One Professional Russian Troll Tells All

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) ^ | March 25, 2015 | Dmitry Volchek and Daisy Sindelar

[WhiskeyX]

More and more, posts and commentaries on the Internet in Russia and even abroad are generated by professional trolls, many of whom receive a higher-than-average salary for perpetuating a pro-Kremlin dialogue online.

There are thousands of fake accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and vKontakte, all increasingly focused on the war in Ukraine. Many emanate from Russia's most famous "troll factory," the Internet Research center, an unassuming building on St. Petersburg's Savushkina Street, which runs on a 24-hour cycle. In recent weeks, former employees have come forward to talk to RFE/RL about life inside the factory, where hundreds of people work grinding, 12-hour shifts in exchange for 40,000 rubles ($700) a month or more.

St. Petersburg blogger Marat Burkhard spent two months working at Internet Research in the department tasked with clogging the forums on Russia's municipal websites with pro-Kremlin comments. In the following interview, he describes a typical day and the type of assignments he encountered.

[BenLurkin]

ping

[05 Mustang GT Rocks]

There are a few of them also here. I expect them to show up any second now.

[jimmygrace]

Thanks for coming forward and may the angels watch your back.

[mac_truck]

How much do you get paid to peddle the US State Dept. version of events?

[05 Mustang GT Rocks]

Ha, ha, it took all of 15 minutes and the first one showed up as post number 6.

[free_life]

They are among us!

[SoCal Pubbie]

Yes, both those agencies aren’t pretending to be unbiased private citizens not in the employ of Vladimir Putin.

[lormand]

We have one here at Freerepublic. His/her name is "Paid_Russian_Troll"

The account is allowed to fester here, and is only used to post pro-KGB propaganda.

[free_life]

Ah over here in the US of A we speak well of our country for free, Ivan Fonda.

[PieterCasparzen]

I'm the one in the picture Sam.

[PieterCasparzen]

Yes, both those agencies aren’t pretending to be unbiased private citizens not in the employ of Vladimir Putin.

Right, they're pretending to work for the "American people" instead of admitting they're really working on globalist agendas.

[justlurking]

Ha, ha, it took all of 15 minutes and the first one showed up as post number 6.

That's interesting: his join date is in 2001. So, either he has been doing this a long time, or a sympathetic hacker provided a username/password for an inactive account.

Or, he is just joking. But, his recent posting history makes that unlikely.

[Paid_Russian_Troll]

Thanks for a tip, guys! Don’t you have their contacts to send my resume? On the other hand it doesn’t look like a good idea to work 12 hours a day for $700 a month. God bless you and thank you for caring anyway!

[Vendome]

LOL

Was just going to ping as well...

[RedStateRocker]

Fascinating.
Thanks!

[Grzegorz 246]

“Work begins after an initial post, written by a troll in a different department, is published on the LiveJournal social-networking site under the username flcrbgrjn. The post argues that foreign mercenaries are fighting on the side of Ukrainian soldiers and links to a video that purports to show two American soldiers in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.”

LOL ! Isn't it the same stuff FRussian scum was spreading around here several weeks ago ?

[tcrlaf]

Does he work for SEIU/Obama-for-America in the off-season???

[mac_truck]

Hey douche bag, I’ll put my American pedigree up against yours any day of the week.