Exclusive: Meet The Murky Russian Network Behind An Anti-Pfizer Disinformation Drive In Europe

A network of Russian marketing companies known for selling dubious nutritional supplements and pushing malware is behind a disinformation campaign to denigrate Western coronavirus vaccines, according to a new RFE/RL investigation. The revelations, which lead to a Moscow-based businesswoman active in pro-Kremlin political circles, add new insight into the campaign that targeted social-media influencers in France and Germany, among other countries, and reportedly attracted the attention of French intelligence agencies. The woman, Yulia Serebryanskaya, is a veteran of political campaigns and event planning for the ruling United Russia party, and briefly ran as an independent for election in the Moscow city elections in 2019. She also heads an organization called Russian Initiative, which describes itself as a "worldwide union of Russian speakers" that "helps people carry on our culture and adequately represent our traditions, our social achievements, rather than tolerate a distorted idea of the Motherland, wherever they are." The disinformation campaign involving marketing companies adds a new dimension to Russia's murky, under-the-radar efforts to promote its own COVID-19 vaccines -- in particular the Sputnik V vaccine backed by the country's sovereign wealth fund, the Russia Direct Investment Fund.

Known as RDIF, the fund has aggressively promoted Sputnik V, extolling, and at times exaggerating, its benefits, while also openly criticizing Western vaccines such as Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Moderna, and amplifying negative scientific results. There is no indication that RDIF is linked to the marketing campaign that began to appear in recent weeks, targeting social media influencers in France and possibly elsewhere. A French investigative news site called Fact & Furious, along with other outlets including The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, and The Guardian, reported that French bloggers had received e-mails from a person claiming to work for a marketing firm called Fazze. The e-mails reportedly offered to pay the bloggers to produce videos on YouTube, Instagram, and other platforms criticizing the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in particular. Leo Grasset, a French science blogger whose YouTube account has 1.2 million subscribers, reported he had been contacted, and posted screenshots of some of the e-mails to his Twitter account. Grasset did not immediately respond to messages from RFE/RL seeking further comment. In Germany, another social media influencer with a sizable following named Mirko Drotschman also posted screenshots to Twitter of an e-mail he received asking him to participate in a campaign against the Pfizer vaccine.

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