Under the supervision of the administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the Russians conducted a campaign in the information field of Germany to discredit President Volodymyr Zelensky and reduce international support for Ukraine.
This is reported by the Main Directorate of Intelligence.
Journalists of the German publication Deutschland-Kurier were given materials that the Russians allegedly seized from the regional branch of the Security Service of Ukraine in Mariupol. The transferred "documents" refer to the alleged conduct of the work of the OSCE Mission in Donbas by the special services of Ukraine.
The article in Deutschland-Kurier was called "Good Mr. Zelensky: Did his special services spy on OSCE employees?".
To spread Russian propaganda among the German public in social networks, the so-called "fake factory" is involved, the curator of which is Alexey Goreslavskyi. Until 2020, he held the position of Deputy Head of Public Projects Management of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. Currently, he is the head of the Dialog and Institute of Internet Development organizations created under the supervision of the Russian Federation, which are directly involved in conducting information warfare in the European direction.
In order to create the impression of a broad discussion of the topic, the "fake factory" prepared standard "comments" that are distributed under the materialʼs publications in social networks, in particular:
- "I donʼt understand why we continue to support a regime that smells worse and worse every day";
- "Itʼs time to finish with Ukraine. Let Putin deal with it";
- "The support of Ukraine caused the catastrophe of the German economy. The English press is openly disgusted with our difficulties. Itʼs time to stop this suicidal madness";
- "Ukraine is an obedient puppet of Washington and London. If such behavior had not been approved there, Ukrainians would not have dared to spy on the OSCE";
- "I have never been a supporter of a conflict with Putin";
- "It is necessary to understand that Putin is not against Germany, but against Ukrainians fighting each other";
- "We should no longer support Zelensky";
- "President Zelensky is a very nice person, but for some reason I donʼt want to trust him."