The New York Times reports that signs are emerging that Russia and other foreign governments are once again seeking to influence American voters — this time in favor of President Trump and Republicans.

An online influence operation backed by the Russian government has been ramping up efforts to use Israel as a political wedge and sow division among U.S. voters, according to a new study by Alethea, an independent company that tracks digital threats and foreign propaganda campaigns. The findings were also shared in a post on X. The activity is unfolding ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.

The “Doppelgänger” operation created a flood of social media posts amplifying perceptions that Democrats have retreated from supporting Israel.

“In appearing to target Democrats with negative content, the Doppelgänger push is just the latest effort by Russia to harm the party and support President Trump since his first run for office in 2016,” the Times reported. “…Doppelgänger is run by Russia’s Social Design Agency, a public relations firm. Both the U.S. government and the European Union have imposed punitive sanctions upon it.”

Sources who spoke with the Times said U.S. intelligence officials attempted to provide state officials with a classified briefing on midterm election threats on Thursday — the first of its kind in more than two years. However, Trump administration officials were unable to establish a secure virtual connection with election personnel, according to the sources. The failed connection left the briefing undelivered, and it was not clear whether the session would be rescheduled ahead of the elections.

On Wednesday, the social media platform X announced it had banned 13,000 accounts linked to Iran, Russia and China, the Times said. Yet nothing prevents Russian and Chinese-backed trolls and automated software from simply opening new accounts through which to sow division and animosity among voters.

International influence operations have “grown more difficult to track” following a broad pullback by many social media firms, the Times reports. That reversal in policing fake-site subversion came after condemnation and outcry from conservatives and MAGA-aligned figures, who accused the companies of collaborating with the U.S. government to stifle free expression.

Lisa Kaplan, the founder of Alethea, told the Times that the volume of posts in the current campaign, along with the replies under postings that drew high engagement, “indicated that the messaging was likely getting in front of people.”

The campaign included more than 50 fake personas posing as Israeli women, which posted in “synchronized waves” beginning on Oct. 7 — the three-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. The Times reports that a separate network of more than 1,000 accounts then inserted those posts into high-traffic conversations, producing an estimated 150,000 posts in total.

U.S. intelligence findings and numerous reviews have “consistently found that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has favored Trump over Democrats, most of whom are more sympathetic to Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion,” the Times added.

In September, for example, a network linked to Kremlin trolls posted a series of AI-generated “slop” videos on social media repeating baseless claims against Democrats running in closely contested Senate races.

The campaigns “give us a glimpse of what their objectives are,” said Jean le Roux, a senior researcher at Graphika. “They’re not targeting Republican candidates in the same way.”