Remember the pig heads at the Paris mosques? Or the Jewish centers painted green?
I knew exactly whose work it was the moment I saw it. Now — I finally have the proof. 🧵 [1/19]
I knew exactly whose work it was the moment I saw it. Now — I finally have the proof. 🧵 [1/19]
My colleagues at the @dossier_center have obtained a large internal leak from a Moscow company called the Social Design Agency, or SDA.
It is run by a political operative named Ilya Gambashidze, the Kremlin is contracting him to manufacture scandals.
[2/19]
It is run by a political operative named Ilya Gambashidze, the Kremlin is contracting him to manufacture scandals.
[2/19]
Their work is divided into two parts: online and offline. Online, the SDA writes fake news and posts fake videos. Offline, it pays crews from the Balkans to stage real stunts on European streets.
It's now abundantly clear that many of Europe's "spontaneous" scandals originated in Moscow.
[3/19]
It's now abundantly clear that many of Europe's "spontaneous" scandals originated in Moscow.
[3/19]
Start with the online hits: a viral video from June 2025 stated that Zelensky bought his mother a flat in Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower with interiors from Armani.
It was branded as Saudi state channel Al Arabiya and shared extensively via verified accounts on X.
[4/19]blog.khodorkovsky.com/p/a-leaked-kre…
It was branded as Saudi state channel Al Arabiya and shared extensively via verified accounts on X.
[4/19]blog.khodorkovsky.com/p/a-leaked-kre…
The only problem: it was all fake. Their internal report, "Media-Case. Burj Khalifa," brags that Westerners got angry enough to demand Washington cut aid to Ukraine.
And the official debunking received 210 times fewer views than the lie — they clearly know how to work with attention in the age of algorithms.
[5/19]
And the official debunking received 210 times fewer views than the lie — they clearly know how to work with attention in the age of algorithms.
[5/19]
The same playbook was used in Armenia against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. This time, they claimed that he bought a €3.1 million villa in Marseille with foreign aid money. It never went as viral as the Zelensky hoax, but it saturated Armenian media enough that Pashinyan had to issue a formal denial.
[6/19]
[6/19]
But most dangerous work is taking place offline. In September 2025, pig heads marked "Macron" appeared at nine Paris mosques.
Police immediately suspected Moscow, and Moscow, as expected, denied the accusations and acted offended.
[7/19]
blog.khodorkovsky.com/p/who-put-pig-…
Police immediately suspected Moscow, and Moscow, as expected, denied the accusations and acted offended.
[7/19]
blog.khodorkovsky.com/p/who-put-pig-…
French police eventually busted three Serbian nationals behind the stunt. Turns out, these guys were on a literal European tour of destabilization, getting paid €500 to €1,500 per gig plus expenses.
[8/19]
[8/19]
They were the same crew who defaced Jewish community centers in Paris with green paint during the Champions League final, plastered Armenian genocide stickers near Turkish embassy, and dumped concrete skeletons at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to mock German pension policies.
[9/19]
[9/19]
The operational hygiene in these files reads like a cheap spy thriller: operatives work strictly between 23:00 and 06:00, use cash for rentals, leave personal phones at home, and upload exactly 600 panoramic photos to a secure cloud before vanishing.
[10/19]
[10/19]
The aim is not Russian propaganda at all. They find an existing divisive issue—migration, religion, inflation— and hammer on it.
But the pitches they rejected are even stranger...
[11/19]
But the pitches they rejected are even stranger...
[11/19]
Project "Swim" planned to launch 30 sex dolls down the Seine during the Paris Olympics, each bearing anti-migrant slogans.
[12/19]
[12/19]
Project "General" sought to vandalize the Charles de Gaulle monument on the Champs-Élysées and make it look like Ukrainian nationalists did it.
The perpetrators were even meant to believe they were on the payroll of Olena Zelenska's foundation.
[13/19]
The perpetrators were even meant to believe they were on the payroll of Olena Zelenska's foundation.
[13/19]
In Germany, ahead of the January 2025 Bundestag elections, they paid saboteurs €100 per car to fill the exhaust pipes of 270 vehicles with construction foam, and intentionally left the Green Party stickers behind.
[14/19]
[14/19]
When German media took the bait, an SDA staffer forwarded the news straight to Putin administration's liason, Sofia Zakharova, joking: "Deutsche Welle is writing about us."
Her codename in their secure chats was "Christine Keeler," the model at the center of the 1960s Profumo spy scandal:
[15/19]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profumo_a…
Her codename in their secure chats was "Christine Keeler," the model at the center of the 1960s Profumo spy scandal:
[15/19]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profumo_a…
To stay under the radar, they are building institutional clones. One is a "perfectly legal" think tank in Israel, staffed by local academics, designed to feed slanted data to unsuspecting European journalists.
[16/19]
[16/19]
Stranger still: they are building "Wikipedia clones" for Germany and Armenia. The sites scrape real Wikipedia data but alter articles on targeted politicians by injecting Kremlin talking points into search-engine previews.
[17/19]
[17/19]
Here is the reality: Gambashidze's SDA is impressive and also a grift. He is angling for a 1% slice of Russia's 146-billion-ruble propaganda budget.
Many of these schemes stay on paper to please the bosses, while the real output is cheap street vandalism and viral deepfakes.
[18/19]
Many of these schemes stay on paper to please the bosses, while the real output is cheap street vandalism and viral deepfakes.
[18/19]
But incompetent doesn't mean harmless. The SDA is one tentacle of many, and the rest of the Russian state is watching what sticks while the West is frazzled and can't decide on its response.
[19/19]
[19/19]
This is part of a new section where I publish the Kremlin's own leaked documents — the primary sources behind Russia's influence operations in the West, translated slide by slide. Subscribe on Substack for free: blog.khodorkovsky.com/s/primary-sour…
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