A company linked to the Russian government is running a disinformation campaign aimed at scaring German voters and fueling the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD)many media outlets claim today, citing its internal documents.

The company Social Design Agency (SDA)based in Moscow, has been spreading false information 24/7 on social media sites for at least two years in close cooperation with the Kremlin, according to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and public broadcasters WDR and NDR.

With the help of their other international partners, these media analyzed internal presentations, tables, lists, graphs and documents provided to them by an anonymous source. The company that spreads pro-Russian comments, memes and caricatures on Facebook, X, Telegram and Instagram is targeting the chancellor’s centre-left governing coalition Olaf Solz.

According to a leaked document dating back to late 2022, one of the goals was for the far-right AfD to increase its share to 20% in a poll by a reliable institute, the results of which are published across Europe.

Another aim of this disinformation campaign was to spread the idea that Germany’s support to Ukraine is creating “the worst economic and social crisis in recent history” of the country, writes the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Russia is acting “pragmatically and with flexible thematics in order to exploit as best as possible the possibilities of division (…) of German society,” said the head of the internal intelligence service (BfV), Thomas Haldenwangin the newspaper. According to Haldenwang, his services are working hard to identify those who “want to destroy German democracy and prevent them from destabilizing it.”