Kremlin organisation "ASD" discredits Ukraine, its top leadership, citizens and leaders of allied countries - media. DOCUMENT
The journalists investigated the leak of internal documents of the Social Design Agency (SDA) and found that the organisation, run by Russian political strategist Ilya Gambashidze, uses disinformation to discredit Ukraine, its top leadership and citizens, as well as the leaders of Western countries who support it. At the same time, the agency promotes Russian interests and those European politicians who defend them.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to Radio Liberty.
What is ASD?
"The Agency of Social Design positions itself as an organisation that provides full media support to its clients. This includes analysing the Western information field, identifying potential threats, proposing options for countering such challenges, and implementing them.
The agency is headed by Ilya Gambashidze, a sanctioned Russian political strategist.
It is noted that US law enforcement officials directly accuse the ASD 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.
Areas of work of the Social Design Agency
Radio Liberty journalists write that Gambashidze's team works in three areas:
- The first is monitoring: a team of 24 employees analyses pro-Russian and anti-Russian articles and posts by more than 1,000 opinion leaders in six languages on a daily basis 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 performers.
- The third is creativity: the authors write articles based on the journalistic style inherent in a particular country, and illustrators create cartoons for them.
The outlet writes that in the four months from January to April 2024, Gambashidze's team produced 39,899 pieces of content, according to a leaked document titled "Centre C Work Statistics". These include "posts (31,059), videos and video memes (4,641), longreads and shortreads (1,455), memes and graphics (2,516), fake special messages (238)".
In addition, ASD distributes forged official documents, such as press releases from the German Ministry of the Interior and the Polish Customs Service.
Falsification of Ukrainian government documents
Among the files that the journalists were able to examine, there is evidence of falsification of Ukrainian government documents.
For example, in the table "Register of fakes and pre-reality - UCC", the column "Fake name" contains "Order from the OP (Office of the President - ed.) on mopping up". It contains a document allegedly from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence: an order to the heads of units and departments of the Armed Forces 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 purpose of this fake, according to the accompanying documents, is to accuse the Ukrainian military leadership of censorship and concealing the truth about the crash.
The same register contains a fake order allegedly issued by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, equating the surrender of servicemen 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 demoralise the Armed Forces of Ukraine".
Fakes about Ukrainians for the European audience
The documents also reveal that Gambashidze's team creates and disseminates fabricated videos on social media, stylised as Western media materials.
One of them was allegedly written by the German publication Bild. It says that Ukrainian refugees, in an attempt to burn the Russian flag, set fire to the house of the Germans who had given them shelter.
However, back in May 2022, fact-checkers proved that it was faked, and the story of the fire itself was fictitious. The video was compiled from old recordings from 2013 and 2021.
In the same file, other "tasks" are marked as completed, which were obviously intended to discredit Ukrainians abroad.
In particular, there were videos posted on Telegram channels in German and English about, for example, a Ukrainian in Naples allegedly deciding to rob a store or refugees from Ukraine allegedly forcing a bar patron to dance hopak.
The ASD's attempt to influence the EU elections
The agency also tried to influence the EU parliamentary elections in June 2024. The aim was to support right-wing forces, which Gambashidze's team expected to promote pro-Russian narratives.
The document proposes "a comprehensive counter-campaign against liberal globalists, their platform and prominent representatives", such as the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. It was to cover mainly Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Poland.
It is noted that the campaign consisted of four main points: to reproach the politicians in power:
- Unjustified fear-mongering, in particular about a possible Russian attack on the EU;
- to criticise support for gender equality and LGBT rights as making "our children go crazy";
- to undermine the current economic policy by using the examples of high inflation and unemployment;
- accuse the EU globalists of totalitarianism and militarisation, "like in Ukraine".
The "Alternative for Germany" and the French "National Front" were especially supported by the "ASD". Gambashidze's team sought to raise the ratings of both political parties to 20%.
Cooperation with Medvedchuk and the "political movement" "Druha Ukraina"
The journalists found out that Gambashidze's political technologists were behind the launch and promotion of pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk's "political movement", "Druha Ukraina".
The file "Second_Ukraine_Complete_Internet_support" from the ASD leak formulates the main tasks, defines the target audience, project ideology, areas and types of work, and performance indicators.
Political technologists propose to position Medvedchuk 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 message 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, publications in the media and work in social media, which includes "deleting comments that contradict the groups' policies" and "comments in support and defence of VM (Viktor Medvedchuk - ed.) and his Movement".
