Journalist Helen Brown's photo stolen and placed on Kremlin-linked fake news site to lend credibility to Ukraine disinformation

Summary

Helen Brown, a freelance arts journalist who writes for The Telegraph, discovered that her byline photograph had been stolen and placed on a fake propaganda website called the 'London Telegraph,' run by the Russian disinformation network Doppelganger/Storm-1516. The fake article, attributed to a fictitious journalist 'Charlotte Davies' but bearing Brown's headshot, falsely claimed that a Ukrainian anti-corruption official had fled to Europe with evidence of President Zelenskyy's alleged involvement in a €1.2 billion embezzlement scheme. The operation is part of a broader Kremlin-linked campaign that has impersonated the BBC, the Economist, Vogue, and Fox News to lend false credibility to pro-Russia narratives. Brown's photo was used without consent to give a fabricated story the appearance of legitimate journalism.