Russian Troll Farm Backed By Putin "Chef" Trots Out Anti-Ukraine Tales

Experts say a recent wave of pro-Putin disinformation in social media, primarily through Twitter and the Russian messaging service Telegram, is consistent with the work of Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA), a network of paid trolls that tried to influence the 2016 US presidential election, Craig Silverman and Jeff Kao reported for the non-profit Pro-Publica.

Photo Insert: The Internet Research Agency, or what is dubbed as Russia's "troll factory"

The Twitter profiles are part of a pro-Putin network of dozens of accounts spread across Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram whose behavior, content, and coordination are consistent with Russian troll factory IRA, according to Darren Linvill, a Clemson University professor who, along with another professor, Patrick Warren, has spent years studying IRA accounts.

The IRA was at the center of a 2018 Department of Justice criminal indictment for its effort to interfere with US elections.

“These accounts express every indicator that we have to suggest they originate with the IRA,” Linvill said. “And if they aren’t the IRA, that’s worse, because I don’t know who’s doing it.”

An analysis of the accounts’ activity by the Clemson Media Forensics Hub and ProPublica found they posted at defined times consistent with the IRA workday, were created in the same time frame, and posted similar or identical text, photos, and videos across accounts and platforms.

Posts from Twitter accounts in the network dropped off on weekends and Russian holidays, suggesting the posters had regular work schedules. Many of the accounts also shared content from facktoria.com, a satirical Russian website that began publishing in February.

The pro-Putin network included roughly 60 Twitter accounts, over 100 on TikTok, and at least seven on Instagram, according to the analysis and removals by the platforms.

Linvill and Warren said the Twitter accounts share strong connections with a set of hundreds of accounts they identified a year ago as likely being run by the IRA. Twitter removed nearly all of those accounts. It did not attribute them to the IRA.

IRA is a private company owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian entrepreneur known as “Putin’s Chef.” Prigozhin is linked to a sprawling empire ranging from catering services to the military mercenary company Wagner Group, which was reportedly tasked with assassinating President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The IRA was launched in St. Petersburg in 2013 by hiring young internet-savvy people to post on blogs, discussion forums, and social media to promote Putin’s agenda to a domestic audience.

The troll farm is also suspected of manufacturing “fake” Ukrainian media reports and blaming Kyiv for malicious reports on grievous Russian battle losses and bombing of houses, hospitals, schools, churches, and mosques.

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