Kremlin Singer Uses AI to Put Words in Opponents' Mouths

When deepfake technology meets political messaging, the results are impossible to ignore—and deeply unsettling.

Russian patriotic singer Shaman, the stage name of 34-year-old Yaroslav Dronov, released a music video on Thursday that uses AI to digitally place the voices of prominent Kremlin critics into his new song Russia is Mama. The video features Shaman sitting at a desk in what appears to be a security service office, flipping through files and photographs of opponents including former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, content creator Yury Dud, musician Zemfira, rapper Noize MC, and businessman Oleg Tinkoff. One by one, the AI-generated versions of these critics are made to sing his chorus: Russia is the mother—you are in the very heart. There is only one. She is with you to the edge.

The stunt goes beyond typical patriotic pop. In a social media post accompanying the release, Shaman declared that Kremlin opponents would never be forgiven by the Russian people for criticizing Russia. His message was blunt: In my video, they sing for Russia for free. Russia must never be betrayed. The video ends with a sniper sight trained on Shaman’s head—a darkly theatrical touch that underscores the high-stakes political theater at play.

This is propaganda weaponizing deepfake technology in real time. The tactic serves multiple purposes: it humiliates political opponents by literally putting words in their mouths, it creates shareable viral content that spreads Shaman’s patriotic messaging, and it normalizes the use of AI to distort reality for political gain. Shaman’s massive popularity in Russia with previous hits like I am Russian—songs celebrating what he perceives as Russian passion and exceptionalism—gives this stunt reach and cultural weight that a fringe artist could never achieve.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former tycoon jailed in 2003 who now lives outside Russia, responded by clarifying that his homeland was the Soviet Union and that those who started the war in Ukraine were enemies. His statement rejects Shaman’s core premise: that modern Russia deserves unconditional patriotic devotion. But Khodorkovsky’s voice—his real voice—was already silenced in the video before he could defend himself.

The incident highlights a troubling shift in how authoritarian narratives are being constructed and spread in the digital age. When deepfakes can turn your actual political opponents into unwitting collaborators in their own delegitimization, the very concept of truth becomes weaponized. It’s not just misinformation; it’s a erasure of consent and context. And in a media landscape where viral spread matters more than verification, the damage is done long before anyone can fact-check the technology behind it.