Putin’s troll factory leak exposes Russian campaign to undermine Ukraine, manipulate EU

That’s according to an investigation run jointly by nearly a dozen European media outlets, who used the data dump originally obtained by Delfi, Suddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR, Ukrinform reports citing VSquare.

Sources in European intelligence told journalists that the data obtained via the leak is authentic, according to their assessment, Radio Svoboda wrote.

The investigation puts a focus on the head of Russia’s secret propaganda project, Ilya Gambashidze, who boasted being part of “Russian Ideological Troops”.

A leaked video from Russia’s IT organization Social Design Agency (SDA) offers partners interested in their information operations services such as  “narrative production, content creation, 300 media outlets, 20 think tanks…”

“Gambashidze is responsible for numerous projects in various countries,” a source connected to EU intelligence told journalists. The organization and Gambashidze are already sanctioned both in the EU and the U.S.

The latest FBI files on Russian influence operations correspond with the data from the leak, and refers to the SDA as “a public relations company, specializing in election campaigns, with deep ties to the Russian government.”

The leak reveals how the SDA operates as a center for psychological warfare. Its “army” consists not of soldiers, but of meme creators and internet trolls. According to internal records, the agency employs “ideologists”, eight “commentators,” and a “bot farm operator.”

The scale of disinformation production is astonishing. A leaked report claims that in the first four months of 2024, the SDA’s bot army, dubbed the “Russian Digital Army,” generated 33.9 million comments. They also claim to have produced 39,899 “content units” on social media, including 4,641 videos and 2,516 memes and graphics.

There are hundreds of examples of memes in the leaked documents, some of which were created by cartoonists employed by the SDA.

“The European Parliament elections are in the summer of 2024. Critical milestones are approaching in 2024, including the Bundestag elections and the U.S. presidential election. The outcome of these campaigns will largely determine the West’s future sanctions policy towards Russia and support for Ukraine,” reads one document outlining the focus of these information operations.

The Russians remain optimistic about shifting Western public opinion on Ukraine.

“Public opinion in the project’s target countries is gradually moving towards reducing or completely stopping support for Ukraine,” a document reads.

The leaked files include detailed reports on the thousands of fake comments made in various countries, along with instructions on how to craft such comments.

“Write a comment from a 38-year-old German woman, who believes Germany is losing its main source of income: industry and a strong economy – we must stop wasting money on Ukraine and return to cheap Russian energy!” one document offered as instruction.

Similar instructions were written for “commenters” aiming at a U.S audience: “Write a 400-character comment from a 38-year-old American woman, who believes military aid to Ukraine and Israel should be cut. Zelensky is wasting taxpayers’ money!”

The SDA isn’t only generating comments for non-existent 38-year-old women in Germany and America. Its employees also fabricate Ukrainian documents and official quotes to be disseminated through the media. For instance, SDA created forged documents and quotes related to the crash of an Il-76 plane in Belgorod in January 2024. Russian propaganda claimed at the time that this plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war and blamed Ukraine for shooting it down. These “fakes,” as the SDA itself calls them, were created to persuade the public that Ukraine was hiding that fact. A document titled “Register of Fakes and Doppelgangers” details 73 instances where the SDA created disinformation for distribution.

“Our new team fabricated a story about child abductions. The Americans seriously published it. That’s a success!” boasted Sofia Zakharova, who is associated with the Russian presidential administration. This comes from an SDA meeting protocol from September 2023.

A few weeks before this meeting, information began circulating on Telegram channels about Ukrainian children whose organs were being sold on the dark web. Some of the reports weaving their way through social media blamed the “Kiev regime” orchestrating child evacuations. This claim was meant to mirror the allegations made by the International Criminal Court against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Russian child deportation program in Ukraine, Maria Lvova-Belova.

Soon, this disinformation narrative was even spread by some U.S. politicians, such as Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congresswoman from the state of Georgia.

The SDA team also highlights Greene in a U.S.-focused document, explaining how their information operations are picked up by influential figures in the U.S. The document includes a link to an article from Breitbart, a far-right U.S. news outlet, in which Greene indicates that weapons supplied by the United States to Ukraine have reached Hamas.

The same document indicates that reducing U.S. support for Ukraine can be achieved by contrasting it with the American economic situation.

“The question ‘where is our money going?’ should be the most frequent in the comments section,” the document says.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, a wave of disinformation hit European countries after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, with Telegram being one of the biggest platforms for spreading it, said the head of the National Council of Ukraine on TV and Radio Broadcasting, Olha Herasimyuk.

Also, since the outset of Russian hybrid aggression against Ukraine in 2014, a military draft campaign in Ukraine has been targeted by the Russian intelligence agencies through psyops.