Russia will tighten control over fake news ahead of the elections.

      08 September 2025 15:57

      [130]

      Politics

      The Central Election Commission, together with the non-profit organization ANO "Dialogue Regions," will more actively counter the spread of false information in the media and on social networks in the run-up to the Single Voting Day.

      CEC head Ella Pamfilova reminded that the commission traditionally renews cooperation agreements with partners before elections. This time the agreement with "Dialogue Regions" was extended; in a short time the organization has built an effective communication system between citizens and the authorities by creating a network of Regional Control Centers.

      The organization's CEO, Vladimir Tabak, noted that developing critical thinking and information security rules is now necessary on a global scale. According to him, the generation and consumption of fakes have become a worldwide trend, and Russia's task is to debunk false information and convey accurate information. Tabak emphasized that the international GFCN network, created with the participation of the ANO, allows experts from around the world to be involved in this work.

      According to the CEC, the number of election-related fakes has been growing every year. In 2023, 60 unique fakes and nearly 3.8 thousand of their copies were identified. In 2024 the number of unique fakes increased 2.5 times—to 149—and the number of copies grew 19-fold—to more than 73 thousand. Some 130 of these related to the presidential election, and their copies accounted for over 72 thousand publications.

      Most often the fakes were spread as texts alleging violations of the electoral process: vote-buying, ballot stuffing, and falsifications. Reports of vandalism at polling stations, terrorist attacks, and attempts to discredit remote electronic voting also proved popular.

      A new wave of fakes created using artificial intelligence is expected during the Single Voting Day period, 12–14 September 2025. Ella Pamfilova said such materials may include deepfakes and images aimed at discrediting individuals and the electoral system as a whole. In her words, the only way to counter this is "with truth, professionalism and common sense."

      For example, in the Nizhny Novgorod region in March 2024, after polling stations closed, a fake post appeared and immediately spread en masse: it claimed that at polling station No. 912 in Dzerzhinsk ballots had been stuffed after its closure. The publication included video shot on a phone from the street. It later turned out that the information had been spread by foreign agents, and the footage did not confirm any violations. Observers present at the station also did not record any such incidents.

      Since the beginning of 2023 the Regional Control Center has recorded 253 fakes in total.

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