28/08/2026
Fake news segments with real media logos. Accounts that post once, then go dormant. A takedown that comes days after the content has already spread, once it has already reached its audience. This is Matryoshka, a Russian influence operation that has been running on X since 2024. It has targeted the French and US elections, the German federal election, and is now active around the Swedish and German state elections, with the 2027 French presidential election already in its sights. The pattern repeats every time: fabricated content goes up, spreads through coordinated networks, and gets flagged by researchers well before the platform acts on it. Yet, X still acts too late and removes the content only after it has already spread. This is one of the key findings of our latest investigation on the upcoming Swedish elections targeted by Matryoshka.