A lawsuit has been filed in Argentina concerning a suspected Russian disinformation operation. This came to light after a statement from the Argentine Intelligence Service (SIDE) on April 2, which reported that it had informed the Federal Justice and the Public Prosecutor's Office about the activities of an organization called 'The Company,' composed of Russian citizens with international ties and connections in the country. Argentina can no longer behave as if the Kremlin's information war is a problem for others. Russia is using this type of tool in Europe, in the United States, and, according to these investigations, also in Latin America. The judicial filing, submitted this Friday, requests an investigation into whether there were organized structures linked to the Russian Federation that sought to influence Argentine public opinion through media infiltration, potential payments to intermediaries, and manipulation of public debate, a scheme that, if proven, could fall under crimes foreseen by National Intelligence Law 25.520. According to that case, the firms Social Design Agency, Structure, and ANO Dialog, under the direction of the Russian Presidential Administration and the environment of Sergei Kiriyenko, used apocryphal domains, fabricated influencers, paid ads, fake profiles, and AI-generated content to reduce international support for Ukraine, strengthen pro-Russian policies, and influence elections in the United States and other countries. The base text provided by the user and the coverage by Infobae add that Monastersky's complaint asks to trace payments, intermediaries, and beneficiaries, differentiate between those who may have been deceived and those who would have acted knowingly, and request financial reports from ARCA, among other technical and judicial measures. A recent investigation by openDemocracy maintained that a Russian propaganda network, known internally as 'the Company/La Compañía,' had allegedly invested $283,000 to 'inject' at least 250 articles into more than 20 Argentine media outlets, with the objective of discrediting the government of Javier Milei and modulating the public debate around the relationship with Ukraine and Argentina's international position. When a foreign power allegedly finances campaigns to infiltrate media, modulate perceptions, poison the public climate, and alter the formation of citizen will, one is no longer facing a communications controversy but a problem of sovereignty. What has now appeared in the form of a judicial complaint and an intelligence statement had already been pointed out by this agency in a geopolitical key: the Russian hybrid war is not only fought with troops or energy, but also with information manipulation, psychological operations, and discursive penetration into open societies. Doppelganger: this is how the Russian fake news machinery that clones media, poisons elections, and seeks to expand in Latin America operates. International precedents show that this is not a conspiratorial fantasy nor a temporary exaggeration. It is a central point: in this type of operation, the key does not lie only in the false content, but in the human, economic, and media infrastructure that allows its origin to be liquefied and to give it the appearance of legitimate information. In a serious democracy, this cannot be relativized as a simple 'cultural battle' or just another dispute between editorial lines. And if SIDE has already transferred information to the federal jurisdiction, the next step must be a rapid, deep, and without naiveties investigation. But something is already clear: the complaint by Monastersky and the precedent of the TNA report lifted the veil on a phenomenon that leadership, much of the media system, and too many analysts preferred to look at sideways. That TNA publication described how this structure falsifies journalistic portals, supplants media identities, artificially inflates pro-Russian messages, and seeks to erode Western support for Ukraine. Denying it would be clumsy; minimizing it would be irresponsible. What now remains to be elucidated is how far that network went in Argentina, who were its local gears, how much money circulated, and what concrete damage it caused to public debate and institutions. Before and after that, EU DisinfoLab had documented since 2022 a network of mirrored sites of authentic media in several European countries, while the United Kingdom sanctioned in October 2024 those Russian agencies and their directors for attempting to undermine democracies and weaken support for Ukraine. TNA also reported on this Russian practice in May 2025: 'Russia intensifies shadow war against the west with sabotage and cyberattacks and Fake News -Video.' The Argentine novelty, in that context, is especially unsettling. It is a real tool of Kremlin power, already tested in other democracies, which now appears in Argentine courts with a name, context, and a precise demand: to investigate, identify, and stop. Russian disinformation is not an abstract ghost or a laboratory theory. Because when a foreign lie disguises itself as journalism, the first victim is not a government or a leader: it is the public truth of a nation. Buenos Aires - April 3, 2026 - Total News Agency - TNA. The lawsuit presented by lawyer Jorge Monastersky before the Federal Justice once again put at the forefront a threat that was underestimated for too long in Argentina: the penetration of foreign disinformation operations into the local media and digital ecosystem. In September 2024, the United States Department of Justice announced the seizure of 32 domains used in malign influence campaigns directed by the Russian government, known as Doppelganger. The file itself spoke of cloned media to deceive readers who believed they were consuming information from legitimate portals.
