Russian web brigades

Russian web brigades,[a] also called Russian trolls, Russian bots, Kremlinbots, or Kremlin trolls are state-sponsored anonymous Internet political commentators and trolls linked to the Government of Russia.[1][2] Participants report that they are organized into teams and groups of commentators that participate in Russian and international political blogs and Internet forums using sockpuppets, social bots, and large-scale orchestrated trolling and disinformation campaigns to promote pro-Vladimir Putin and pro-Russian propaganda.[1][3][4][5][6]

Kremlin trolls are closely tied to the Internet Research Agency, a Saint Petersburg-based company run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was a close ally to Putin and head of the mercenary Wagner Group, known for committing war crimes before his death in 2023.[7] Articles on the Russian Wikipedia concerning the MH17 crash and the Russo-Ukrainian War were targeted by Russian internet propaganda outlets.[1][8][9][10] In June 2019, a group of 12 editors introducing coordinated pro-government and anti-opposition bias was blocked on the Russian-language Wikipedia.[11] During the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kremlin trolls were still active on many social platforms and were spreading disinformation related to the war events.[12]


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  1. ^ a b c Stukal, Denis; Sanovich, Sergey; Bonneau, Richard; Tucker, Joshua A. (February 2022). "Why Botter: How Pro-Government Bots Fight Opposition in Russia" (PDF). American Political Science Review. 116 (1). Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association: 843–857. doi:10.1017/S0003055421001507. ISSN 1537-5943. LCCN 08009025. OCLC 805068983. S2CID 247038589. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  2. ^ Sultan, Oz (Spring 2019). "Tackling Disinformation, Online Terrorism, and Cyber Risks into the 2020s". The Cyber Defense Review. 4 (1). West Point, New York: Army Cyber Institute: 43–60. ISSN 2474-2120. JSTOR 26623066.
  3. ^ Shaun Walker (2 April 2015). "Salutin' Putin: inside a Russian troll house". the Guardian.
  4. ^ Paul Gallagher (27 March 2015). "Revealed: Putin's army of pro-Kremlin bloggers". The Independent.
  5. ^ Daisy Sindelar (12 August 2014). "The Kremlin's Troll Army". The Atlantic.
  6. ^ Olga Khazan (9 October 2013). "Russia's Online-Comment Propaganda Army". The Atlantic.
  7. ^ "Wagner boss Prigozhin confirmed dead in plane crash - Moscow". 27 August 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  8. ^ Sorokanich, Robert (18 July 2014). "A Tweetbot Caught the Russian Gov't Editing Flight MH17 Wikipedia Info". Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  9. ^ Dewey, Caitlin (21 July 2014). "Flight MH17's Wikipedia page edited by Russian government; An IP address associated with Vladimir Putin's office has made multiple edits to the Wikipedia page for the MH17 flight page". Toronto Star. The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  10. ^ Zeveleva, Olga (6 August 2014). "Knowledge is power: why is the Russian government editing Wikipedia?". The Calvert Journal. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference meduza was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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