Glucksmann says Russian GRU group Storm-1516 targeted him with AI deepfake ahead of 2027 French presidential race

The operation

Raphaël Glucksmann, a probable candidate in the 2027 French presidential election, stated on 4 August 2026 that he had been targeted by a Russian destabilisation operation. The European parliamentarian and founder of the Place publique movement said the Secrétariat Général de la Défense et de la Sécurité Nationale (SGDSN) informed him that he was the target of an attack by the group Storm-1516, which is directly run by the GRU, Russia's military intelligence service. A security source confirmed to AFP on Tuesday that the disinformation operation was detected at the end of the previous week and was carried out by the pro-Russian network Storm-1516.

Le Secrétariat Général de la Défense et de la Sécurité Nationale m'a informé que j'étais la cible d'une attaque du groupe Storm-1516, directement piloté par le GRU.

The fake media and deepfake video

The attack used a fabricated news site that copied the exact visual codes of the online outlet Blast, with a nearly identical web address. The fake site impersonated journalists, produced false documents, and used artificial intelligence to clone voices. A roughly two-minute video, carrying Blast's graphic identity and a donation appeal at the end, claimed that Léa Salamé, a presenter of France 2's evening news and Glucksmann's partner, had offered the editors of Libération, Le Monde, Marianne and Mediapart 50,000 euros for coverage favourable to his campaign. The video directed viewers to an article on blastinfo[.]fr, spelled without a hyphen, whereas Blast's own address is blast-info.fr. Registration data show the imitation site had been active since 24 July, and Blast said on 1 August that 181 pages of its site had been copied identically to carry a single fabricated article. A fabricated email was presented as evidence.

Il y a quelques jours, un faux média a été fabriqué de toutes pièces, reprenant les codes exacts de Blast, avec une adresse presque identique. Ce faux média est allé jusqu'à usurper l'identité de journalistes, produire de faux documents, reproduire des voix grâce à l'intelligence artificielle, diffuser une vidéo entièrement truquée impliquant ma compagne, Léa Salamé et Edwy Plenel...

Visibility and sophistication

The same security source told AFP that the operation achieved a relatively low level of visibility on social networks, but described the manipulation as relatively sophisticated. A partial count by France 24's Observateurs found the video shared from 14 countries or territories for about a million views, largely by accounts addressing foreign audiences rather than French ones. It involved a deepfake that diverted the identity and voice of a publicly known figure, the journalist Edwy Plenel, to lend credibility. Plenel himself had warned on X several days earlier about the false information. The fake story was also relayed on social networks by other fake media presenting themselves as anti-establishment.

un niveau de visibilité relativement faible

Pattern of targeting

Storm-1516 had already targeted another presidential candidate, former prime minister Édouard Philippe, in July 2026, using social media posts that spread false information about his health. Glucksmann, one of the most vocal French critics of Vladimir Putin, served from 2009 to 2013 as a close adviser to the pro-Western former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is imprisoned for abuse of power. Glucksmann said the goal of the operation was to make a total lie go viral in order to smear figures considered hostile by the Russian regime, creating a halo of suspicion around the idea that there is no smoke without fire, even when the fire is invented from scratch in an office in Saint Petersburg.

Le but est de rendre viral un mensonge total pour salir des personnalités considérées comme hostiles par le régime russe, de créer un halo de suspicion pour aboutir au moins au fameux 'il n'y a pas de fumée sans feu' quand bien même le feu est inventé de A à Z dans une officine à Saint-Petersbourg.

Reactions and warnings

Glucksmann warned that the attack was only a foretaste of what is to come, predicting that the 2027 campaign will be marked by massive foreign interference. He stated that the Russian operation is identified, traced, and attributed. Jean-Luc Mélenchon called for organising a common front against interference. Journalists named in the fake articles, including Edwy Plenel and Salomé Saqué, denied any involvement and denounced the fabrications. A source close to the matter told Franceinfo that the operation is attributed to the pro-Russian informational modus operandi Storm-1516, with support from another dubbed CopyCop.