09/06/2026September 6, 2026FACT CHECK: Russian disinformation campaign fabricates election fraud media reports
Claim: The CDU is engaging in fraud in the Saxony-Anhalt election. “The social media pages of deceased residents of Saxony-Anhalt have become a platform for the “CDU’s election campaign,” reads one post on X, sharing a spoofed DW video.
“According to T-Online, non-existent citizens are set to vote by post for the #CDU in the Saxony-Anhalt election,” reads another.
Verdict: False
DW Fact check reviewed five videos following a near-identical template: each was about a minute long and was posted by an account with zero followers and nearly no other posts. Each of the videos feature a reputable news outlet’s logo in the corner — including DW, German public broadcaster ARD, Wired magazine, and the BBC — and make claims about the CDU committing election fraud.
The claims range from the CDU using a database of Nazi soldier names to register fake ballots, to residents receiving campaign messages from deceased relatives.
Each video ends with a message urging viewers to “share this video with your family and friends in any way you see fit.”
Julia Smirnova, disinformation expert and senior researcher at the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy, told DW the posts were part of the Matryoshka Russian disinformation campaign, also known as Operation Overload.
“As with other Matryoshka videos, the reach is mostly inauthentic,” she wrote in an email to DW.
One of the videos claims T-Online reporter Lars Wienand had “obtained evidence that the CDU will attempt to rig the election.” Wienand confirmed he had reported no such thing, writing to DW that “it’s not the first time that suspected Russian disinformation had misused my name and image.”
DW Fact Check has debunked other Russian disinformation targeting German elections: Fact check: Russian disinformation targets German elections