Russian accused of interfering in US elections, spoke about the 'troll factory'

One of the 13 Russians on the Mueller list accused of interfering in the US elections confessed Bi-bi-si, that he really collaborated with the “troll factory.” At the same time, Sergei Polozov claims that he did not know what she was really doing.

Photo: video screenshot Russian Air Force Service

In February 2018, the US Department of Justice named 13 Russians who, according to investigators, tried to influence the 2016 presidential election through a network of fake accounts on social networks. This list is one of the preliminary ones results of the investigation of Russian interference in the electionsled by US special prosecutor Robert Muller. The US media expects that in the coming days, Muller will present the final version of his report to Congress, which could lead to serious consequences for the administration of Donald Trump.

Number one on the “list of 13” is businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, the alleged sponsor of the Internet Research Agency (IRA), which in Russia is commonly called a “troll factory.” The remaining 12 defendants are programmers, translators and managers who could collaborate with AAI. Some of them are also accused of fraud and illegal use of personal data.

Prigozhin's Concord holding is trying to challenge the position of the special prosecutor in the District of Columbia court; people on the list either do not answer questions from journalists or categorically deny any connection with AII.

A year after the first accusations, the alleged manager of the IT department of the “troll factory”, St. Petersburg programmer Sergei Polozov, nevertheless agreed to give an interview to the BBC via Skype. He said that he actually collaborated with the residents of the business center on the street. Savushkina, 55 in St. Petersburg, but does not believe in the existence of the “factory” - neither at this address, nor in general - despite many personal, documentary and digital evidence to the contrary.

Who is Sergey Polozov?

The US authorities accuse Polozov of having been able to rent American servers from 2014 to 2016 for a year to disguise the traces of the work of the AII.

The disguise was only partially successful. After the elections, the social network Facebook counted 180 thousand regular and 3,3 thousand AII advertising posts on its platforms, and promotion was often paid for in rubles from network addresses associated with the “troll factory.” The Twitter microblogging network has identified 3,8 thousand fake AI accounts that created 8 million posts.

Basically, Russian “trolls” wrote on behalf of citizens of English-speaking countries and spread rumors - for example, about an explosion that allegedly occurred at a chemical plant in Louisiana.

Polozov is also accused of the fact that in 2014, a certain employee of the “troll factory” could report to him during trips to Atlanta.

Closer to the elections, “trolls” really began to go offline: for example, African Americans were offered to sign up for free self-defense courses. Through Facebook, “trolls” organized protests, often pitting opposing political camps against one another: in May 2016, two actions took place simultaneously on the same street in Houston—“for the rights of Muslims in the United States” and “against the Islamization of Texas.” US authorities believe that the purpose of this was to create conflict.

These accusations are made by the 31-year-old general director of the St. Petersburg company “Carrot. “Useful web developments” are rejected, like the rest of those on the “list of 13”.

At the same time, Polozov does not deny that he carried out orders from his classmate Mikhail Burchik, another person involved, whom RBC called the de facto head of the AII.

“Let’s just say I didn’t work for an agency or whatever it’s called,” Polozov explained to the BBC. — I collaborated with them, but this is not work. It’s clear what’s different: work is when you come and work in the office. Cooperation is when you carry out certain orders. We fulfilled orders for various sites and systems. I did not control the servers, did not purchase them and, in principle, have nothing to do with any servers.”

“I live as before, nothing new”

The BBC also contacted some other members of the “list of 13”, accused in the United States of collaborating with the AII.

