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UK sanctions Russian disinformation agencies seeking to undermine Ukraine.
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Kremlin tasked Social Design Agency (SDA) is exposed for trying to incite anti-Ukraine protests across Europe.
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New sanctions also hit three leaders directing the firm’s operations.
Three Russian agencies and three senior figures who are attempting to undermine and destabilise Ukraine and its democracy have been sanctioned today by the UK.
The Social Design Agency (SDA) is tasked and funded directly by the Russian State, and along with its partner company Structura, has attempted to deliver a series of interference operations designed to undermine democracy and weaken international support for Ukraine.
This year, the SDA also attempted to incite protests in half a dozen European countries. However, despite Russian pouring money into these malign organisations’ interference activities, their lies have consistently struggled online, with bots and fake sites getting limited interaction. This has forced the SDA to consider buying social media views.
The Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, said:
Putin is so desperate to undermine European support for Ukraine he is now resorting to clumsy, ineffective efforts to try and stoke unrest.
Today’s sanctions send a clear message; we will not tolerate your lies and interference, and we are coming after you.
Putin’s desperate attempts to divide us will fail. We will constrain the Kremlin, and stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.
These firms and their leadership are responsible for a vast malign online network, also commonly known as Doppelganger, which plagues social media with fake posts, counterfeit documents and deepfake material. These deceitful tactics are designed to mask the truth around Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and distract from the true nature of the war. Their murky actions are part of a co-ordinated attempt to use deceptive information operations to undermine democracy in pursuit of their aims.
These new sanctions demonstrate that no matter how desperate the Russian interference activity has become, the UK is committed to taking action against Russian information manipulation. We will continue to bear down on anyone conducting such activities on behalf of SDA.
The US, Canada, France, European External Action Service (EEAS), Germany and Australia join us in calling out the SDA’s underhand activity globally.
Background:
The full list of those sanctioned today is:
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PR agency Social Design Agency (SDA).
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PR agency Structura National Technologies.
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PR agency ANO DIALOG.
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Ilya Andreevich GAMBASHIDZE, the founder of SDA.
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Nikolay Aleksandrovich TUPIKIN, the CEO of SDA and owner of Structura.
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Andrey Naumovich PERLA, SDA Project Director.
These firms are responsible for a vast malign online network, commonly known as Doppelganger. Content including fake posts, counterfeit documents and deepfake material has been pushed out to audiences in English, German and French through a complex online network. The SDA has crafted a web of at least 120 sites spoofing existing news and government websites, towards which it deceptively redirects unsuspecting social media users. Tactics included avoiding common trigger words to circumvent content moderation tools and evade account takedowns. We are working with social media platforms to ensure they are aware of this activity.
Our international partners have also previously exposed Doppelganger’s malign interference networks, including France and the EEAS. As part of the monitoring and analysis for the 2024 European Parliament Elections. The European External Action Service has detected that an Doppelganger / RRN Media operation actively promoted Russian narratives to disrupt and interfere with the electoral process. This network was previously attributed by META to the SDA and revealed to be running global information operations aimed at weakening support for Ukraine. France has exposed these Russian actors in June 2023 through the publication of a report by its agency, Viginum.
