Author: tio

Editors’ Note: This podcast was originally produced in Spanish. But in light of recent events, we wanted to share it with a wider audience, and have reproduced the series in English using AI translation. You can find these translated episodes below, or listen to the original version in Spanish here.

You can also listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other major audio platform.

In the 1970s, as the Cold War raged, a state-backed television spy drama called ‘Das Unsichtbare Visier’ gripped audiences in East Germany. The title translates as ‘The Invisible Visor,’ and its hero was a Stasi agent who went by the alias Achim Detjen. A cultural counterpoint to James Bond, he foiled dastardly Western plots.

Skip forward 50 years and Achim Detjen appears to have returned as part of another pro-Russia propaganda effort — but this time he’s a journalist. 

In February, a German-language website called Anonymous News — which has no connection to the famed hacktivist group with the same name — listed an “Achim Detjen” as the author of an article with a misleading headline that suggested French president Emmanuel Macron was linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The hyperlink on the story’s byline led not to a journalist’s profile, but to the German-language website of Russia’s government-owned broadcaster RT, where articles have also been written under the name of the fictitious spy.

As journalists around the world pore over the files released by the U.S. Department of Justice in January relating to the Epstein case, they have found no evidence that the French president ever communicated with or met with Epstein. Macron is only referenced tangentially by other people or in press articles. 

However the yarn spun under an apparent pseudonym at Anonymous News was not the only attempt at alleging the two men were deeply connected. 

The week before, in France, an article made the baseless claim that a model agent tied to Epstein said Macron would have a party and he would invite young men for him. Emails cited as apparent evidence did not appear in the released files. The claims were published on a clone site of a real outlet called France-Soir in an article which co-opted the byline of a French journalist. A video making the allegations then spread on X. 

The French government service known as Viginum, which works to combat foreign digital interference, attributed the narrative to a Russian disinformation operation called Storm-1516. Viginum said in a statement that Storm-1516 had been “publicly attributed to Unit 29155 of the Russian military intelligence service (GRU).”

A report on Storm-1516 published by Viginum last year said its activities “meet the criteria of a foreign digital interference and represent a significant threat to the digital public debate, both in France and in all European countries.”

Pro-Russian disinformation across Europe has surged and evolved since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Many claims seek to discredit Ukraine’s armed forces, its European allies, and the leadership of Volodymyr Zelensky. Others, like the claims against Macron, take aim at Western leaders who support Ukraine.

By digging into Anonymous News reporters sought to understand more about the forces behind pro-Russian propaganda and information manipulation in Europe. 

What they found was a cast of real-life characters that could comfortably sit next to Achim Detjen in a 21st century drama — among them a German far-right figure, an officer for Russia’s Federal Security Service, and an impoverished Bulgarian who was paid to be the on-paper owner of a media company receiving reader donations for the outlet. 

The German Anti-Immigrant Figure Turned Russia Cheerleader

Anonymous News markets itself to German-speaking audiences as “uncensored news.” Its website, anonymousnews.org, attracts around 100,000 visitors each month, according to traffic analytics tools, and promotes pro-Kremlin and anti-Western narratives. It has also shared hacked U.K. government documents.

There is no information about staff on the site, but one man has proudly emerged as the face of the outlet’s new Moscow-based YouTube channel, ANTVAuslandsStudio, which has drawn over one million views in the past four months for its German-language videos in praise of life in Russia. 

In the channel’s first post in October, Mario Rönsch — who has also described himself as Editor-in-Chief of Anonymous News’s website — stood stoically in front of the Kremlin, introducing himself as someone persecuted by German intelligence agencies and committed to delivering portrayals of Russia that are  “authentic, uncensored and always committed to the truth.”

Katarina Bader, a disinformation expert and professor of online journalism at Stuttgart Media University, said that while more polished influencers might gain more traction, Anonymous News’ posts are still spread widely. She noted how Rönsch — a long-time fixture of Germany’s far-right — appears to have pivoted to a pro-Russia orientation in his new gig.

“Mario Rönsch ran one of the largest far-right channels; today, he primarily presents himself as pro-Russian. The focus has definitely shifted,” she told OCCRP’s partner paper trail media.

Since Moscow’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been accused of seeking to manipulate narratives in Europe and the U.S. via right-wing media networks.

Rönsch, who did not respond to requests to comment, first made a name for himself in 2014 speaking at anti-establishment rallies in Germany known as “Vigils for Peace,” which included far-right figures and conspiracy theorists. In a YouTube video from one of the weekly gatherings, a casually dressed Rönsch called on the cheering crowd to “publicly shame the media.”

That year Rönsch traveled from Berlin to Moscow, according to leaked border records seen by reporters. The purpose and the length of his trip are not known.

By the time he made the trip to Russia, a Facebook group called “Anonymous Kollektiv” had also been launched. According to German court documents, Rönsch was the operator.  

The Facebook group, which disseminated conspiracy theories as well as anti-immigrant and pro-Russian content, reportedly amassed two million followers before it was deleted in May 2016. That same month a successor website, anonymousnews.ru, was established.

Yet Rönsch was not only in the business of news. By May 2016, he had also launched an online shop called Migrantenschreck — which means “migrant terror” — where he sold more than 170 weapons for almost 100,000 euros to German buyers, according to court documents. In 2018, he was detained by Hungarian police on a German arrest warrant and extradited to stand trial, where he was convicted of firearms trafficking offenses. Rönsch was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison, but served just over a year before being released for early parole in December 2020.

Within months of his release, the current version of Anonymous News — anonymousnews.org — appeared online. Reporters found that the new domain shared the same Russian hosting infrastructure as the previous anonymousnews.ru website. 

