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.

[WhiskeyX]

“What does your question, “Which side have you chosen in the Ukrainian Oligarch’s Civil War??” have to do with the topic of this news article about the Professional Internet Trolls working for Internet Research in St. Petersburg, Russia?

[WhiskeyX]

“That wasn’t to you, it was to the Right Sector fanboy, free_life.”

Your remark is in a public forum. Why don’t you stop your spamming of this thread with off-topic remarks.

“I’m also curious how it will be celebrating the coming soon anniversary of the Odessa Massacre, as well.”

Why don’t you stop your spamming of this thread with off-topic innuendo.

[tcrlaf]

You know, after the last year of this crap with you, that’s actually QUITE HILARIOUS!!!
Thanx, I needed a good laugh today!

[WhiskeyX]

“You know, after the last year of this crap with you, that’s actually QUITE HILARIOUS!!!”
“Thanx, I needed a good laugh today!”

What’s truly peculiar and funny is that I cannot see one word in your above two sentences that has anything whatsoever to do with the topic of this news article about the Professional Internet Trolls working for Internet Research in St. Petersburg, Russia. Cat got your tongue?

[lodi90]

Our local Putinist propagandists are parrots who get some sick fanboy enjoyment out of carrying water for a mass murder. When Putin says it isn’t russian army invading Crimea, they say it isn’t the russian army. Then later when Putin says it was the army Putinist say “we knew all along it was”.

[free_life]

I have chosen the side of freedom from the Russian invaders for the Ukrainian people, unlike you Jane. Go sell your shite somewhere else.

It is just a small handful of Russkie trolls like you buying your bs, or are you trained by your Kremlin handlers to ignore all the people here who detest your soviet ilk?

[free_life]

They probably get dirty pics of Pootie as a bonuses. Gay-pootie love is all the rage in Russia.

[WhiskeyX]

Here is a link to an article last year. See the photograph.

Seeking People in the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency

September 6, 2014

[....]

The Internet Research Agency is supposedly operated by Yevgeny Prigozhin, caterer to the Kremlin, who has been implicated in a number of political disinformation campaigns, cited also here. Kirill Skladovich, is the financial director of the Agency, the project leader was Igor Osadchy,

[....]

References:
Russia’s Online-Comment Propaganda Army by Olga Khazan
INTERNET TROLL OPERATION UNCOVERED IN ST. PETERSBURG by Sergey Chernov
Web brigades on Wikipedia
The Hunt For Vladimir Putin’s Troll Nest by Nomad
On bots and trolls who own them by James Makienko
Documents Show How Russia’s Troll Army Hit America by Max Seddon
PRO-RUSSIA TROLLING: A LUCRATIVE NEW INTERNET JOB OPPORTUNITY By Marina Galperina
Kremlin pays internet trolls to flatter Putin by Ben Hoyle
Leaked Correspondence Shows Agency’s “Trolling” by Sergey Chernov
Russia’s army of paid astroturfers message-bomb western coverage of Ukraine by Cory Doctorow
(Pa)trolling the RuNet by ALEXANDRA GARMAZHAPOVA
The readers’ editor on… pro-Russia trolling below the line on Ukraine stories by Chris Elliot
Inside Russia’s Disinformation Campaign by Daisey Sindelar
Russia’s Hacker Collective That Wasn’t by Kevin Rothrock@kevinrothrock

[PieterCasparzen]

What does that have to do with the topic of this thread is: i.e. the paid Russian Internet Trolls and who they are, what motivates them, what their favorite toothpaste is?

This thread topic is ostensibly about "Professional Russian Trolls".

But when those you constantly label as trolls show up in the thread to discuss the topic, I don't see you making any comments on topic, just immediately ranting about trolling in a quite relentless manner. Does that not make this OP trolling, in that the thread itself is nothing more than an attempt to draw people into the thread simply to harangue them ?

I decided to look it up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29

Excerpt from the article:

"In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[3]"

I'd recommend to lurkers that they read more at that link and those following.

You consistently accuse other FReepers of being Russian trolls. In my case and most others I've seen lumped into this category, it's not trolling but an expression of disagreement with some of our government's policies. While there may have been some comments posted that promoted the Russian government or Putin, I'd be hard pressed to find one. The dissenters here on FR simply don't express much of an opinion one way or the other on the Russian government or Putin himself. I do see some posts on FR where Putin is commented on favorably for some action or words of his regarding Islam and homosexuality, but I have not seen such a post by a dissenter on a thread which was about Ukraine. On the Ukraine threads, dissenters seem to just stick to the subject of Ukraine.

It was interesting that you brought up this idea of government-backed trolling, though, as it brings to mind the nasty spectre of government-backed social engineering. I find this an area of grave concern. Certainly all governments enage in public relations (PR) as well as the modern-day field of Reputation Management, which is a subset of Social Media. Of course what this thread is about, trolling, arguably is the ugly-stepsister of Reputation Management called Astroturfing. The more covert manipulative strategies and tactics in modern Public Relations are very troubling to most people, however, there are literally thousands of consulting firms and professionals on the web who sell social media PR services to businesses, governments, non-profit organizations, etc., and many of them specifically advertise that they can help with content creation and social media engagement for the purposes of reputation management. The links above describe a rather complex ethical situation in this world of public opinion and social media.

