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CousinIT

(9,244 posts) Wed Oct 18, 2017, 09:15 AM Oct 2017

Exclusive: Putin's 'chef,' the man behind the troll factory

(CNN)Yevgeny Prigozhin is a Russian oligarch dubbed "chef" to President Vladimir Putin by the Russian press. In 2002, he served caviar and truffles to President George W. Bush during a summit in St. Petersburg. Before that, he renovated a boat that became the city's most exclusive restaurant.

But his business empire has expanded far beyond the kitchen. US investigators believe it was Prigozhin's company that financed a Russian "troll factory" that used social media to spread fake news during the 2016 US presidential campaign, according to multiple officials briefed on the investigation. One part of the factory had a particularly intriguing name and mission: a "Department of Provocations" dedicated to sowing fake news and social divisions in the West, according to internal company documents obtained by CNN.

Prigozhin is one of the Kremlin's inner circle. His company is believed to be a main backer of the St. Petersburg-based "Internet Research Agency" (IRA), a secretive technology firm, according to US officials and the documents reviewed by CNN. Prigozhin was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in December of 2016 for providing financial support for Russia's military occupation of Ukraine. Two of his companies, including his catering business, were also sanctioned by Treasury this year.

CNN has examined scores of documents leaked from Prigozhin's companies that show further evidence of his links to the troll factory.

One contract provided IRA with ways to monitor social media and a "system of automized promotion in search engines."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/17/politics/russian-oligarch-putin-chef-troll-factory/index.html

RELATED to the Russia investigation: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029722941

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Exclusive: Putin's 'chef,' the man behind the troll factory (Original Post) CousinIT Oct 2017 OP

Russian journalists publish massive investigation into St. Petersburg troll factory's U.S. operation CousinIT Oct 2017 #1

CousinIT

(9,244 posts)

1. Russian journalists publish massive investigation into St. Petersburg troll factory's U.S. operation

Reply to CousinIT (Original post)

Wed Oct 18, 2017, 09:30 AM

Oct 2017

A couple quick findings from @ru_rbc's bombshell report on Russian social media operations during the US election:

https://meduza.io/en/news/2017/10/17/russian-journalists-publish-massive-investigation-into-st-petersburg-troll-factory-s-u-s-operations

1. The social media accounts run by Russia's troll factory reached some 30 million people each week during the height of the 2016 campaign:

2. About 100 unwitting Americans were paid to help stage some 40 events across the U.S., organized by these Russian social media accounts:

The main topics targeted by these Russian social media accounts included racial animosity (see: https://thinkprogress.org/russia-facebook-divisive-culture-96b2d568b916/ )

and

https://thinkprogress.org/black-matters-us-site-90625b18f262/

and Texas secession:

https://thinkprogress.org/armed-white-supremacist-protest-organized-by-russians-d730f83ca275/

4. One of the fake Russian accounts the @ru_rbc investigation ( http://www.rbc.ru/technology_and_media/17/10/2017/59e0c17d9a79470e05a9e6c1 ) <<-- (WARNING, THIS IS A RUSSIAN SITE!)

focuses on Black Lives matter https://thinkprogress.org/black-matters-us-site-90625b18f262/

5. One of the fake Russian accounts saw its tweets work their way into stories from Yahoo, Al Jazeera, Business Insider, BBC:

6. Many of the largest fake Russian accounts have been identified so far, but @ru_rbc has identified a few more - these are the accounts focused on race:

7. Among the largest fake Russian accounts focused on politics, the "Army of Jesus" and "South United" accounts hadn't been previously reported:

8. Fake Russian social media accounts even targeted Native Americans:

9. And while it hasn't gotten much attention thus far, Instagram (in red) was just as abused as Facebook and Twitter by these fake Russian accounts:

10. The most popular Twitter account identified as Russian by the RBK investigation was @TEN_GOP, which had previously made its way into The Daily Beast, HuffPo, Fox News, Vocativ, etc.