Report reveals misleading Tom Cruise documentary as element of Russian endeavor targeting Paris Olympics.
The latest stunts by Russian operatives have involved using artificial intelligence to impersonate Tom Cruise's voice narrating a fraudulent documentary attacking the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and strategically positioning coffins with inscriptions related to the Ukraine war near the Eiffel Tower, according to sources.
This behavior appears to be a mounting effort from Russian propagandists to damage the Olympics and halt any momentum Ukraine might gain in using Western-made weapons against Russian territory, as recognized by experts in Russian disinformation. The IOC has put limitations on Russian athletes' participation in the Paris Olympics due to Russia's war on Ukraine.
There is a noticeable blend of desperation and opportunism in these recent propaganda attempts, mentioned Gavin Wilde, a former Russia expert at the National Security Council. "For the tech-savvy propagandists working in Russia, the alternate scenario they're guarding against is not becoming irrelevant but rather a trip to the front lines," Wilde shared with CNN.
The Movement to Discredit the West
These Russian agents fraudulently utilized the fake Cruise voice, Netflix symbol, and even a fake New York Times review to try to give credibility to the documentary. Microsoft's analysts unveiled a report detailing this activity on Sunday, tracing it back to the same Russian propaganda actor attempting to tarnish the Paris Olympics.
Further Russian propaganda includes fabricated news stories about Parisians buying property insurance due to fear of terrorism surrounding the Olympics and fake press releases claiming to be from the CIA and French intelligence warning about terrorism.
CNN requested comment from the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC.
However, not all the recent deception has been digital. On Saturday, French police discovered five coffins covered in the French flag, with the inscription "French soldiers in Ukraine," close to the Eiffel Tower. A French military official informed CNN that they suspect Russia's involvement in this stunt. French police are currently questioning three men regarding this incident.
French President Emmanuel Macron's refusal to rule out the possibility of deploying French troops to Ukraine has provoked the Russian government's ire.
In recent days, pro-Russia social media profiles have also disseminated a doctored video of US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller discussing Ukraine's potential usage of US-made weapons in Russia. The video seems to be a combination of two distinct press appearances by Miller, with him donning varying neckwear.
The identity of the person(s) behind the video remains unclear. Both US officials and private professionals have not publicly identified who created the video.
"Although this video is evidently fake, it represents a movement towards what counter-disinformation researchers have been warning about – the use of AI-altered media to escalate international disinformation operations," the State Department stated in a comment to CNN.
The Russian Embassy in South Africa distributed a version of the video via their X accounts, as per screenshots gathered by a BBC journalist.
Hany Farid, a digital forensic expert and professor at UC Berkeley, suggested the video exhibited attributes of AI manipulation.
Farid ran the video through different deepfake detection systems and confirmed that the voices in the video were produced using AI and that the lip movements of the State Department spokesperson in the video had been modified using lip-sync AI software.
"Even if this fake is not believed by everyone, the continuous bombardment of deepfakes is fostering a general suspicion towards everything we encounter on the internet," Farid said.
On the other hand, Lee Foster, a information operations specialist, expressed doubt that the video's imagery was manipulated using AI.
"From a technical standpoint, it doesn't make sense to use AI to manipulate mouth movements in a manner that renders them nearly identical to the original," Foster shared with CNN. "AI manipulation of the video's audio remains an unresolved issue, though."
Ghosts of Olympics Past
Antagonism between Russia and the IOC stretches back for several years. The IOC has restricted Russian athletes' ability to participate in Paris officially under the Russian flag because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russian athletes have faced similar restrictions during past Olympic games due to allegations of their doping program.
The Russian GRU military intelligence agency was behind a destructive cyberattack on computers used during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, according to the US Justice Department.
Technicians at the Paris Olympics are preparing for a similar potential threat next month.
"The GRU has saved some of its most significant cyberattacks for France and the Olympics, and they enacted these when the geopolitical situation was substantially less tense," stated John Hultquist, chief analyst at the Google-owned cybersecurity company Mandiant.
"The Olympic Games in Paris will undoubtedly be the target of these actors," Hultquist added. "Any attack they devise will be deliberately designed to weaken French prestige and the solidarity at the core of the event."
CNN's Kylie Atwood and Saskya Vandoorne contributed to this report.
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In response to the deception, Microsoft's report exposed the Russian propaganda actor's use of tech-related facades, such as the fake Cruise voice and Netflix symbol, to bolster the credibility of their fraudulent documentary targeting the Paris Olympics. Furthermore, the Russian Embassy in South Africa disseminated an AI-altered video of a US State Department spokesperson discussing Ukraine, demonstrating their continued exploitation of technology for disinformation purposes.
