Frodo Baggins, Kremlin agent?

The Kremlin has unleashed a new weapon in its information war with the West: the fake celebrity cameo.

“Hi, Vladimir, Elijah here,” actor Elijah Wood said in a video packaged to seem as if Wood were addressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The actor, best known for playing Frodo Baggins in Lord of the Rings films, urged the president to enter treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. “I hope you can get the help you need,” Wood signed off.

The video was recorded on Cameo, the popular, although now struggling, app where users can pay for personalized messages from famous people — in Wood’s case, starting at $340.

While a genuine video, it was repurposed as part of Russia’s efforts to denigrate Zelenskyy falsely as a drug-addled neo-nazi.

Beginning in July, according to a report released Thursday by Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center, the video and others like it ricocheted through Russian social media and ultimately were featured by news organizations owned or controlled by the government.

Other celebrities used in the videos — all unknowingly, it seems — included Shavo Odadjian, a musician and producer, and actors John Mcginley, Dean Norris, Priscilla Presley and Kate Flannery. Mike Tyson, a former heavyweight champion boxer, appears in a video taken from his own promotional page on Cameo. It was repurposed without any recording of his voice, although a voice-over intones a similar plea to Zelenskyy.

Flannery, known for her role in the television comedy series “The Office,” teasingly holds up a bottle of whiskey before turning serious in her message.

“Seriously, it will be wonderful,” she says. “Just do it.”

The campaign was one of a flurry in recent weeks intended to build support for the war at home in Russia while stoking opposition to it abroad.

“Russian cyber and influence operators have demonstrated adaptability throughout the war on Ukraine, trying new ways to gain battlefield advantage and sap Kyiv’s sources of domestic and external support,” Microsoft wrote in its report, referring to Ukraine’s capital.

Cameo said in a statement that videos like this would violate the company’s community guidelines. “In cases where such violations are substantiated, Cameo will typically take steps to remove the problematic content and suspend the purchaser’s account to help prevent further issues,” the statement said.

The celebrities used in the videos did not respond to requests for comment, but a representative for Wood said that although the actor had recorded the message on Cameo, it was “in no way intended to be addressed to Zelenskyy or have anything at all to do with Russia or Ukraine or the war.”