RFE/RL reports:

A trove of leaked records from a Russian disinformation campaign reveals how Moscow sought to discredit Ukraine and Western governments that support it while also trying to boost support for far-right political parties in the European Union.

The documents obtained by a consortium of European media outlets and shared with Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, highlight the internal operations of the Social Design Agency, a Moscow-based company that the United States says has led the propaganda campaign at the Kremlin’s behest.

The campaign included a diverse mix of memes, falsified videos and government documents, and a network of websites impersonating legitimate news outlets across Europe to disseminate fake stories aimed at undermining Western support for Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The records state that one meme denigrating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that was shared on X by its billionaire owner, Elon Musk, and garnered 86,000 reshares was a creation of the Social Design Agency.

The leaked records, some of which were made public this month as part of a U.S. indictment, were first obtained by the German outlets Sueddeutsche Zeitung, NDR, and WDR, which then shared the documents with Schemes and several other news organizations. They were leaked by an anonymous source who told reporters the Social Design Agency had been hacked. [Continue reading…]