Pig heads, 'green synagogues' and inflatable sex dolls: Inside the Russian disinformation operations targeting France

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/53727490

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The 10 pig heads are lying on the table. In the background, one can make out the pot of paint and brushes that had been used to scribble the word "Macron" on them in blue. A few hours later, on the night of September 8, 2025, the pig heads were placed in front of nine mosques and Muslim cultural centers in Paris and its inner suburbs, causing a media and political uproar that lasted for several days. By the end of that month, a sprawling police investigation led to the arrest of 11 people in Serbia and the conviction of three of them for acting on behalf of a Russian intelligence service.

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Internal documents from the SDA [Social Design Agency, a firm active in the Kremlin's digital interference operations and already under Western sanctions] and its broader Russian ecosystem show that the authorities hoped to multiply such actions to the point of absurdity, sometimes devising convoluted plans. A preparatory note, titled "General – action plan," is a perfect example. Scheduled for late September 2024, the operation involved vandalizing the statue of General Charles de Gaulle on the Champs-Elysées in Paris, again with paint. The amateur painters were to pose as Ukrainian nationalists protesting Pierre de Gaulle, his grandson, known for his pro-Russian views. The plan was far-fetched, and made even more absurd by the suggested slogans, which included "Pierre de Gaulle, go back to your Russia!" and "Pierre de Gaulle, for heaven's sake!"

The planned vandals – three Serbs and three Kurds with Danish nationality – were also scheduled to be activated that same month for an operation aimed at launching about 30 inflatable sex dolls ("20 white, 10 black," according to the documents) and helium balloons painted with anti-immigrant slogans onto the Seine River. The entire scene would be filmed from a bridge in eastern Paris. In another project, also in the French capital, large numbers of stickers produced in Serbia and commemorating the Armenian genocide were to be plastered in April 2025 near the Turkish and Azerbaijani embassies.

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