There is a particularly unsettling kind of online lie that no longer looks or sounds like a lie. It might be a video of a famous actor saying something outrageous, or a news report from a trusted global brand that never actually aired. Such is the reality of Russian disinformation today. Take the deepfake of Tom Cruise criticising the Paris Olympics, or the doctored footage with the BBC logo that blamed Ukraine for a missile strike on its own citizens in Kramatorsk. These are not random pranks or glitches in the algorithmic matrix. They are part of an organised, industrial-scale…

The quiet streets of Prague, usually bustling with tourists and the hum of daily life, became the unlikely setting for a shadowy operation that reveals the evolving nature of modern espionage. A team of Russian operatives, posing as innocuous documentary filmmakers, attempted to embed themselves in the fabric of European society. Their mission was not to capture breathtaking scenery or local culture, but to gather intelligence and sow discord under the guise of artistic expression. This wasn’t a scene from a Cold War thriller; it was a meticulously planned covert operation by the notorious Russian propaganda network Rybar, a group…