French authorities have identified a Russian-linked disinformation operation accusing Emmanuel Macron of involvement in the Epstein affair. Detected by Viginum, the campaign used a fake website impersonating France-Soir and was amplified on X. It is attributed to the Storm-1516 network.
Viginum, the service tasked with countering foreign online interference, detected on Wednesday a disinformation operation linked to the Russian network Storm-1516. The campaign aimed to implicate President Emmanuel Macron in the Epstein affair by publishing an article on a fake website impersonating France-Soir. The article accused Macron of being compromised, claiming to reveal incriminating documents that do not exist in the U.S. Department of Justice's Epstein Library database.
The fake content, which also usurped the name of a Le Parisien journalist, was amplified on X by pro-Russian disinformation relay accounts, including the first diffuser @LoetitiaH, identified as a historical Storm-1516 relay. Viginum attributes this to the CopyCop mode, a network of fake sites linked to John Mark Dougan, exiled in Russia since 2016. The site was quickly deactivated two days after going online.
France-Soir denied the claims on Wednesday evening via social media, warning of brand and content usurpation. The affected journalist filed a complaint. According to a government source, this operation resembles others by Storm-1516, which has orchestrated at least 77 informational campaigns against Western countries since late 2023, aiming to discredit the Ukrainian government and suspend Western aid.
Storm-1516 poses a significant threat to the French and European digital public debate, implicated in elections such as the 2024 U.S. presidential race and the 2025 Moldovan legislative elections. In France, dozens of fake local news sites have been attributed to this network since late 2025, ahead of municipal elections in mid-March and the 2027 presidential vote. The Epstein documents released on January 30 by the U.S. contain no new elements for additional prosecutions.
