The French television channel France 24 has refuted false claims alleging that France secretly transported nuclear waste to Armenia.In a report prepared by the channel, correspondent Catalina Marchant de Abreu emphasized that the disinformation, which quickly went viral on social media, is entirely false.
“The publication appeared on June 26 and began circulating the same day. It was viewed more than 2.1 million times on the X platform alone,” she said. She said that the claim alleged that the French company Orano, which operates in the nuclear energy sector, needed a new nuclear waste storage site and had chosen Armenia for this purpose. It even claimed that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan allegedly accepted "a shady French donation" of 1.6 million euros, sacrificing a national park, wildlife, and public health for profit.
She noted that users widely shared the fake story, which included a video narrated in French by a voiceover with a pronounced accent, which is not characteristic of professional journalistic standards.
When asked by the TV presenter how the fake news originated, the correspondent explained that the initial publication appeared on June 25 on a French-language website called Courriere France 24.
“All posts on X referred to this website, but it is fake. Domain registration data shows it was created recently-on June 16, 2025. The IP address indicates it was not created in France but in Peru. Colleagues from TF1 analyzed the site using AI tools and determined that all of the content was generated by artificial intelligence,” she explained.
The fake website misused the names of reputable media outlets, including France 24. For instance, it published an image originally produced by the France 24 editorial team. Many of the fake articles were signed under the name of Romain Fiaschetti, a real French journalist, who confirmed via LinkedIn that his identity had been stolen and used without his knowledge.
The correspondent also addressed who might be behind the disinformation campaign.
“As in similar cases, there are clear signs of a coordinated disinformation effort employing tactics typical of Russian propaganda, such as creating fake websites and using identity of entities to add credibility to the disinformation. For example, the so-called NGO Green Armenia, which published the story, was also fake. While a real NGO by that name exists, the fake website is greenarmenia.org, which was created on June 18, shortly before the story went viral. The real site is green-armenia.org,” she noted.
After the fake story appeared on the fake website, it was widely circulated by pro-Russian accounts on X and amplified by actors linked to the Russian government.
She noted that the disinformation was most likely coordinated by Azerbaijan as well.
"It was also widely covered in Azerbaijani media, from television networks to news agencies."
“In conclusion, this was a coordinated disinformation campaign targeting both Paris and Yerevan,” the France 24 correspondent said.
