Based on leaked documents, James Pamment and Darejan Tsurtsumia of PDRI have studied Russian malign information influence through the Doppelganger campaign and analysed the capabilities of one of the main actors behind it – the Social Design Agency (SDA). In 2022, a comprehensive and coordinated influence campaign was launched by Russian actors aimed at weakening international support for Ukraine, promoting pro-Russian narratives and sowing mistrust in Western democracies through the so-called Doppelganger campaign. The campaign used fake websites resembling those of established news media. Behind the campaign were organisations closely tied to the Russian state, including the SDA.
The report provides an initial, detailed picture of the SDA’s work and capabilities based on over 3,000 leaked documents. The SDA is one of the actors in the state-sponsored and long-term information war by Russia on the West, and the report describes internal communication, methods, funding and overall objectives for the SDA’s work and its peripheral networks. The report notes that some Western analyses overestimated the impact of SDA’s Doppelganger campaign and that countermeasures have not had the intended effects; instead, the SDA has managed to exploit them to strengthen its position as an actor in the information war.
Based on the experience gained in their work, Pamment and Tsurtsumia present several recommendations for how democracies can strengthen their capabilities to counteract malign information influence.
Download the report "Beyond Operation Doppelgänger: A Capability Assessment of the Social Design Agency" (PDF, 13.1 MB).