• Jeyhun Aslanov. According to investigators, the head of the “American department” and the general director of one of the alleged legal entities of the “troll factory.” Joined the organization in 2014. Aslanov told the BBC that his life has not changed after the accusations: “I live as before, nothing new.” Previously, in correspondence with the BBC, he denied that he had anything to do with the “factory”.
• Alexandra Krylova. According to the US authorities, she is the third person in the hierarchy of the AII, she worked in the organization from September 2013 to the end of 2014 (at least). When asked by the BBC how her life changed after the publication of the accusations, Krylova replied: “No way.”
• Gleb Vasilchenko. American authorities accuse him of being responsible for posts on numerous fake accounts from August 2014 to September 2016. It is also alleged that he posed as a US citizen. When asked by the BBC how his life changed after being included in the “list of 13,” Vasilchenko sent a sticker with a happy Shrek to Telegram. When asked if he travels abroad, Vasilchenko sent another sticker - with a surprised Shrek. According to the cartoon script, Shrek is an ogre, a character from Celtic mythology, related to trolls.
• Anna Bogacheva. Alleged translator for the American department of the "factory" from April to July 2014; she wrote to the BBC that she had no comment on her inclusion in the “list of 13”.

The BBC was unable to contact Mikhail Burchik and Maria Bovda, whose names were mentioned in the leak of “Anonymous International” and were included in the “Mueller list”: Burchik did not answer questions, Bovda deleted her page on the social network “VKontakte” after the publication accusations of interference in US elections.

The name Vasilchenko was mentioned in the media even after the list of 13 Russians was published. In the spring of 2018, the social network Facebook blocked a new portion of groups and accounts that, according to its data, were associated with the “troll factory.” Among them was a group from the Moscow Department of Economic Policy. The page could have gotten there because Vasilchenko provided SMM services to the department, RBC wrote.

As for Bogacheva, in St. Petersburg she owns the IT Debugger company, which, as the name suggests, specializes in IT services. Her partner in this business is Mikhail Potepkin, whom The Bell calls Yevgeny Prigozhin’s representative for gold mining in Africa.

Photo: video screenshot Russian Air Force Service

Version of Polozov

Polozov, in an interview with the BBC, insisted that he had nothing to do with attempts to influence American voters.

BBC: What was your collaboration with the so-called AII?

Sergey Polozov: The classic cooperation of an IT company with any contractor: an order arrives, say, to make a website, a business card, a page. We made sites and various process automation systems. Conventionally, these could be telegram bots or something similar. Quite a large pool of tasks aimed at automating, optimizing the work of any business.

BBC: Was any of this in English or with an eye on the USA?

S.P .: No. Neither in English nor with a sight.

BBC: But did you represent, after all, what did this agency do?

PS: Do you imagine what the task of this agency is?

BBC: This is a lot written in the media. In particular, that they created fake accounts in social networks and through them tried to influence public opinion.

S.P.: In my head, this is a certain pool of organizations that do something. And it’s not a fact that they do it in the same plane, in the same vector. Neither at the level of technical specifications, nor at the level of communication with [agency] representatives, there was any understanding that this was a single structure at all.

For me, this is more likely a fake and an inflated story than a real company that can do what they write - create fake accounts. I think many of us have a couple of fake accounts on social networks...

BBC: So you believe what they write about the agency in the media?

PS: Rather, I do not believe. It seems to me that if such an organization existed, it would be quite difficult to hide it. More would be official sources. But even if something exists, I have no [to this] contraindications. If it existed, it would be patriots who do something for their country.

I am a fairly active patriot, I love Russia, and I like the vector along which we are moving. Even taking into account the fact that I don’t believe it, I still want to believe that it [the existence of a “troll factory”] is possible, that there are people who broadcast positivity rather than negativity. It's cool.

BBC: How did you feel when you found your name on Special Counsel Mueller's "list of 13"?

S.P.: Surprise. Not anger, but angry, because at first I took it for an accident, but as the story developed, I realized that, in general, it was not an accident - yes, I am on these lists.

I felt the inconsistency of American justice and, in principle, the authorities that put forward these lists. I don’t understand why, for what. And in general, everything that has been written sounds pretty crazy.

I can not go abroad. For obvious reasons. Formally, no one forbids me, but informally, I would not go there, because they can take me there, arrest me. A little upset, because I used to go somewhere, I rested somewhere.