We all know how controlling the totalitarian governments we've seen in the East have been. An excerpt from wikipedia from the link Social_engineering_(political_science):

"Extremely intensive social engineering campaigns occurred in countries with authoritarian governments. In the 1920s, the government of the Soviet Union embarked on a campaign to fundamentally alter the behavior and ideals of Soviet citizens, to replace the old social frameworks of Tsarist Russia with a new Soviet culture, to create the New Soviet man. The Soviets used newspapers, books, film, mass relocations, and even architectural design tactics to serve as "social condenser" and change personal values and private relationships. Similar examples are the Chinese "Great Leap Forward" and "Cultural Revolution" program and the Khmer Rouge's plan of deurbanization of Cambodia. In Singapore, the government's housing policies attempt to promote a mix of all races within each subsidized housing district in order to foster social cohesion and national loyalty while providing citizens with affordable housing.[citation needed] In Tanzania in the 1970s, the government pursued a policy of enforced villagisation under Operation Vijiji in order to promote collective farming.[4]"

Just out of curiosity, I did some searching to see if I could find any social engineering in the history of Western governments, and lo and behold, the 1960's came popping up.

I had become of aware a few years ago of the theory that the 1960's "counterculture' was a psyop, but I never really looked around for much detail, and pretty much tossed it aside when I found any.

Just for the lurkers, I found quite an interesting anomaly which sounds like a great starting point for further research: there are relationships between key figures in the 1960's music scene and the American military, intelligence and old establishment families. I found this simply fascinating and looked up a few in wikipedia just to verify parents. Wow - if this is what it looks like, our intelligence services certainly put to shame a little astroturfing in some puny little office building housing a few web trolls. Here's just the start:

U.S. Navy Admiral George Stephen Morrison - commander of US Naval forces in the Gulf of Tonkin - and father of Doors singer Jim Morrison.

Frank Zappa's father: chemical warfare specialist at Edgewood Arsenal, a facility frequently mentioned in MK-ULTRA material. Frank's wife Gail had ties to the Navy as did her family.

John Phillips of Mamas and Papas fame came from a military family and received an appointment to the Naval Academy but left before graduating.

David Crosby - son of Naval Academy graduate military intelligence officer.

The list goes on, the lurker should research for themselves, as this is just a tiny drop in the bucket and there is a lot more fascinating history to the life stories and backgrounds of many central figures of 1960's counter culture. Of course, we can't mention this subject without including Dennis Hopper, whose father was in the OSS in WWII; even though he was an actor (yet another who studied at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio), he was such a central figure in the 1960's. The scene of much of the history is Laurel Canyon, location of the Manson murders and the "Log Cabin" of Zappa.

Again, these few points prove nothing and are simply striking in their coincidental nature - there's certainly not enough space here to discuss, the reader will have to research on their own. All one has to do is search for the terms mentioned in this post.

[PieterCasparzen]

Ping.

I wish I had time to research the 60’s stuff. It would be really good if a lot of hard facts could be compiled. I for one would really appreciate anyone taking the time.

I guess it really was a long strange trip.

[Paid_Russian_Troll]

I am not always agree with your ideas but now you are mostly spot on.

Especially considering so-called ‘propaganda trolling’.

We have several posters here who are raving with an idea of so-called ‘Putinista troll’ presense who themselves are trolls of the highest magnitude, jumping on anyone who aren’t marching in line. Insults, changing topics and talking down certain reasonable arguments are like a sport to them.

None of their opponensts are actually trolls and so-called ‘propaganda’ are mostly articles from mainstream Western media or simply attempts to connect dots over certain story.

I’d say these ‘pro-Western’ posters are at the very least are hypocrites but in reality are trolls themselves, and it is likely that some of them are propaganda trolls who have their agenda.

At the same time I haven’t seen any poster on this board who are a real ‘Putinista’ or ‘kissing Putin’s butt’.

Would any of them allegedly ‘pro-Western’ posters provide any so-called ‘KGB propaganda’ posted by me of other smeared ‘butt-kissing’ Freepers? Would any of them bring any examples of trolling, name calling or ridiculing their ideas which isn’t based on logical arguments? The answer is no. They can’t back their raving and they switch to insults if one asks them to provide some.

In reality the simple expression of disagreement on Obama’s ‘Ostpolitik’ is certainly enough for them to to make one labeled as ‘Putinista troll’.

Are they really ‘pro-Western’ or maybe Obamabots?

[samtheman]

I want what you’re taking. Is it prescription?

[PieterCasparzen]

Do you dispute any particular fact, or just want to poke fun to try to dismiss everything without researching for yourself ?

[Paid_Russian_Troll]

He alludes you are a ‘conspiracy nut’. It means he doesn’t need to bother with facts to dismiss a thing anymore.

[samtheman]

Your post was a multi-dimensional multi-topic wail only tangentally relevant to the orginal article and I was included in the recipients after having said practically nothing on this subject and reading your screed I was struck by the obvious fact that you must have been consumed by some sort of chemically-induced passion. And I’m just wondering what chemical. That’s all.

[Chode]

tip of the ice burg... got the section called

Inside The LC
The Strange but Mostly True Story of Laurel Canyon and the Birth of the Hippie Generation

the guy IS a nut job but his work does make some VERY interesting coincidences appear

http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/index.html

http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/nwsltr93.html

[Alex Murphy]

Much appreciate the ping. This is a fascinating thread!

[butterdezillion]

lol. Yes, you from farm in Boston Massachussetts. lol

[McGruff]

Kind of sounds like

McCarthyism - The practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. It also means “the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism.”

[ExpatGator]

Yes, they are definitely here and they are very busy. Rank propagandists.