Several European media outlets have had access to internal documents from the Russian agency Social Design Agency (SDA). These shed light on the workings of this “troll farm”, linked to the Kremlin, whose work consists in particular of undermining support for Ukraine in the midst of its war against Russia.
Its nickname: “Russian Digital Army”. Since at least 2022 and the start of the war in Ukraine, the Russian agency Social Design Agency (SDA) has been spreading false information on social networks (Facebook, X, Telegram, Instagram, etc.), with the support of Moscow. With the help of comments, diversions and caricatures pushing anti-Ukrainian or pro-Russian narratives, the aim of these publications has been to interfere in the European elections in June, and now in the American presidential election in November.
This was revealed on Monday, September 16, by an investigation by the German daily newspaper. South German newspaper, chains from across the Rhine NDR and WDR and Estonian news site Delfi 25, exploiting a leak of thousands of internal documents from this agency, coming from an anonymous source. Franceinfo takes stock of the objectives and functioning of this Russian propaganda organ.
An agency in the sights of Europe and the United States
Founded in 2001, according to its website, the Social Design Agency had already been identified by the Meta Group in 2022 as having participated in the RRN (“Recent Reliable News”)/Doppelgänger digital influence campaign, in which false information was spread by usurping the visual identity of major European media outlets. Together with another Russian company, Struktura, the SDA had spent $105,000 in targeted advertising purchases to push this content on the network.
Their founder, Ilya Gambachidze, was subject to European sanctions in 2023 and had his assets frozen by the US Treasury Department last March. According to the French Treasury Department, the agency “brought [par son activité] material support for actions that undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”.
A “troll factory” with close ties to the Kremlin
Is this agency working for the Kremlin? Several elements suggest so. According to an affidavit from the US Department of Justice and the FBI (PDF link)a sworn statement cited by the Central European investigative NGO VSquare, the Social Design Agency was controlled by the Russian authorities and had particular links with Sergei Kiriyenko, deputy director of the Russian presidential administration.“Between April 2022 and April 2023, [Ilya] Gambachidze took notes in connection with at least twenty meetings of the Russian presidential administration”the document from the American justice system further specifies. Sofia Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the administration, also attended these meetings.
Very discreet, Ilya Gambachidze is also designated by the European Union as a former “advisor to Pyotr Tolstoy, vice-president of the Duma”the Russian Parliament. The political consultant, however, appears in a promotional video, broadcast internally, wearing a fatigues jacket bearing a badge of the “Ideological Troops of Russia”.
This agent “really appears to be a very central element of Moscow’s new system for spreading Russian disinformation around the world”Andrew Wilson, a Russia specialist at University College London, told France 24. Ilya Gambachidze and the SDA are “gradually replacing Yevgeny Prigozhin [ex-patron du groupe de mercenaires Wagner, tué en 2023] and his troll factory”analyses Anton Shekhovtsov, Ukrainian political scientist and director of the Center for Democratic Integrity, interviewed by France 24.
A company (almost) like any other
The Social Design Agency has all the makings of a business, with employees, tools, quantified objectives and evaluations. According to VSquare, it employs “ideologues”eight “commentators and a bot farm operator”The idea is to produce narratives that undermine support for Ukraine in Western countries and to disseminate them widely, in the form of photos, videos, cartoons, distorted images and caricatures, social media threads, and sometimes fake graffiti. For example, one quota for a project targeting Germany and France set a specific target of 60 cartoons, 180 memes, and 400 article comments.
According to an internal report, SDA assures to have produced during the first four months of 2024 “33.9 million comments”as well as 39,899 “content units” on social media, including 4,641 videos, 2,516 memes and graphics. Some caricatures were even made by cartoonists employed by the SDA, according to Vsquare. The broad outlines of the narratives to be propagated are clearly communicated: “Liberals and globalists are spreading fear and want to make us panic” or even “They seek to exploit contradictions around family values, LGBT rights and the economic uncertainty caused by the war in energy and agriculture”.
The goal of helping the far right in the European elections
Keen to strengthen the far-right parties ahead of the European elections in June, the SDA has focused particularly on Germany, supporting the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. “The outcome of these campaigns will largely determine the West’s future sanctions policy towards Russia and its support for Ukraine.”the agency anticipated in one of its documents. One of the success targets stated in an internal document dating from the end of 2022 was for the AfD to obtain 20% in a survey published by an institute considered reliable. Ultimately, it was the right that won by a large margin on a national scale, ahead of the extreme right (15.9%) and the social democrats in power. On the French side, the National Rally came out on top with 31.4% of the vote.
The agency noted in a note: “a serious success of the social media campaign”after the progress of far-right deputies in the European Parliament. With some nuances, however, notes the SDA: Marine Le Pen applauded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his visit to Paris, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni supports Ukraine.
Intention to weaken support for Ukraine
Europe is not alone in being targeted. In a March statement from the US Treasury announcing the sanction of the propaganda agency, Washington accused Moscow of orchestrating “adverse influence campaigns” targeting the American presidential election in particular. One of the commentary scripts used by the agency is eloquent: “Write a 400-character comment from a 38-year-old American woman who believes that military aid to Ukraine and Israel should be cut. Zelensky is wasting taxpayers’ money!” Indeed, the United States is kyiv’s primary military supporter and has already committed more than 51 billion euros in weapons, munitions and other aid since the start of the conflict.
In France, as across the Atlantic, Moscow can count on a good number of pro-Russian influencers to relay this propaganda. “Our new team invented a story about child abductions. The Americans published it seriously. It’s a success!”boasted Sofia Zakharova, according to minutes of a meeting between the SDA and the Russian presidential administration in September 2023. The Moscow spokeswoman is referring to a rumor that Ukrainian children are victims of organ trafficking orchestrated by kyiv on the dark web, a narrative that arose in response to the denunciation of the deportation of Ukrainian children by Russia. The false rumor was picked up by Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia congresswoman and figure in the pro-Trump galaxy.
Projects aimed in particular at the Ukrainian diaspora
In addition to seeking to influence public opinion in Western countries, the agency targets Ukrainians in Western Europe, Russia and Ukraine with a platform called “The Other Ukraine”. This project, which France 24 looked into, is associated with Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian MP and businessman close to Vladimir Putin. He is implicated in the “Voice of Europe” scandal, the pro-Russian influence network aimed at corrupting MEPs in order to serve Moscow’s interests, revealed in March by the Czech press. Contacted by VSquare, neither the Russian presidential administration nor Viktor Medvedchuk responded. According to the affidavit from the US Justice Department and the FBI, the SDA documents also reveal campaigns targeting Mexico and Israel, with the aim of influencing “ethnic or religious groups [liés à ces pays] residing in the United States”or even Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
David Colon, historian and lecturer-researcher at Sciences Po Paris, believes on the X network that “This leak of documents confirms the importance of Doppelgänger in the Kremlin’s information warfare strategy”. “It is important to keep in mind that other Russian disinformation networks (#CopyCop) have a larger audience today”he nevertheless tempers. The Copycop influence network had notably created fake websites before the first round of the legislative elections in France.