Thread: Why do we know so much about the Russian #trollfarm? One reason is that Russian journalists are really good at their jobs. @DFRLab medium.com/dfrlab/the-rus…
On August 30, 2013, this post went up on VK, describing an office in Olgino where Russians were paid to post at least 100 times a day, writing blogs and comment, mainly on politics, praising regime allies and attacking Navalny. archive.is/LvJWL 
In the next two weeks, @SPB_MR7 and @novaya_gazeta both went into the "lair of trolls," posing as job applicants. They found that the Internet Research Agency was registered on July 26, 2013.
Think about that. Within six weeks of the Internet Research Agency being set up, Russian journalists were already exposing it - because it was attacking Russians.
novayagazeta.ru/articles/2013/…
novayagazeta.ru/articles/2013/…
Applicants had to prove their skills, writing posts on Russian politics and attacking the opposition, especially anti-corruption campaigner Alexei @navalny. mr7.ru/articles/90769/
Thanks to @buu3a (and @JessikkaAro), we know that, even at that stage, they were organized into departments: bloggers/commentators, rapid reaction, social media, creative, SEO.
One of the jobs was to criticise the U.S. in Russian, to make it look like life in Russia was better. novayagazeta.ru/articles/2013/…
This was about Russian politics, and protecting the Kremlin after the protests and election fraud of 2011-12. Such as this tasteful post calling Navalny the "Hitler of our time." archive.is/PYzOW
In 2014, the #trollfarm set up at Savushkina 55, St Petersburg. In early 2015, @SPB_MR7 got hold of video from outside and inside the building.
The trolls had a list of American problems to post about: guns, police killings, Obamacare, NSA surveillance. Those were targets that they would keep on posting on right through 2017. mr7.ru/articles/11247…
Thanks to investigator @ludmila_savchuk, who posed as a troll for two months, we know they were still praising the Russian government and attacking the opposition.
We also know they pulled out all the stops when Boris Nemtsov was assassinated, doing all they could to divert blame from the Kremlin.
And we know that they had departments working in English, Ukrainian and German. The operation was going international. spiegel.de/international/…
By this point, too, Russian media were reporting that the man behind the #trollfarm was Yevgeny Prigozhin, a billionaire with government contacts and contracts. Three years before the Mueller indictment.
Hundreds of paid trolls, posting about Russian politics. Headlines in the Russian media. Run by a man with Kremlin contracts. Likelihood that this was done, and continued, without government knowledge? Zero.
How do we know so much about the main accounts the #trollfarm used to target the US? Because @ru_rbc got hold of a list.
Top quote from their story: "Meanwhile, the 'American department' keeps on working, according to current and former trolls." rbc.ru/magazine/2017/…
As if that wasn't enough, it's also thanks to Russian journalists at @kommersant and @lentaruofficial that we know so much about the military philosophy of Kremlin broadcasters RT and Sputnik. Details here: medium.com/dfrlab/questio…
Don't make the mistake of thinking the #trollfarm was about Russia vs America, or Russians vs America. It was, and is, about harassing anyone who criticises the Russian government. And it's thanks to Russian journalists that we know so much. / Thread ends
