"Unwitting Celebrities: How Russia's Propaganda Exploited Hollywood's Cameo Videos"

An unidentified pro-Russia influence group has been recruiting Hollywood actors through platforms like Cameo to participate in smear campaigns against Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky. The actors were paid to record videos supporting a person named "Vladimir" in his fight against substance addiction, which were then edited to make it appear as if they came from the actors' Instagram pages. These videos were shared on Russian social media networks to promote the false claim that Zelensky suffers from addiction. Celebrities such as Elijah Wood, Kate Flannery, Mike Tyson, Dean Norris, Priscilla Presley, John McGinley, and musician Shavo Odadjian were unknowingly roped into this fraudulent scheme. Microsoft has warned that such influence operations are likely to intensify as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues.