Investigation: Ilya Gambashidze - accused of managing a Kremlin disinformation campaign by the US government.
According to the U.S. government, Russian political consultant Ilya Gambashidze is responsible for a large-scale disinformation campaign aimed at undermining trust in democratic processes and institutions both in the U.S. and abroad. Collaborating with Kremlin representatives, his digital marketing agency creates fake news websites—sometimes cloning real news outlets to mislead people, the government claims.
More often than not, the goal seems to be to reduce Western support for Ukraine. In March 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department, following the European Union's lead, imposed sanctions on Gambashidze, his business partner and their companies. This brought more attention to a little-known political strategist who had previously worked for Russian lawmakers and regional politicians.
For the most part, his biography has remained little known. Now, in a new investigation based on the analysis of Russian state databases, business documents in Russia and Europe, as well as social media posts, Voice of America can reveal more information about Gambashidze's journey from consultant to alleged intentional master of disinformation and his connections to the United States.
Connections with the USA
From 2013 to 2020, companies fully or partially owned by Gambashidze or a close family member received contracts worth about $2.7 million from the Russian government. And these were not the only companies of the political strategist. Although Gambashidze's work seems aimed at destabilizing the socio-political situation in America, his two sons live in the United States.
According to VOA, revealed through a thorough search of open information and social media, Gambashidze's ex-wife, who has been living in the US for about 15 years, confirmed this information.
Sanctions and their effects
Gambashidze's ex-wife and her current husband say that the economic sanctions against the "telemaster" have mostly affected his children, as they have made it impossible to receive alimony from Gambashidze.
“In our opinion, the only thing these sanctions do is undermine the standard of living for his children, which is very modest,” said their stepfather. “They just attend a public school, a community college.”
Biography and career
Although it is difficult to recreate a complete biography of Gambashidze from open sources, a general picture emerges. Gambashidze was born in Kyiv in 1977, according to information from the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which is responsible for enforcing U.S. sanctions, as well as business documents seen by Voice of America.
In 2008, he defended his dissertation on a sociological topic at the Russian State University for the Humanities. The title of his research was: "Peculiarities of local self-government development in the Russian Federation in the context of party system transformation". A year later, Gambashidze was working as an assistant to the prefect of Moscow's Northern District when he became the victim of a bizarre kidnapping attempt.
His ex-wife and children have apparently been living in the United States since then. Gambashidze stayed in Russia, where he worked as an advisor to Pyotr Tolstoy, the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma and a great-great-grandson of the famous writer Leo Tolstoy. According to media reports, Gambashidze also worked for Batu Khasikov, the acting governor of Kalmykia, a traditionally Buddhist region in the North Caucasus of Russia.
Disinformation campaign
Since 2022, social media companies, researchers, Western governments, and journalists have increasingly linked the two Gambashidze companies to a project aimed at spreading disinformation in Ukraine, Europe, Latin America, and the United States.
Meta announced that it has removed over 2,300 accounts and pages on Facebook and Instagram for "coordinated inauthentic behavior." The accounts were spreading content from websites posing as legitimate media and government pages.
European officials later named the campaign "Doppelganger." Meta linked the campaign to two Russian firms: the marketing company Social Design Agency, or SDA, and the IT firm Structura, which together spent about $105,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads. According to the Finance Ministry, SDA was founded by Gambashidze.
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