Trolls from Olgino

"Trolls from Olgino" is an internet slang term which appeared in late 2014, referring to a series of fake accounts registered on major discussion boards (social networks, online newspaper sites, video hosting services, etc.) that were used for promoting the Russian point of view in topics involving Ukraine and the Middle East. Stemming from an international article, published in December 2014, the term gained worldwide media attention by June 2015, when one of the offices of a Russian company named "Internet Research Agency", based in Saint Petersburg, was exposed with data from fake accounts used for internet trolling. Subsequently, there were news reports of individuals receiving monetary compensation for performing these tasks.

Origin

The group's office in Olgino, historical district of Saint Petersburg, was exposed by Russian journalists in 2013. "Trolls from Olgino" and "Olgino's trolls" have become general concepts defining trolls, who spread pro-Russian propaganda, not only from the office in Olgino.

Organizers

Strategic

Russian newspaper Vedomosti links the approved by Russian authorities strategy of public consciousness manipulation through new media to Vyacheslav Volodin, first deputy of the Vladimir Putin Presidential Administration of Russia.

Tactical

According to journalists’ investigations, the office in Olgino was named as Internet Researches Agency Ltd. (Russian: ООО «Агентство интернет-исследований»). The company was founded in the summer of 2013.

Journalists also point out that Alexey Soskovets, who had participated in Russian youth political community, was directly connected to the office in Olgino. His company "North-Western Service Agency" won 17 or 18 (according to different sources) contracts for organizing celebrations, forums and sport competitions for authorities of Saint Petersburg. The agency was the only participant in half of those bids. In the summer of 2013 the agency won a tender for providing freight services for participants of "Seliger" camp.

In 2014, according to Russian media information, Internet Researches Ltd. (Russian: ООО «Интернет исследования»), founded in March 2014, joined the agency's activity. Journalists of Novaya Gazeta newspaper claim this company to be a successor of Internet Researches Agency Ltd. Internet Researches Ltd. is considered to be linked to Yevgeniy Prigozhin, head of "Concord" holding. "Trolls of Olgino" from Saint Petersburg are considered to be his project. As of October 2014, the company belonged to Mikhail Bystrov, who had been the head of the police station at Moscow district of Saint Petersburg.

Russian media point out that according to documents, published by hackers from Anonymous International, Concord is directly involved with trolling administration through the agency. Researchers cite e-mail correspondence, in which Concord gives instructions to trolls and receives reports on accomplished work back. According to journalists' information, this holding organized banquets in Kremlin and also cooperated with Voentorg and Russian Ministry of Defence.

Despite links to Alexei Soskovets, Nadejda Orlova, deputy head of the committee for youth policy in Saint Petersburg, disclaimed connection between her institution and the trolling offices.

Finnish journalist Jessica Arno, who extensively reported on the pro-Russian trolling activities in Finland, was in response targeted by an organized campaign of hate, disinformation and harassment.

Offices

In Saint Petersburg

In Olgino

As reported by Novaya Gazeta' newspaper, in the end of August 2013, the following message appeared in social networks: "Internet operators wanted! Job at chic office in Olgino!!! (st. Staraya Derevnia), salary 25960 per month. Task: posting comments at profile sites in the Internet, writing thematic posts, blogs, social networks. Reports via screenshots. Individual schedule <...> Payment every week, 1180 per shift (from 8.00 to 16.00, from 10.30 to 18.30, from 14.00 to 22.00). PAYMENTS EVERY WEEK AND FREE MEALS!!! Official job placement or according to contract (at will). Tuition possible."

As reported by media and former employees, the office in Olgino had existed and been functioning since September 2013. It was situated in a white cottage, 15 minutes by an underground railway from "Staraya Derevnia" station, opposite "Olgino" railway station. Workplaces for troll-employees were placed in basement rooms.

Savushkina Street

According to Russian online newspaper DP.Ru, several months before October 2014 the office moved from Olgino to a four story building at 55 Savushkina Street. As reported by journalists, the building is officially an object of uncompleted construction and stays as such as of March 2015.

A New York Times investigative reporter was told that the "Internet Research Agency" had shortened its name to "Internet Research", and as of June 2015, had been asked to leave the 55 Savushkina Street location "a couple of months ago", because "it was giving the entire building a bad reputation." A possibly related organization, “FAN,” or Federal News Agency, was located in the building. The NYT article describes various experiences reported by former employees of the Internet Research Agency at the Savushkina Street location. It also describes several disruptive hoaxes in the US and Europe, such as the Columbian Chemicals Plant explosion hoax, that may be attributable to the Internet Research Agency or similar Russian-based organizations.

In other cities

Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported that, according to Alexey Soskovets, head of the office in Olgino, North-Western service agency was hiring employees for similar projects in Moscow and other cities in 2013.

Work organization

Highest level

Russian online newspaper "Fontanka.ru" analyzed documents, published by hackers in May 2014. According to journalists, it appears that under the same leadership the specific plan or scheme was designed for Internet agencies with hundreds of paid bloggers and commenters as well as several media in Russia and Ukraine in addition with some low key ("pocket") social organizations. The monthly budget of such scheme is 33.5 million Russian rubles, 17 million of which are in cash.

Low level

According to the data of "Moy rayon" newspaper, during existence of the office in Olgino approximately 300 troll-employees were working in it. Investigative journalists found out that at that time their daily quota was 100 comments.

According to the publication BuzzFeed which refer to the public documents, in June 2014 600 people were generally employed in the trolls' office. According to the employees of "Internet investigations" Ltd., which were published in the media in October 2014, at the office on the Savushkina Street employed about 250 people. In March 2015, 400 employees reportedly worked there. Trolls take shifts writing mainly in blogs of LiveJournal and Vkontakte, along the propaganda lines assigned. Among the employees are artists who draw political cartoons. They are working for 12 hours every other two days. Bloggers' quota is ten posts per shift, at least 750 characters each. A commenter's norm is 126 comments and two posts per account. Each blogger is in charge of three accounts.

