A Russian government-linked company is behind a disinformation campaign aimed at scaring German voters and steering them towards the far-right Alternative for Europe party. Germany (AfD), according to German media.
The Moscow-based Social Design Agency (SDA) has been spreading false information for at least two years24 hours a day on social networking sites, in close cooperation with the Kremlin, according to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and public broadcasters WDR and NDR.
With the help of its other international partners, the media outlets analyzed internal presentations, tables, lists, graphs and documents provided to them by an anonymous source. The company, which disseminates pro-Russian comments, memes and cartoons on Facebook, X, Telegram and Instagram, targets Chancellor Olaf Solz’s center-left government coalition.
AfD aims to reach 20%
According to a leaked document dated late 2022, one of the goals was for the far-right AfD to increase its share to 20% in a poll conducted by a trusted institute, the results of which are published across Europe.
ONE another goal The aim of this disinformation campaign was to spread the idea that Germany’s support for Ukraine is creating “the worst economic and social crisis in the country’s recent history”, writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
Russia is acting “pragmatically and on flexible themes in order to best exploit the potential for division (…) in German society,” the head of the national intelligence service (BfV), Thomas Haldenwang, told the newspaper. According to Haldenwang, his services are working hard to identify those who “want to destroy German democracy and prevent them from destabilizing it.”
Sources: AMPE, AFP