Fake video with attacks on France and the United Arab Emirates is likely Russian despite Moscow's ties to the Gulf states

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A fake video circulating online depicting tensions between France and the United Arab Emirates following the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in Paris likely originated in Russia, an Associated Press analysis shows, despite Moscow's efforts to maintain vital ties with the United Arab Emirates.

It remains unclear why Russian agents decided to release such a video, falsely claiming that the Emirates had stopped a French arms sale. This appears to be the first discernible attempt by Moscow to target the UAE with a disinformation campaign. The Emirates remains one of the few places with direct flights to Moscow, and since President Vladimir Putin began his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian money has flowed into Dubai's booming real estate market.

France, however, remains one of the main backers of Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelensky as the war continues. Meanwhile, Russia is likely to remain very interested in what happens to Telegram, an app believed to be widely used by its military in the war and which has also been used by activists in the past. And the move comes amid concerns in the United States about interference by Russia, Iran and China in the upcoming US presidential election.

The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

The fake video circulated online on August 27. It bore the logos of Qatar-based satellite news channel Al Jazeera and attempted to copy the channel's style. It falsely claimed that the Emirati government had halted a previously announced 16 billion euro ($18 billion) purchase of 80 Rafale fighter jets from France, the largest French arms export deal ever. It also attempted to link the ruler of Dubai and his son, the crown prince, to the decision, since Durov holds an Emirati passport and has lived in Dubai.

However, such a decision was never made. The United Arab Emirates and France maintain close relations. The French military operates a naval base in the country. French fighter planes and soldiers are also stationed at a large base outside the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi.

When contacted by Al Jazeera, AP said the footage was “fake and we reject this attribution to the media network.” The network also never made such a claim when covering Durov's detention, according to an AP review. On the social platform X, the video was later labeled “manipulated media” in a note the company added to some posts.

The video also appeared to be an attempt to exploit the low levels of mistrust that Gulf Arab states still hold in the wake of the years-long diplomatic crisis over Qatar by falsely attributing it to the news channel. State-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera has been criticized in the past by Gulf states for its coverage of the 2011 Arab Spring, by the United States for airing videos of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and most recently by Israel, where authorities shut down the channel for its coverage of the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The social media account that first shared the video did not respond to questions from the AP and later deleted its post. That account was linked to another account on the messaging app Telegram that repeatedly shared graphic images of dead Ukrainian soldiers and pro-Russian messages.

Such accounts have increased significantly since the war began and bear the hallmarks of previous Russian disinformation campaigns.

In Ukraine, the Kyiv-based Center for Combating Disinformation – a government project dedicated to countering such Russian campaigns – told AP that the account was engaged in “systematic cross-quoting and reposting of content” linked to Russian state media and the government.

This suggests that the account is “aimed at an international audience to manipulate information,” the center said. It “probably belongs to the Russian network of subversive information activities abroad.”

Other experts estimated that the video was probably Russian disinformation.

The Emirati government declined to comment. The French embassy in Abu Dhabi did not respond to AP's request for comment.

Durov is now free on €5 million bail after being questioned by French authorities and provisionally charged with allegedly allowing the use of Telegram for criminal activities. He has denied the allegations and vowed to step up efforts to combat crime on the messaging app.

Although the video has been flagged as fake online, subtitles and versions of the video continue to circulate, showing how difficult it is to refute such messages. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov just attended a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Saudi Arabia, which was also attended by the United Arab Emirates. Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have mediated prisoner exchanges during the war.

Given such close ties, the United Arab Emirates is likely to quietly reach out to Moscow over the video — or has already done so, says Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a research fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute who has long studied the region.

“It may be that this is part of the Russian strategy to drive a wedge between political and security partners in order to create divisions and sow uncertainty,” Ulrichsen said.

“While the UAE's importance to Russia after 2022 makes it unusual, it may be that the campaign is primarily aimed at France and that any impact on the UAE's image and reputation is secondary to the creators of the video.”

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Associated Press writer Volodymr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.