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Anton Shekhovtsov

@shekhovtsov.substack.com

11K followers 1K following 1.6K posts

PhD UCL SSEES, visiting professor at CEU, director of the Centre for Democratic Integrity, author of books "Russia and the Western Far Right" and "Russian Political Warfare", columnist for EUObserver @euobserver.bsky.social, outdoor research fellow

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · Aug 13

I’m honoured to announce the release of the volume "Russia against Ukraine: Russian Political Mythology and the War on Ukrainian Identity", a multi-author study that examines the politically driven hostility towards Ukraine deeply rooted in Russian geopolitical chauvinism: buff.ly/obr8I30

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Reposted by Anton Shekhovtsov

Euan MacDonald @euanmacdonald.bsky.social · 16h

The Social Design Agency (SDA) is the Kremlin's new social engineering contractor, replacing Prigozhin's IRA. SDA is deeply tied to the Presidential Administration and runs ops like "Doppelganger" news counterfeiting. By @shekhovtsov.substack.com
shekhovtsov.substack.com/p/the-kremli...

The Kremlin’s New Contractors

Inside Russia’s Market for Political Warfare

shekhovtsov.substack.com

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 13h

After Prigozhin’s troll empire collapsed, how did Russia’s Social Design Agency rise to become the Kremlin’s new private contractor for political warfare in Europe? buff.ly/vrOC2b0

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 14h

Assad government secretly moved mass grave to cover up killings, Reuters investigation finds buff.ly/4KsqRbF

www.reuters.com

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 16h

Over the past two decades, Western state security services have increasingly purchased information products from commercial organisations. Since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, a similar trend can be observed in Russia’s political warfare against the West. buff.ly/vrOC2b0

The Kremlin’s New Contractors

Inside Russia’s Market for Political Warfare

shekhovtsov.substack.com

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 16h

"New geopolitical realities have exposed Europe’s effort to build a rules-based world in its own image as contingent on American hard power. If the ideals of democracy and freedom are to endure, Europeans must now focus on protecting their continent". neweasterneurope.eu/2025/10/13/f...

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 1d

For an account of how Russia’s private firms transformed political technology into instruments of state-led political warfare, see my paper “The Kremlin’s New Contractors: Inside Russia’s Market for Political Warfare”, on which this thread is based: shekhovtsov.substack.com/p/the-kremli... 11/11

The Kremlin’s New Contractors

Inside Russia’s Market for Political Warfare

shekhovtsov.substack.com

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 1d

The SDA’s rise coincided with Prigozhin’s downfall and the centralisation of Russian political warfare. As the Wagner Group became the state-controlled Africa Corps, the SDA embodies a new phase: privatised propaganda under Kremlin command. 10/11

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 1d

This integration marks a structural shift from the Prigozhin model. Whereas the IRA retained relative independence, the SDA operates under direct supervision, institutionalising political technology within the Kremlin’s bureaucratic hierarchy. 9/11

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 1d

SDA documents show coordination with senior Kremlin officials, including Alexander Kharichev. These links demonstrate that the SDA functions not as an autonomous contractor but as a semi-integrated arm of the Presidential Administration. 8/11

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 1d

A key figure, Sofia Zakharova, connected the SDA directly to the Russian Presidential Administration. As both SDA project manager and presidential adviser, she ensured that private influence operations were tightly synchronised with state propaganda directives. 7/11

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 1d

EU and UK investigations traced “Operation Doppelganger” to the SDA and its partner, Structura National Technologies. Both firms were sanctioned, as was Gambashidze himself, for coordinating Kremlin-aligned disinformation across Europe. 6/11

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 1d

In 2022, the SDA’s “Operation Doppelganger” cloned European media outlets to spread fake news, anti-Ukrainian narratives, and anti-sanction fear-mongering. Exposed by EU DisinfoLab and Meta, it revealed Russia’s advanced capacity for digital deception. 5/11

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 1d

After 2022, a new generation of political technologists emerged, led by Ilya Gambashidze’s Social Design Agency (SDA). Initially focused on domestic election campaigns, the SDA expanded into foreign propaganda, applying political technology tools to information warfare. 4/11

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 1d

The IRA served both Prigozhin’s and state aims, attacking Russian opposition figures, supporting Assad, and targeting Ukraine. Its hybrid model of influence showed how private actors could profit from and reinforce Kremlin foreign policy agendas. 3/11

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 1d

In Russia, this outsourcing logic found an analogue in the fusion of state propaganda and private enterprise. Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Internet Research Agency (IRA) pioneered commercialised political warfare, blurring lines between business interests and Kremlin objectives. 2/11

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 1d

In Western democracies, intelligence services increasingly buy data and analyses from private firms. These companies provide OSINT reports, satellite imagery, and cybersecurity expertise, allowing governments to boost capabilities without permanently expanding bureaucracies. 1/11

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 2d

Poland is today the third most powerful NATO member in terms of troop numbers. Only the US and Türkiye surpass it, making Poland the strongest NATO force in Europe. I can only hope that, at some point, Poland’s power will be further strengthened by the acquisition of nuclear weapons.

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 4d

The fact that he entwines this alarmist sermon with references to his own birthday only adds an element of unintentional self-parody, reducing the entire spectacle to a vanity performance masquerading as civic warning. 4/4

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 4d

I’d never have encountered this piece of self-aggrandising melodrama – laden with moralistic clichés like “we’re asleep” and “we’ve been fed a lie” – had Durov not abused Telegram’s system for technical notifications to push it directly to users, a channel they cannot disable or moderate. 3/4

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 4d

In the worst tradition of puritanistic wokeness, Durov paints a caricature of “once-free countries” supposedly “introducing dystopian measures” that turn the Internet “into the ultimate tool of control”. 2/4

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 4d

Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, has published a pompous, self-conceited post lamenting what he calls the “end of the free Internet”. 1/4

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 6d

Interesting to see that my conceptualisations of fake election observers survive without references to me :-)

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 8d

Russia may not be the greatest military power in the world, as Putin’s aide Nikolai Patrushev fantasises, but it does not need to be one to reshape the international order to Moscow’s benefit. euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...

Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 9d

Putins Grund für den Ukraine-Krieg: „Es gibt nur einen Weg, mit Verrätern umzugehen“ www.fr.de/politik/ukra...

Putins Grund für den Ukraine-Krieg: „Es gibt nur einen Weg, mit Verrätern umzugehen“

Der Faschismusforscher Anton Shekhovtsov spricht im Interview mit der FR über den Politiker-Typus Putin, seinen Krieg und seine Angst vor der Ukraine.

www.fr.de

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Anton Shekhovtsov @shekhovtsov.substack.com · 10d

Some Russians were born and killed (in Putin’s war) all while he was in power – never knowing any other leader of Russia in their lifetime. But hell, Putin even shared 150 days of life with Stalin: their lives overlapped from 7 October 1952 to 5 March 1953.

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