I used to read a Financial Times article from either 2011 or 2012 (can’t remember exactly) where some Israeli military person was confirming that Israel was using what we now call shill accounts (he used a different, more pleasantly sounding term). If Israel does it I’m pretty sure Russia and China do it, too.

(I don’t have a direct link to said FT article, just a photo I took of said military person’s quote which is somewhere on one of my computers)