# Antibot4Navalny Antibot4Navalny is an anonymous research group that tracks Russian bot networks, mainly on [[X (Twitter)]], where it posts as "Bot Blocker." By its own account it is run by one full-time leader, who has researched Russian disinformation since 2018, with volunteer helpers. It began working in earnest in October 2023. The sources describing it do not explain any formal tie to [[Alexei Navalny]]'s organization. ## Signature findings - **Matryoshka / [[Operation Overload]]:** the group first exposed and named the operation. France's [[VIGINUM]] credits it with the name, and VIGINUM lists the group's own account among those the operation targeted. - **[[Doppelganger]] on X (October 2023):** identified the operation's bot accounts and their naming patterns and linked them to the Stars of David graffiti in Paris. It built a dataset of more than 3,500 bot-promoted articles. - **2026 U.S. midterms:** supplied The Insider with the September 2026 Matryoshka videos impersonating celebrities and CNN to attack Democratic candidates. Mother Jones credited it with finding the fake CNN reports aimed at Texas Senate candidate [[James Talarico]]. - It assisted the [[Clemson Media Forensics Hub]]'s 2026 Bluesky study. ## Why it matters for the KB A large share of the public record on Russia's bot operations on X now starts with an anonymous volunteer group. Its findings have repeatedly been picked up and confirmed by a government agency (VIGINUM) and an academic lab (Clemson), which is the check on a source that cannot be identified. ## See Also - [[Operation Overload]] - [[Doppelganger]] - [[VIGINUM]] - [[CheckFirst]] - [[Bots]] - [[Disinformation Hub]]