Journalists reveal Kremlin’s disinformation contractor

The Russian ‘Social Design Agency’ conducted information and psychological operations against Ukraine, created fake stories and interfered in European elections.

Details about the Russian institution were uncovered within the Schemes investigation in cooperation with a dozen European editorial offices.

German media outlets Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR, WDR, and Estonian Delfi received leaked internal documents of the SDA, an organization sanctioned by the EU and the US that works on behalf of the Russian presidential administration.

The journalists discovered that SDA, run by Russian political strategist Ilya Gambashidze, uses disinformation to discredit Ukraine, its top leadership and citizens, and the leaders of Western countries who support it. At the same time, the agency promotes the interests of Russia and European politicians who defend them.

The media consortium’s sources in Western intelligence, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that they believe the files obtained by the journalists are authentic.

Social Design Agency

American law enforcement officials directly accuse the company of working for the Kremlin and call Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy chief of staff to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the curator of their activities.

SDA positions itself as an organization that provides its clients with full media support, including analysis of the Western information field, identification of potential threats, proposals for countering such challenges, and their implementation.

Gambashidze’s team works in three areas:

• The first is monitoring. A group of 24 employees analyzes pro-n and anti-Russian articles and posts by more than 1,000 opinion leaders in six languages daily, and compiles reports on potential newsworthy events.
• The second is analytics. The agency’s specialists study the target audience and create so-called “templates” for the performers.
• The third is creative. The authors write articles based on the journalistic style inherent in a particular country, and illustrators create caricatures for them.

In four months, between January and April 2024, Gambashidze’s team produced 39,899 pieces of content, according to a leaked document titled “Center S’ Work Statistics.” They include “posts (31,059), videos and video memes (4,641), longreads and shortreads (1,455), memes and graphs (2,516), and fake special messages (238).”

Creating fake stories

A Russian company distributes fake official documents, such as press releases from the German Ministry of the Interior and the Polish Customs Service.

Journalists of Schemes found evidence of falsifying Ukrainian government documents in the SDA leak. They refer to the creation of fake documents allegedly from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense with an order not to confirm “information about the presence of prisoners of war for exchange on board” the IL-76 that crashed in the Belgorod region of Russia in January 2024.

The company’s “register of fakes and pretends” also includes a fake order allegedly issued by Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, equating the surrender of military personnel to treason. The purpose of this fake, as stated in the description of the Russian agency’s task, is to “discredit the military and political leadership of Ukraine and demoralize the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

The Russian company also fulfills more complex projects, such as creating and sharing full-fledged fabricated videos on social media that are stylized as Western media materials.

One of them is allegedly by the German publication Bild. It claims that Ukrainian refugees, in an attempt to burn the Russian flag, set fire to the house of the Germans who had sheltered them. However, fact-checkers proved that it was falsified and the story of the fire itself was made up. At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the story was actively spread by both Russian-language Telegram channels and those targeting European audiences, such as the German-language Deutchtruth and the Italian Veritaitaliana.

The SDA fake news about Ukraine was spread, among others, by Marjorie Taylor Green, a Republican congresswoman who opposes aid to Ukraine, and Elon Musk, the owner of the social media X. This follows from the leaked meeting minutes of Russian political strategists.

Bot farms

The company owns a vast network of bots that are essential in promoting narratives in the Ukrainian social media segment. This is how SDA spreads memes, caricatures, and fakes.

According to the “Center S’ Work Statistics” document from the ASD leak, between January and April 2024, Gambashidze’s team published almost 34 million comments.

The reporting table in network X has columns: “Date,” ‘ID (if any),’ ‘Content type,’ ‘Platform,’ ‘Username,’ ‘Link to comment,’ and a column with hyperlinks to screenshots of published comments as proof of the work done.

Influence on Western elections

According to the documents obtained by journalists, the SDA, among other things, tried to influence the EU parliamentary elections held in June 2024. The goal was to help right-wing forces, which Gambashidze’s team expected to promote pro-Russian narratives.

The company aimed to “conduct a comprehensive counter-campaign against liberal globalists, their platform and prominent representatives,” such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. It was to cover mainly Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Poland.

The campaign consisted of four main points: to accuse politicians in power of

• unjustified fear-mongering, in particular, about a possible Russian attack on the EU;
• to criticize support for gender equality and LGBT rights as making “our children go crazy”;
• undermine the current economic policy by citing high inflation and unemployment;
• to accuse EU globalists of totalitarianism and militarization, “like in Ukraine.”

They planned to accomplish this task using the company’s usual tools – spreading fake news via social media in various forms.

The SDA especially supported the Alternative for Germany and the French National Front parties. Gambashidze’s team sought to raise the ratings of both political parties to 20%.

Support for Viktor Medvedchuk’s political activities

According to the leaked documents, Gambashidze’s political technologists are behind both the launch and promotion of the political movement “Second Ukraine” of pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk, the former head of the banned in Ukraine Opposition Platform for Life party.

The leaked file formulates the main tasks and defines the target audience, project ideology, areas and types of work, and performance indicators.

Viktor Medvedchuk is proposed to be positioned as a “consistent fighter for the peaceful future of Ukraine” who “talks about the benefits of starting a peaceful dialogue as an alternative to a possible nuclear war” and conveys the thesis that “Ukraine should stop being used as a testing ground for Western weapons.”

Gambashidze’s team’s “comprehensive support” includes analytics, writing texts for the website, publishing in the media, and working with social media. This involves “deleting comments that contradict the group’s policy” and “comments in support and defense of VM (Viktor Medvedchuk – ed.) and his Movement.”

The leaked document contains a report on the work already done, including creating the “Other Ukraine” social media pages (the links provided in the document lead to the platforms of the “political movement”).