Sweden Used as Cover for Russian Propaganda on X, Experts Say

Several X (formerly Twitter) accounts claiming to be Russian army drone pilots and special forces operatives are reportedly based in Sweden, according to Dagens Nyheter. These accounts mix English-language Russian propaganda with video material filmed by Russian soldiers, aiming to give followers a sense of exclusive access to the daily lives of combat troops.

Björn Palmertz, an expert on hybrid threats and a senior advisor at the Institute for Psychological Defence, believes it is unlikely the account holders are actually in Sweden. He suggests that these accounts likely use VPNs to obscure their location and make it harder to track them. A common tactic is to create the impression that pro-Russian voices are ubiquitous, thereby making the opinion surrounding a particular message appear organic by disseminating it from multiple locations.

Palmertz notes that adversarial states have long employed tactics to make messages appear to originate from different senders. During the Cold War, the East German security service distributed leaflets that seemed to come from a West German organization. The digital age has made such influence operations significantly cheaper and easier to conduct at scale.

"These accounts might just be a misleading part of a larger campaign that we haven't discovered," Palmertz stated. He emphasized the need to constantly step back and consider the broader context. Many social media platforms are now flooded with influence operations from various threat actors pushing their agendas. Palmertz observed that platforms are less transparent than they used to be, being less willing to share data with researchers, making it difficult to confirm the exact location of account operators with 100% certainty.