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Leaked Documents: Elon Musk Shared Russian Propaganda From Kremlin Psychological Operations

Elon Musk is once again in the spotlight for controversial reasons, this time for disseminating content from a Russian propaganda operation designed to undermine support for Ukraine. This revelation follows a recent controversy where Musk’s reacted to the apparent second attempted assassination of Donald Trump, where he said, “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Harris,” a comment he later dismissed as a “joke.”

The latest controversy involves a meme Musk shared on X (formerly Twitter) last October. The meme depicted a stern-faced President Volodymyr Zelensky with the caption: “When it’s been 5 minutes and you haven’t asked for a billion dollars in aid.” Recent investigations have confirmed that this meme was generated by a Russian psychological operations team, RFE/RL reports. The Social Design Agency, a Russian firm, was hired by the Kremlin to spread disinformation and sow discord about Western backing for Ukraine.

Leaked documents, now public through a U.S. indictment, reveal that the meme, which garnered 86,000 reshares on the platform, was indeed created by the Social Design Agency. These documents were first obtained by German media outlets Sueddeutsche Zeitung, NDR, and WDR, and were subsequently shared with Schemes and other news organizations by an anonymous source who alleged that the agency had been hacked.

The Social Design Agency, led by Ilya Gambashidze, has been involved in a broader disinformation campaign known as Doppelganger. Gambashidze and his organization were sanctioned by the U.S. in March. This operation, overseen by Sergei Kiriyenko, a high-ranking Kremlin official, produced nearly 40,000 pieces of content between January and April, including more than 30,000 social media posts, over 4,600 videos and video memes, and approximately 1,500 articles

Among the fabricated content were false news stories, such as a fake report supposedly from the German newspaper Bild, alleging that Ukrainian refugees in Germany had burned down their hosts’ home while trying to destroy a Russian flag. The operation also included forged Ukrainian government documents, including a counterfeit order from Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy falsely equating surrender by Ukrainian soldiers with treason.

U.S. authorities have recently seized 32 Internet domains linked to the Doppelganger operation, emphasizing ongoing efforts to counter such disinformation campaigns.

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