Ministry of Truth: Inside the Russian Disinformation Machine
Let them speak for themselves
The Social Design Agency (SDA) is a Russian PR consulting firm affiliated with the government. Its headquarters is located in a small cozy mansion in the center of Moscow, some 800 meters from the Kremlin. The company has existed since 2001 and all these years has been doing “dirty work” in the information space in the interests of the Russian authorities, earning the reputation of “experts” in the field of PR, disinformation campaigns, political projects, and reputation management. The heads of the company are political consultant Ilya Gambashidze and Sofia Zakharova, an employee of the Presidential Administration. It’s pretty unlikely that you will find available information about them on the internet. Close formal and informal ties unite their interests with the Russian political elite, former Ukrainian oligarch and “Putin’s crony” Viktor Medvedchuk and the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation.
According to the U.S. State Department’s website, the Agency has been involved in disinformation campaigns and “laundering Kremlin propaganda” around the world.
“The Kremlin’s ultimate goal appears to be to launder its propaganda and disinformation through local media…