Stolen voices: Russia-aligned operation manipulates audio and images to impersonate experts

Operation Overload is a high-volume Russian influence campaign that impersonates over 80 organisations, including media outlets and universities, to sow division in democratic nations. In early 2025, it targeted 10 countries—primarily Germany, France, and Ukraine—using AI-cloned voices and forged logos to spread narratives against Ukraine and destabilise domestic politics. While most content had limited organic reach, one video claiming USAID paid celebrities to visit Ukraine garnered over 4.2 million views. The operation relies on bot networks and commercial services to amplify its content and frequently tags research organisations to distract them with debunking requests.

• Between January and March 2025, Operation Overload impersonated more than 80 different organisations across 135 pieces of content, with over 75% of these being media outlets, universities, or law enforcement agencies.
• The operation targeted 10 countries, with a primary focus on Germany, France, and Ukraine, using 10 different languages to undermine NATO support for Ukraine and disrupt domestic politics.
• The campaign utilised AI technology to clone the voices of experts, with academics being targeted for voice replication approximately four times more often than individuals from other sectors.
• Most content saw limited organic engagement and relied on bot networks, except for one viral video claiming USAID funded celebrity trips to Ukraine, which received over 4.2 million views.
• In Germany, the operation attempted to suppress turnout for the February 23 election by spreading fake terror threats attributed to intelligence agencies including the BND, CIA, MI6, and Mossad.
• The operation used the branding of 28 different media outlets, with Deutsche Welle (DW) being the most imitated, appearing in 15 different videos.
• Operation Overload employs commercial services to facilitate its activities, including purchasing X accounts from a company called WebMasterMarket.

APA

Institute for Strategic Dialogue (2025). Stolen voices: Russia-aligned operation manipulates audio and images to impersonate experts. https://www.isdglobal.org/digital-dispatch/stolen-voices-russia-aligned-operation-manipulates-audio-and-images-to-impersonate-experts/

Chicago

Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Stolen voices: Russia-aligned operation manipulates audio and images to impersonate experts. 2025. https://www.isdglobal.org/digital-dispatch/stolen-voices-russia-aligned-operation-manipulates-audio-and-images-to-impersonate-experts/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Strategic Dialogue |title=Stolen voices: Russia-aligned operation manipulates audio and images to impersonate experts |date=6 May 2025 |url=https://www.isdglobal.org/digital-dispatch/stolen-voices-russia-aligned-operation-manipulates-audio-and-images-to-impersonate-experts/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforstrategicdialogue2025stolen, author = {{Institute for Strategic Dialogue}}, title = {{Stolen voices: Russia-aligned operation manipulates audio and images to impersonate experts}}, institution = {Institute for Strategic Dialogue}, year = {2025}, month = may, url = {https://www.isdglobal.org/digital-dispatch/stolen-voices-russia-aligned-operation-manipulates-audio-and-images-to-impersonate-experts/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }