Martin Laine@Martinlaineolen
Sep 18
12 tweets
More insights into the Kremlin’s disinformation machine, the Social Design Agency.
Luckily, the Russians kept detailed records.
Here I am scrolling through tens of thousands (!) of archived fake comments by Russian trolls.
#FactoryofFakes
1/11
More insights into the Kremlin’s disinformation machine, the Social Design Agency.
Luckily, the Russians kept detailed records.
Here I am scrolling through tens of thousands (!) of archived fake comments by Russian trolls.
#FactoryofFakes
1/11 In addition to Germany & France, SDA heavily targeted Ukraine with “fakes” to:
Discredit the military
Amplify leadership conflicts
Demoralize the army
Disorganize the population
Almost all analytics is reported with these objectives in mind.
2/11
Discredit the military
Amplify leadership conflicts
Demoralize the army
Disorganize the population
Almost all analytics is reported with these objectives in mind.
2/11 
Example:
A Russian Telegram group DONTSTOPWAR (271.9k followers) shares a fake story of Zaluzhny vacationing in Cyprus using a 2018 photo from Mariupol.
The story was also pushed by suspect accounts here on Twitter.
3/11
x.com/LeoonfrankFran
Leonard Frank@LeoonfrankFrank
May 20 23
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Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny, who is now resting in Cyprus, bought himself a villa near the sea in Paphos.
According to the telegram channel Vedomstvo, the estimated cost specified in the contract is 390,000 euros. 
Another disinfo campaign (40M views!) involves Zelensky’s Sept 2023 UN speech. A video was edited to claim western media hid him speaking to an empty hall. Dozens of Russian propaganda channels (screenshot) shared it.
4/11
SDA’s internal report confirms these were orchestred by the Kremlin.
Other examples: a local Ukrainian official buying a house in Spain during mobilization, fortune tellers predicting doom for Zelensky, orthodox church crosses sold on the darknet, iodine shortages, etc...
5/11
"In a document called 'fakes' (sic!), Russians prepared a narrative about 500+ German soldiers killed in an airstrike in Ukraine.
This was echoed by TASS in September, claiming 500 Western 'specialists' died in Poltava airstrike (to cover up over 50 civilians killed).
6/11
According to another project, Americans should be persuaded that Ukraine is corrupt.
““Where does our money go?” should become the most repeated in the commentary field” the analysis notes.
7/11
More about AfD’s popularity being an objective:
“the flow of Arab refugees will sharpen public attention to the problem of migrants, which creates fertile ground for the dissemination of the project’s narratives and growth of AfD’s popularity”.
8/11
x.com/Martinlaineole
Martin Laine@Martinlaineolen
Sep 16
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There’s a lot on AfD here — too much to cover here. Read the full story!
A memo reads: “Our opinion leader became the deputy leader of the AfD faction!”.
Russia even measures success using AfD polling stats and does the same with France’s National Rally (Le Pen, etc).
9/15
They take credit for the docs reported on by WaPo from April 2023 indicating that Kremlin is trying to build a coalition between the German far right (AfD) and far left (Sahra Wagenknecht).
So this confirms that WaPo’s report is true - the Russians are admitting it!
9/11
This doc gives us insight into how Kremlin propaganda is approaching the West.
They know that the West is "stigmatizing" Russian media so they need to hide the fact that information is coming from Russia.
Info-ops need to occur in a "natural" way.
10/11
People seem not to realize why they keep a list of Western "opinion leaders."
Russians are "scouting" social media for narratives; SDA follows these figures to pick up, adapt, and amplify "naturally occurring" talking points.
11/11
x.com/Martinlaineole
Martin Laine@Martinlaineolen
Sep 16
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The US affidavit claims that SDA monitors 2,800 influencers from 81 countries, calling them “opinion leaders.” We have a small screenshot of this list in the leak.
I'd call them “useful idiots,” with their voices amplified by Russia, often without them even knowing.
14/15
Btw, our partners also noticed how one of the SDA meeting protocols notes that Elon Musk had shared a meme which was prepared by Kremlin operatives...
Anyway, read our full story here:
vsquare.org/leaked-files-p
x.com/BohdanaNeborak
Bohdana Neborak@BohdanaNeborak
Sep 17
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Remember this meme about Zelensky that Elon Musk proudly shared?
Leaked internal documents from a Kremlin-controlled propaganda center reveal that it was produced by a Kremlin-lead Russian troll farm.
Source: radiosvoboda.org/a/skhemy-kreml
Martin Laine
@Martinlaineolen
🇪🇪 uuriv ajakirjanik/investigative journalist • nii @eestiekspress kui @DelfiEE • bylines @OCCRP @ICIJorg • #vatniksoupEE lõimed: https://t.co/SwqXJKQPVj
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