Russian web brigades

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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 Russian government.[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-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. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 April 2022. 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. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
  4. ^ Paul Gallagher (27 March 2015). "Revealed: Putin's army of pro-Kremlin bloggers". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 November 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
  5. ^ Daisy Sindelar (12 August 2014). "The Kremlin's Troll Army". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
  6. ^ Olga Khazan (9 October 2013). "Russia's Online-Comment Propaganda Army". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 9 October 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
  7. ^ "Wagner boss Prigozhin confirmed dead in plane crash - Moscow". 27 August 2023. Archived from the original on 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". Archived from the original on 15 November 2016. 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. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. 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).