[palmer]

From the article: Russian domestic affairs were also a major topic. Last year, after a financial crisis hit Russia and the ruble collapsed, the professional trolls left optimistic posts about the pace of recovery.

That seems to be the real purpose. The other operations might be for training and performance review purposes, e.g.

Management was obsessed with statistics — page views, number of posts, a blog’s place on LiveJournal’s traffic charts — and team leaders compelled hard work through a system of bonuses and fines.

[GeronL]

Their trolls sound like our media and this (negative growth) “recovery” they keep talking about