Polskanews.org fake Polish news site linked to Russian operators
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Forensic analysis of Polish-language disinformation site reveals Russian-language operators targeting Polish elections and democracy via fabricated content.
DFRLab and Erebus Forensics identified Polskanews.org as a coordinated foreign influence operation masquerading as a Polish news outlet since August 2020. Linguistic and technical forensics reveal multiple attribution signals pointing to Russian-speaking operators, including Russian-language metadata in HTML (lang="ru-RU" tags), Cyrillic characters in filenames and URLs, phonetic substitutions mixing Cyrillic and Polish letters, and fabricated editorial personas using stolen Russian social media photos. The site's operational pattern—concentrated publishing during 06:00-16:00 UTC (9 AM Minsk/Moscow time), dramatic content escalation in March 2023 coinciding with Polish elections, and infrastructure choices favoring bulletproof hosting—indicates strategic coordination. Content strategy systematically promoted pro-Lukashenko narratives during Belarus's 2020 post-election crisis and amplified false claims about Polish electoral interference, with exclusive amplification by Belarusian Telegram channels suggesting Belarus or Russian-Belarusian coordination. Publishing of original anti-Polish opinion and military analysis ceased abruptly on October 15, 2023, four days after Polish parliamentary elections, transitioning to republished content from legitimate outlets. The site remains accessible and active as of December 2025, though with reduced operational tempo.
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Source reporting: https://dfrlab.org/2026/03/31/polskanews-org-a-foreign-influence-operation-masquerading-as-polish-news
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