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Videos from Elijah Wood, Mike Tyson and others have been used — unknowingly to them, it seems — in social media posts and Russian news coverage critical of Ukraine’s leader.
The Kremlin has unleashed a new weapon in its information war with the West: the fake celebrity cameo.
“Hi, Vladimir, Elijah here,” the actor Elijah Wood said in a video packaged to seem as if Mr. Wood were addressing Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. The actor, best known for playing Frodo Baggins in “Lord of the Rings,” urged the president to enter treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. “I hope you can get the help you need,” Mr. Wood signed off.
The video was recorded on Cameo, the popular, though now struggling, app where users can pay for personalized messages from famous people — in Mr. Wood’s case, starting at $340. While a genuine video, it was repurposed as part of Russia’s efforts to falsely denigrate Mr. Zelensky as a drug-addled neo-Nazi. Beginning in July, according to a report released on Thursday by Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center, the video and others like it ricocheted through Russian social media and were ultimately featured by news organizations owned or controlled by the government.
Other celebrities used in the videos — all unknowingly, it seems — included Shavo Odadjian, the musician and producer, and the actors John McGinley, Dean Norris, Priscilla Presley and Kate Flannery. Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight champion boxer, appears in a video taken from his own promotional page on Cameo. It was repurposed without any recording of his voice, though a voice-over intones a similar plea to Mr. Zelensky.
Ms. Flannery, known for her role in the television comedy series “The Office,” teasingly holds up a bottle of whiskey before turning serious in her message. “Seriously, it will be wonderful,” she says. “Just do it.”
The campaign was one of a flurry in recent weeks intended to build support for the war at home in Russia while stoking opposition to it abroad.
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