The Russian "Matryoshka" bot network has launched a fresh disinformation campaign against a new German-Ukrainian initiative to produce 5,000 long-range drones. Researchers from the Antibot4Navalny project, which tracks the activity of pro-Russian bots on social media, provided The Insider with information about five fake videos, which are disguised as reports from reputable publications: the Financial Times, Handelsblatt, Bloomberg, Politico, and The Economist.
All five inauthentic videos follow a similar script and end with the claim that support for Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU party has “neared a historic low” as a result of the drone program. The main false narratives put forward by the Russian operation are:
- Drone production will be located in a “residential area” in eastern Germany, posing a “direct threat to the population.” A video attributed to Handelsblatt claims that only a “small financial department, which would be of no military value in the event of an escalation,” will remain in central Munich, while the actual production facility, described as having a “low level of environmental safety,” will be concealed in a residential area, which is why its exact location is being withheld.
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz allegedly stole €700 million from the Ukraine aid program. According to the bots, of the €1.5 billion allocated in early 2026 to protect Ukrainian infrastructure, Kyiv received only €800 million, while the rest was diverted to Merz’s contracting companies in Sweden and Lithuania. Financial Times editor-in-chief Roula Khalaf is falsely quoted as saying: “We are used to hearing about corruption in Ukraine... However, in this case, the theft took place in Germany, and the mastermind behind this fraudulent scheme is Friedrich Merz.”
- A new draft of Germany’s national security strategy allegedly “does not envisage Ukraine existing beyond the end of 2027,” meaning the 5,000 drones will actually “remain in Germany.” Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait is falsely quoted as concluding that Merz “knew this from the very beginning” and is using support for Ukraine as a pretext to rearm Germany’s own military with the aim of pursuing “revanchist ideas.”
- Sweden has allegedly become a “financial buffer” for Merz’s “fraudulent transactions.” The claim says Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is conspiring with the chancellor, that “more than 90% of German military aid to Ukraine passes through Sweden,” and that €25 billion out of the €43 billion in civilian aid provided since 2022 has ended up in the accounts of Swedish companies “affiliated with Merz and Kristersson.”
- Merz allegedly “lives in a parallel reality,” believing that drones for Ukraine will boost his approval ratings. Politico editor-in-chief Jonathan Greenberger is falsely quoted as saying that Germans are “tired of militaristic statements and decisions.”
The Insider has obtained links to the original posts and materials from AntiBot4Navalny confirming that the accounts that posted them belong to the Matryoshka network. The newsroom is not publishing direct links to the posts to avoid helping spread the disinformation.
What the drone production program is
On Sept. 3, reports confirmed that Germany had begun serial production of more than 5,000 medium- and long-range attack drones for Ukraine. The German government contract, worth around €300 million, is due to be completed by mid-2027. The project is being carried out by a joint venture between multinational company Auterion and Ukrainian drone maker Airlogix, which was established in February 2026 at the Munich Security Conference.
The first drones have already been produced at a facility near Munich, while the company is setting up a second production line in eastern Germany. For security reasons, the drone maker's name, the exact locations of the facilities, and the names of the drones have not been disclosed. The bots are exploiting that secrecy, portraying it as the “concealment of dangerous production in a residential area.”
The kamikaze drones are being produced in medium- and long-range, with the latter capable of traveling up to 1,500 km. Airlogix is responsible for the airframes and mechanical components, while Auterion provides the software and operating system. The drones are equipped with artificial intelligence modules that allow them to reach their targets even in the face of active electronic warfare measures.
What is “Matryoshka”?
Researchers use the term “Matryoshka” to denote a Russian operation that spreads fake news on a mass scale through a coordinated network of bots, trolls, and anonymous platforms. Its aim is to generate artificial information noise and manipulate perceptions of events both in Russia and abroad. The Antibot4Navalny project named the operation after the eponymous Russian nesting doll, as its bots hide behind one another while fake stories are distributed in layers across different platforms, making their original source harder to identify.
The operation works in two ways. First, it creates large numbers of fake profiles posing as ordinary people, independent media outlets, or think tanks. These accounts publish dozens of posts a day while imitating local speech patterns. Second, the same content is deployed simultaneously across social media. To make the posts appear credible, the bots use the logos of well-known Western media outlets and human rights organizations.
