WASHINGTON – The US government on Wednesday indicted two Russian nationals and seized more than 30 Internet domains. A campaign to influence American elections.
But a trove of information filed in court by the FBI also revealed another bombshell: a Russian operation to traffic German, French, Italian and UK politicians, businessmen, journalists and other influencers.
The goal of the Kremlin’s campaign in Europe was to sow division, discredit America and undermine support for Ukraine, according to several Russian documents, memos and minutes of Russian psychological warfare meetings.
The documents were obtained by the FBI and filed in court affidavits as part of Wednesday’s indictment. 277-page dossier Details of Russian plans to win the hearts and minds of Europeans.
A memo from Russia’s “Social Design Agency” describes a plan to target people through real posts and comments on social media to circumvent social media companies’ bot filters.
According to an FBI court affidavit, the Social Design Agency operates under the command of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko.
The Russian document says the campaign aims to “evoke rational (such as, ‘Really, why do we need to help Ukraine?’) and emotional (such as, ‘Americans are such scoundrels!’) reactions in the audience.”
Psy-ops also relied on so-called doppelgänger domains to spread fake articles and content made to appear to come from Western media outlets.
The domains included fakes of Reuters, Der Spiegel, Bild, Le Monde, Le Parisien, Welt, FAZ, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Delphi and others, and were paid for with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, according to an FBI affidavit.
Russian psy-ops teams identified Germany as a particularly vulnerable target for Russian influence.
“The Germans are more dependent than the French,” one Russian document reads, possibly referring to Germany’s economic dependence on Russian gas and exports.
“First and foremost, we need to discredit the USA, Great Britain and NATO, and secondly,” persuade the Germans to oppose “the ineffective politics of sanctions,” the FBI said, citing an internal Russian memo.
Another Social Design Agency document outlines an operation called “incitement of international conflict” specifically targeting France and Germany.
Its purpose: “to increase internal tensions … to promote the interests of the Russian Federation,” as well as “influence real-life conflicts and artificially create conflict situations” on social media through fake articles, influencers, as well as targeted posts and comments.
The Russian document added that the goal was to “destabilize the social situation” in France and Germany by “spreading more false stories”; “Fake videos, documents and telephone conversation recordings;” “Comments on Social Media;” and “fake and real quotes from influencers.”
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