were investigating the involvement of several Ukrainian citizens in Al-Alawi's murder, considering their potential involvement in an assassination attempt against Zelensky. By December 25, the news of the murder of the Egyptian journalist by Zelensky had become one of the main stories in Russian media. Anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian users raised this issue in a coordinated campaign on platforms like X, Telegram, Facebook, and the Russian social network 'LiveJournal'. In these posts, a topic that could ultimately suggest Ukraine's potential involvement in this event was presented as a fact confirmed by the police. The reputable Arabic network, Al-Arabi, a London-based Arabic news outlet, published a report on 'Suspicion Surrounding the Murder of Mohamed Al-Alawi, Egyptian Journalist' based on social media posts and an article from the newspaper Pravda. English-language media linked to Russian intelligence played a significant role in disseminating the story of 'the murder of an Egyptian journalist'. One of these media outlets, 'InfoBricks', described Mohamed Al-Alawi as a 'respected Egyptian investigative journalist' who was 'killed for exposing Zelensky's corruption.' InfoBricks is managed by 'InfoRus', which was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2021 for 'promoting content directed by Russian intelligence services'. In its report, InfoBricks referred to another Russian news site called 'Military Review', which in turn referenced the website 'Clear Story News'. Then 'InoSMI', a branch of the Russian state media company 'Rossiya Segodnya', translated and published the article from English to Russian. Subsequently, 'RIA Novosti', a major state news agency in Russia, which plays a role similar to that of major Western news agencies like Reuters and Associated Press, published the story of 'the murder of an Egyptian journalist' based on this translation, and this news spread to various Russian media outlets such as Sputnik, Life, Federal Press, News.Aryo, and Svobodnaya Pressa. InoSMI also published a Russian translation of an article from a Turkish Islamist newspaper, Yeni Şafak, which stated, citing a government-supported news agency in Russia, that it is assumed that Ukrainian special services are behind the murder of Mohamed Al-Alawi, the Egyptian journalist. The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine was the first to declare on December 25 that the news of the murder of Mohamed Al-Alawi, the Egyptian journalist, was fabricated, stating that 'there is no information about such a person on the internet except for a fake article regarding the alleged purchase of a villa by the mother-in-law of the President of Ukraine.' On December 30, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior announced in a statement that no Egyptian journalist had been murdered in Hurghada and that the news of the villa purchase was entirely fabricated, and the Zelensky family had no connection to this property. On January 1, Egypt Telegraph, a Cairo-based news site, conducted a comprehensive investigative article on the subject and concluded that there was no evidence of Al-Alawi's existence and no police record of a journalist by that name being murdered in Egypt, and the document regarding the villa purchase in Egypt was also fake. On January 12, New Arab, a London-based news website, concluded in a detailed report that 'the Russian disinformation network is behind this fabricated murder.' New Arab journalists concluded that both videos shared on YouTube regarding the 'murder' of Al-Alawi are fake and appear to have been generated by artificial intelligence. PoliGraph emphasizes that by the time this report was published on January 25, none of the Russian media had publicly acknowledged the falsity of their reports regarding Al-Alawi's murder or corrected or removed them.