Russia is a huge, rich country. All my life I dreamed of going to Baikal. In fact, as one of the incentives to go somewhere in Russia.

BBC: Have you communicated with any of the other people on the “list of 13”?

S.P.: Of course, I don’t remember all the names now. I collaborated with Burchik. With the rest, probably not. Even now I can’t remember the names. Maybe I saw someone - in principle, I still entered the building, and so on and so forth. But personally, I can’t [remember] the last name.

BBC: What kind of building is it?

PS: Well, usually it was something close to the Black River or somewhere in the area. That is, they met just in a cafe or in my office.

BBC: Is the building on Savushkina, 55 familiar to you?

S. P .: Familiar, I have been there. But I would say so: it was not a single organization. For me, it's just a business center where a lot of people do some work. Just some companies. When you go out, there are people in the smoking room, and they never add up, roughly speaking.

BBC: If Russia tried to influence the elections in the United States, is it good or bad?

PS: Any country is trying to intervene in election campaigns in other countries. These are just political games. They are not positive and not negative. This is how the world works. The methods that this country uses can be positive or negative.

BBC: If special prosecutor Mueller himself, the culprit of your troubles with travel, invited you to appear in court - also via Skype, remotely, would you agree?

PS: I think not. The position is quite simple: a person first blames, then asks for something. For me, he is a fool. I do not like to work or communicate with stupid people. In addition, it would be some kind of props, my formal participation: I have no influence on anything, my face, my voice is necessary for me to say something.

BBC: How do you generally feel about what is happening in the US with these accusations?

S.P.: How I feel about it is quite funny. On the other hand, if I actually did it, I would think I was cool because 13 people influenced the outcome of the US election - this is a historical event. So I rather laugh.

What is wrong with the position of Polozov?

Polozov’s name was mentioned in the same context as the “factory” before, the BBC Russian Service discovered.

In 2014, the hacker group Anonymous International published the contents of the mailboxes of several alleged AIA employees. The letters flashed the names of future participants in the “list of 13”: Prigozhin, Burchik, Anna Bogacheva, Alexandra Krylova and Maria Bovda.

The leak also included correspondence with Polozov - he confirmed its authenticity to the BBC. “If someone wants to rummage through someone else’s underwear, let them rummage,” he added.

It followed from the letters that Polozov was trying to solve the problem of automatically commenting on posts on LiveJournal using the “reverse shingle algorithm” (the original version of this algorithm is used to search for plagiarism in texts).

Twitter used a similar technology: the voices of live “trolls” were amplified by tens of thousands of automated bots.

Polozov also worked on the AIA corporate website, which did not last long at iagent.spb.ru. “We offer creative, innovative and effective solutions that delight the eye, ear of Van Gogh and your clients,” the website said.

Finally, he sent resumes to the prospective staff of the Institute with resumes of various specialists from recruiting sites.

According to commercial registers, Polozov’s company annually sells services worth about 900 thousand rubles, while its profits are minimal: the record is 78 thousand rubles in 2017. The Carrot website is currently not working; the company’s last post on the VKontakte social network dates back to May 2015.

Фото: Depositphotos

Dangerous games

The activities of the “factory” are not limited to political trolling—neither in the USA nor in Russia.

In the United States, “trolls” tweeted about vaccines 22 times more often than ordinary users, and in half the cases they opposed them, George Washington University found. Massive refusal of vaccines leads to an increase in morbidity and mortality from infections.

Polozov does not believe in the dissemination of such appeals.

“So-so story,” he says. — There are many things for which I do not work with clients. This may be related to the moral and ethical aspects of their business. I probably had the only client who was politicized. If something caught my attention, if my client’s work went against my worldview, then, of course, I would not work with such a client.”

