Kazakhstan: Deepfake Videos Reemerge Calling for Immortal Regiment March Participation

As Victory Day approaches, fake videos increasingly circulate online, showing well-known journalists and officials supposedly calling on Kazakhstanis to join the May 9 march, Orda.kz reports.

Orda.kz has already reported on the scandal surrounding the “Immortal Regiment” march in Kazakhstan. Among those targeted in the fake videos are North Kazakhstan Region Akim Gauyez Nurmukhametov, Qostanay Region Akim Kumar Aksakalov, and even Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, shown as if they were urging people to join the event.

Journalists have also been caught up in the scheme. Messages have been circulating on messengers, calling on people to attend the “Immortal Regiment” and listing the phone numbers of Orda editor-in-chief Gulnar Bazhkenova, Shyndyk portal editor Gaziza Raimbek, and journalists Vadim Boreiko and Dinara Satzhan as the organizers’ contacts.

More recently, new deepfake videos have appeared, this time supposedly showing the journalists themselves inviting people to join the march. The manipulated videos feature the likenesses of media manager Syrim Itkulov, Orda editor-in-chief Gulnar Bazhkenova, and journalist Vadim Boreiko.

A deepfake is a video created using artificial intelligence. A neural network collects photos and video clips of a person from the internet, analyzes their facial expressions, voice, and movements, and then generates a fake but realistic-looking video.

It’s still unclear who is behind these videos, along with their motives. People are urged not to fall for these provocations and rely only on official information.

Meanwhile, in Almaty, a memorial event will be on May 9.

The “Batyrlarga Tagzym” (“Tribute to the Heroes”) event is officially organized by veterans’ associations with the support of the city akimat. It will start at 10:15 a.m., with participants marching from Central Park to the Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen to lay flowers at the Eternal Flame.

Original Author: Oksana Matvienko