Employee at office in Olgino earned 25,000 Russian rubles per month; those at the office in Savushkina Street — approximately 40 thousand Russian rubles. In May 2014, Russian online newspaper "Fontanka.ru" described schemes for plundering the budget, intended for trolling organization.

Trolling themes

According to the testimonies of the investigative journalists and former employees of the offices, main themes for posts and comments were:

• criticism of Alexei Navalny, his sponsors, and Russian opposition in general;
• criticism of Ukraine's and the United States' foreign policies, and the top politicians of these states;
• praise for policy of the Russian Federation and Vladimir Putin.

Journalists point out that themes of trolling were consistent with those of Russian propaganda in topics and timing. Technical tasks for trolls are taken mainly from Russia Today channel content.

In 2015 BBC investigation identified the Olgino factory as most likely producer of a "Saiga 410K review" video where an actor posing as US soldier shoots at a book that eventually comes up to be Quran. The video that sparked outrage in September 2015. BBC journalists found clues that the video is fake (camouflage and helmet are not used by US army, and sold in in Russia) and the actor filmed was actually a barman from Sankt Petersburg related to the troll factory employee.

Bellingcat has identified the team from Olgino as real authors of a video attributed to the Azov Battalion in which masked soldiers threaten Netherlands for organizing the referendum on Ukraine's membership in EU.

Organized anti-Ukrainian campaign

See also: Media portrayal of the Ukrainian crisis

According to the American Internet news media BuzzFeed, in the beginning of April 2014 there began an organized online campaign for the formation of public opinion in the Western world that would be useful for Russian authorities regarding the Russian military intervention in Ukraine in 2014. Such conclusions were drawn by journalists based on the documents they came into possession of. The media further informs, that the documents contain instructions for commenters at Fox News, The Huffington Post, TheBlaze, Politico and WorldNetDaily sites. The requirement for the working hours for the trolls is also mentioned - 50 comments under news articles per day. Each blogger has to manage six accounts on Facebook, post at least three posts every day, and also participate twice in the group discussions. Other employees have to manage 10 accounts on Twitter, publishing 50 tweets every day. Based on analysis of the documents, journalists made a conclusion that Igor Osadchiy is a probable leader of the project, and the campaign itself is performed by "Internet researches agency," Ltd. Osadchiy denies his connection to the agency.

The company is also one of the main sponsors of an anti-Western exhibition Material Evidence.

In the beginning of 2016 state-owned agency Ukrinform claimed to expose the system of bots in social networks, which called for violence against Ukrainian government and calls for starting "The Third Maidan". According to the agency the organizer of this system is the former anti-Ukrainian combatant Sergiy Zhuk from Donbass. He allegedly performed his internet activity from Vnukovo District, Moscow.

Reactions

In March 2014, the Polish version of Newsweek expressed suspicion that Russia was employing people to "bombard" its website with pro-Russian comments on Ukraine-related articles. Poland's governmental computer emergency response team later confirmed that pro-Russia commentary had "flooded" Polish internet portals at the start of the Ukrainian crisis. In May 2014, The Guardian noted a large number of pro-Kremlin comments on news articles relating to Ukraine, which the newspaper believed was an "orchestrated pro-Kremlin campaign". Süddeutsche Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Der Spiegel, and Reuters reported that German-language media websites had been "flooded" with pro-Russia comments since March 2014.

In late May 2014, a hacker group from "Anonymous international" began publishing an array of documents, received from hacked emails of "Internet researches agency" managers.

In May–June 2014, newspapers The Washington Post and The Guardian informed on invasion of Internet-trolls, who massively posted pro-Russian messages in broken English in comments at news media sites. The Guardian even faced issues on comments moderation for that cause.

In March 2015 a service allowing to censor sources of anti-Ukrainian propaganda in social networks inside Ukraine was launched.

Assessments

According to the opinions of the Russian bloggers Anton Nosik, Rustem Adagamov, and Dmitriy Aleshkovskiy, paid Internet-trolls don't change public opinion. Their usage is just a way to steal budget money.

Leonid Volkov, a politician working for Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, suggests that the point of sponsoring paid Internet trolling is to make the Internet so distasteful that ordinary people are not willing to participate.

In June 2015, The New York Times Magazine published an extensive article by Adrian Chen, claiming that the Columbian Chemicals Plant explosion hoax in September 11, 2014, was the work of the Internet Research Agency, one of the trolling organizations linked to the Russian Government.

Additional activities of organizers

Russian media, basing on the documents, published by hackers of "Anonymous international", point "Concord" holding to be linked to the funding of several media in Ukraine and Russia, particularly: "Kharkiv news agency", "News of Neva", "Newspaper about newspapers", "Business dialog", "Journalist truth".

Lawsuit

In May 2015, a trolling company employee Lyudmila Savchuk in Saint-Petersburg sued her employer for labor violations., sought to disclose its activities. Ivan Pavlov from human rights defending initiative Team 29 represented Ms. Savchuk, and the defendant "troll-factory" agreed to pay Savchuk her withheld salaries and to restore her labor rights.

See also

• Jewish Internet Defense Force
• Information security
• Vatnik (slang)
• Astroturfing
• Web brigades

Sources

• Все о троллях. Тролли - кто они? (Russian). trolli.org.
• В Сети действительно работает банда кремлевских троллей. Имена, адреса, документы (Russian). UAINFO. 31.05.2014.

External links

• Putin's Trolls. Stop Fake.