2024-09-24 01:05:22
Research reveals how Russia is deliberately trying to infiltrate the German population with fake news. The Kremlin’s goal: to stir up fear of the future and help the AfD to 20 percent in the polls.
Internal documents from a Russian media agency reveal how the Kremlin is conducting targeted disinformation campaigns in Germany and other Western countries. According to reports in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ), NDR and WDR, the Moscow-based Social Design Agency (SDA) is continuously spreading such content via social networks – apparently in close cooperation with the Russian presidential administration. The aim of the propaganda is to ensure that the narratives spread promote the interests of the Russian government.
Together with the Estonian media Delfi and other international partners, internal presentations, tables, lists, graphics and protocols were evaluated, which were leaked by an anonymous source. The source explained that the SDA had been hacked and said: “The Kremlin wants to harm Germany and this evil must be stopped.”
The SDA spreads the propaganda primarily via social networks, where it spreads pro-Russian comments, memes and caricatures. Germany is a main target, with politicians from the traffic light government in particular being the target of the disinformation campaigns.
For the first time, the leak shows how detailed these actions are planned and what specific goals they pursue. An internal SDA document from 2022 lists “key performance indicators” that are intended to measure the impact of fake news in Germany. Targeted misinformation is intended to help increase “fear of the future” among the population and strengthen right-wing parties. The AfD should therefore achieve a poll rating of 20 percent.
One of the main narratives of the campaign is that German support for Ukraine is responsible for the “deepest economic and social crisis in recent history” and that Germany is on the brink of economic collapse.
Thomas Haldenwang, head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, told “SZ”, NDR and WDR: “Russia is acting pragmatically and thematically flexibly in order to make the best possible use of divisive potential and inner-social discourses in Germany.” His agency is working intensively to identify the destructive actors and prevent a destabilization of democracy.
The research also shows that the Russian presidential administration identified Germany as one of its most important targets in Central Europe around ten years ago. Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 at the latest, Moscow has been intensifying its efforts to use targeted disinformation to detach the Federal Republic from the Western alliance and to win it over as an advocate for Russia.
The SDA is considered one of the Kremlin’s largest propaganda machines. It was previously identified as one of the main actors behind the so-called doppelgänger campaign, in which news pages of major media companies were recreated in a deceptively realistic manner and filled with fake news. The SDA has been on the European Union’s sanctions list since July 2023. In the USA, SDA head Ilya Gambashidze and a business partner were personally sanctioned in March 2024. Despite the sanctions, the SDA continues to broadcast its propaganda on the major social networks.