British Government Sanctions Russian Group Behind Kate Middleton Conspiracy Theory

The British government is fighting back against a Russian group that officials claim is responsible for online conspiracy theories surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of Princess Kate Middleton's cancer.

On Monday, October 28, the British government issued a press release announcing sanctions against three Russian agencies and three officials for their role in spreading conspiracy theories and lies about the Crown Princess of England and her cancer diagnosis and treatment.

“Today's sanctions send a clear message: we will not tolerate your lies and interference. Putin's desperate attempts to divide us will fail. We will restrain the Kremlin and stand with Ukraine wherever it goes.”

In March, Martin Innes, director of the Institute for Security, Crime, Intelligence and Innovation at Cardiff University in Wales, told both NBC News and the New York Times that his team has partnered with Doppelgänger, a Russian disinformation operation He said they found at least 45 online accounts posting conspiracy theories and calls for more transparency from Kensington Palace regarding Ms. Middleton, her health, and her whereabouts.

“These Russia-related accounts were not driving the story, they were jumping on it,” Innes told NBC News at the time.

“It was already being framed in a conspiratorial way, so there was no need for foreign actors to do that framing.

Conspiracy theories about the princess swept the Internet after the royal family announced King Charles and Queen Kate's hospitalization in early 2024.

Theories of everything from the Princess of Wales, who disappeared from public view after abdominal surgery, actually filming a reality show, dating Pete Davidson, having “Freaky Friday” with the King, and being found in a house famous on the Internet began to circulate the Internet.

According to Innes, and now the British government, the Russian disinformation campaign was and continues to be “about destabilization” in the wake of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“It's to undermine trust in the government, the monarchy, the media, everything,” Innes told NBC in the same interview. 'These kinds of stories are an ideal vehicle for them to do that.'

Karen Douglas, a professor of social psychology at the University of Kent in England, said in an earlier interview with Marie Claire that the “circumstances” surrounding Kate Middleton, her hospitalization and her cancer diagnosis, were “the perfect storm for conspiracy theories.”

“The celebrity supposedly missing creates uncertainty and a sense that something terrible has happened: ...... (People) obviously think (something) is not right and (the truth) is being hidden,” she said at the time.