Russian Propaganda Thrives in Greek Media Via ‘Disinformation Laundering’

A report splashed across Greek online media last month declared sensationally that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s parents were being investigated for corruption, after $11 million dollars was found in their bank accounts. It wasn’t true and was debunked by Ellinika Hoaxes, a Greek fact-checking organisation. Yet the story wasn’t just published by fringe pro-Russian sites such as Pronews. It was also published by Newsbomb, a highly popular Greek-language site belonging to the DPG Digital Media Group. DPG is owned by Dimitris Giannakopoulos, a businessman and the owner of Panathinaikos football club, who is sympathetic to Vladimir Putin. Some of the reports were accompanied by a video taken from a Russia-friendly X account which purported to be from Europe Today, a show from French pan-European TV news network, Euronews. But as Ellinika Hoaxes pointed out, the Euronews logo in the video is different from the regular one, which has a blue background and white letters and not a white background with blue letters. In its debunking, Ellinika Hoaxes pointed out that the made-up Zelensky story was “yet another case of fabricated fake news” originating from a Russian disinformation network, Matryoshka. Also known as Operation Overload, Matryoshka is a coordinated Russian propaganda network that creates and spreads fake news and videos, deepfakes and memes using logos of well-known Western media outlets. Subscribe to Balkan Insight Premium to read the full article. Please login to your account below if you are already a Premium Subscriber. Buy Premium Subscription Our Premium Service gives you full access to all content published on BalkanInsight.com, including analyses, investigations, comments, interviews and more. Choose your subscription today and get unparalleled in-depth coverage of the Southern and Eastern Europe. Buy Premium Subscription If you have trouble logging in or any other questions regarding you account, please contact us