German media outlets Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR, as well as the Estonian online publication Delfi, have gained access to leaked internal documents of the Agency for Social Design (ASD), an organization under EU and US sanctions. According to US law enforcement agencies, this agency works on behalf of the Russian presidential administration.

Journalists from Schemes (Radio Liberty), together with a number of European editorial offices, examined thousands of files obtained as part of the leak. As part of the Fake Factory project, they found out that ASD, under the leadership of Russian political strategist Illia Gambashidze, is engaged in disseminating disinformation to discredit Ukraine, its leadership and citizens, as well as Western leaders who support Ukraine. At the same time, the agency promotes Russian interests and supports European politicians who promote these interests.

Some of the documents from this leak were published by American law enforcement in early September, when they filed a motion to seize Internet domains associated with ASD. According to anonymous sources in Western intelligence, the files obtained by journalists are authentic.

ASD positions itself as an organization providing customers with full media support, including analysis of the Western information space, identification of potential threats, proposal of solutions and their implementation. The leak contains a video presentation of the company, presumably created for customers, where its director, Illia Gambashidze, appears. In the presentation, Gambashidze takes off his glasses and hood, stating that there is no point in hiding anymore, since the Doppelganger campaign was exposed by French intelligence.

The Doppelganger campaign involved creating fake websites of well-known publications, such as France's Le Monde and Germany's Der Spiegel, to discredit Ukraine. The fake news also covered Germany, the US, and Israel. Meta called Doppelganger the largest Russian information operation since 2017.

American law enforcement directly accuses ASD of working for the Kremlin and names its activities as being supervised by Serhii Kiriienko, deputy head of the administration of Russian President Volodymyr Putin. In addition, Sofiia Zakharova, an employee of the Putin administration, who, according to American intelligence agencies, took part in planning disinformation campaigns, was also involved in the Doppelganger campaign.

According to the documents, the ASD’s activities are carried out in three main areas:

Monitoring – analysis of the media space and opinions of more than 1000 public opinion leaders in six languages.

Analytics – studying the target audience and creating topics for further use.

Creative – creating fake articles and visual content that looks authentic to the target audience.

According to the leak, between January and April 2024 alone, the SDA created 39,899 pieces of content, including posts, videos, articles, memes, and special messages that are part of disinformation campaigns. The agency is also involved in distributing fake official documents.

In the leak, the journalists of Schemes found examples of forgeries of Ukrainian government documents. Among them are orders allegedly from the Office of the President of Ukraine and the Ministry of Defense, which were aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian government and military, accusing them of censorship and concealment of information.