Rönsch, who posted on social media last year that he had been traveling in Russia since late 2023, also registered a consulting firm in Russia in 2024. That same year he launched the anonymousnews_org_en Telegram channel, which is an English version of the German channel anonymousnews_org. Today the two channels have more than 76,000 subscribers combined.

In 2024 and again in 2025, Anonymous News published a post linking to the distribution of hacked documents from the U.K. Foreign Office and the British Embassy in Moscow — material that was also previously shared by Russia’s foreign ministry. 

Reader Donations Account Leads To Bulgarian Proxy 

Benno Zogg, an expert on Russian disinformation, said that tracing who is behind pro-Russia influence campaigns in Europe, and who funds them, can rarely be proven beyond doubt — and that advances in technology are making the task even tougher.  

“Influence activities are not a new phenomenon, but technological developments such as social media and artificial intelligence are exacerbating the challenge,” said Zogg, who is Head of Strategic Affairs and Foresight at the Swiss State Secretariat for Security Policy.

When reporters looked into one of Anonymous News’ funding streams it took them to an unlikely media company owner who has also been listed as one of the website’s authors. 

Anonymous News solicits donations from its readers, contributing to its image as an alternative, independent media outlet. Currently, the website says it still needs to raise 102,000 euros to cover editorial expenses for its 2026 budget. 

Donors are channeled to a PayPal account for the Czech company AN Média a Platební Služby s.r.o. On paper, the company is owned by a Bulgarian man called Ivelin Borisov. Journalists from OCCRP’s Bulgarian member center Bird.bg tracked down Borisov and found the  impoverished 56-year-old living in a rundown house in a remote village.

Borisov told reporters that he had worked in Germany in the past and had been paid 200 or 300 euros to sign some papers in Czechia. Since then, he said he had heard nothing about “his” company. 

When he was shown Anonymous News articles with his byline on German-language stories, Borisov said “there’s no way I wrote that.” 

The company’s documents also list a Czech woman called Magdalena Průšová as AN Media’s “administrator” with power-of-attorney. Průšová told OCCRP’s Czech member center Investigace that she had been working at a company at the time which dealt with setting up firms and confirmed she had escorted Borisov to a notary.  She said a German man she knew only as Mario was behind the company.

Průšová said that during its first year and a half of operation AN Media received donations of between 10 and 200 euros. 

“These weren’t big sums — certainly not millions,” she said, but stopped responding to reporters when asked for the financial records.

AN Media was liquidated last week, more than a year since a Prague municipal court initiated its dissolution proceedings due to the company’s failure to file financial reports. As of publication, Anonymous News still linked to the firm’s PayPal account to collect funds.

Who Amplifies The Message?

While reporters’ analysis of Anonymous News’ finances led them on a circuitous route via Bulgaria and Czechia, when they looked at who read its narratives, the path led to Moscow. 

Russian disinformation relies on dissemination across social media platforms and languages, sometimes involving paid-for troll accounts and bots.

France’s Viginum said the first X account to share the false Epstein-Macron narrative after the article appeared on the fake France-Soir website frequently amplified “Storm-1516 information operations.” 

“The narrative was then taken up by a group of accounts known to Viginum,” the agency said in the statement. 

In the case of Anonymous News, reporters found its articles were frequently shared from its English-language Telegram channel by a Telegram account with the handle Corob_12.

Reporters from OCCRP’s partner Ukrainian Toronto Television traced the Russian phone number registered to the account to a 38-year-old Russian man named Alexey Bashilov.

They then found a second phone number registered to Bashilov in leaked data which also showed he ordered food delivery in 2018 from the Moscow address Bolshaya Lubyanka, 1 — the headquarters of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

A digital phone book application called Numbuster shows that people have saved one of Bashilov’s numbers as “Lyosha FSB” (a diminutive version of the name Alexey) and “UK Alexey Pashilov.”

Using additional leaked information, reporters obtained Bashilov’s mobile phone contacts, which included a saved “work” number — a landline registered to Military Unit 43753, which is the FSB’s Center for Information Protection and Special Communications. 

Other contacts in Bashilov’s phone include individuals with various FSB sub-departments saved alongside their name. 

Corob_12 also shared posts from a Telegram channel called Woland’s Notes, which is registered to one of Bashilov’s phone numbers as the administrator. 

This account posts in Russian, but focuses on criticizing Britain and its decision-making around Russia and Ukraine, and also shares posts from Anonymous News. 

Woland’s Notes only has some 5,200 subscribers, but the channel has high-profile readers. Its content is regularly reposted by Kremlin propagandist and well-known state media TV host Vladimir Solovyov, and the Russian lawmaker Andrei Lugovoi, who, according to a U.K. independent inquiry in 2016, was one of the men who poisoned former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

Woland’s Notes shared the claim that there was evidence of Macron communicating with Epstein within an hour of the story going up on the website impersonating France-Soir.

Neither Bashilov nor the FSB responded to journalists’ questions about their relationship with Anonymous News. After reporters sent questions to Bashilov, Corob_12 deleted his account and Woland’s Notes hasn’t posted since.

Disinformation expert Bader said that while Anonymous News might not have the reach of other pro-Russia channels, it is part of a much wider ecosystem that aims to skew the information landscape through false claims. 

“Such channels gradually destroy trust in politics and in what they refer to as mainstream media,” Bader said, adding that readers don’t necessarily need to believe in their claims for them to have an effect. 

“Being regularly exposed to such narratives is enough to end up considering almost everything as potential propaganda,” she said.

Research support by Misha Gagarin, OCCRP.