In June 2016, the BBC and the St. Petersburg publication Fontanka independently established that the “troll factory” may be involved in the creation of an anonymous website for denunciations - already in Russian. At least four people from the site’s “black list” were seriously beaten, and five had their cars set on fire.

In addition, through social networks they tried to find out the personal information of their colleague Denis Korotkov, who wrote about Yevgeny Prigozhin, from Fontanka journalists. The network address from which the denunciation site was operated and from which they were interested in Korotkov was rented by the “factory” office at 55 Savushkina.

Polozov is against it in absentia. “Burning a car is disgusting, it’s wrong, it’s ugly,” he continues. “I can’t say whether I believe or don’t believe that the agency is doing this, but most likely not. For me, rather, the agency as such does not exist, so it’s quite strange.”

“In any case, the person who did this must be punished. This is a bad person. This is crap, you can’t do that.”

BBC: And yet, having heard these stories, are you sure that patriots are working in the agency, broadcasting positive?

PS: I replied that the agency does not exist. If it existed, it would be cool for me to believe that the patriots work there.

If you say that the agency exists and it does these things, then my attitude towards the agency is bad. But I do not believe in the existence of the agency.

If we take a person with whom I worked, who gave me some tasks - no, I don’t believe that he is involved in this, because when working with a client, I immerse myself quite deeply in him and understand the person. Mikhail [Burchik] did not distrust me.

The Troll Factory exists

As a legal entity, the Internet Research Agency operated in St. Petersburg in 2013-2016. On his behalf, vacancies for the position of “Internet operator” were published on the Internet, similar in description to what the American authorities charge to Russians from the “List of 13”. Some vacancies required knowledge of English.

At least 10 former employees of the agency at various times spoke about their experiences in the media, five gave their real names, two - Lyudmila Savchuk and Olga Maltseva - shared working materials from the “factory” with journalists. They described the agency as a single organization, in which, however, there were no horizontal connections between departments.

Over time, vacancies for “Internet operators” began to be published on behalf of other legal entities - “Internet Research”, “Glavset”, “Azimuth”. Mueller's indictments include five different names for this organization.

Personal evidence of the existence of the “troll factory” is not limited to the stories of former employees. Several undercover journalists managed to train at the “factory”; In addition, in November 2018, PR specialist Andrei Mikhailov told Novaya Gazeta that the idea of ​​the “factory” belonged directly to “Putin’s chef” Prigozhin, who instructed him to rent the building and hire employees there. Mikhailov was also involved in organizing provocations against the media and oppositionists.

Digital traces are further proof of the existence of the “factory”. Its employees uploaded dozens of photos of their work process to Instagram, forgetting to remove metadata from them (hidden characteristics with geolocation): in 2015, this allowed The New Times to establish that several video blogs about computer games and pop culture were filmed on Savushkina, 55 Unnatural activity on social networks is monitored by public projects such as MetaBot and Dislikemeter.

Officially, it is not only American justice that speaks about the “factory”. In 2015, activist Lyudmila Savchuk sued Internet Research LLC for 70 thousand rubles - unpaid wages for the 1,5 months that she worked there undercover. At the trial, Savchuk said that her job responsibilities included commenting on posts and blogging on behalf of various fictional characters. The “factory’s” lawyers did not object to such a description, which means that its existence can be considered proven in a Russian court.

Recall that in February 26 information about the special operation of the American cyber command, aimed at blocking the work of the “troll factory”, was made public. On the day of the mid-term elections 6 in November 2018, the authorities have taken a cyber attack on the organization, leaving it without access to the Internet.

Time Magazine also suggested that Russian Internet trolls seem to be changing their strategy. Attempts to influence US presidential elections in 2020. According to cybersecurity experts, now the trolls have focused on warming up political differences through fake social media accounts instead of creating propaganda themselves and thus causing controversy.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Facebook has blocked Russia Today’s English-language projects due to ties with Russia

The Times: Russian trolls are being manipulated by British teenagers

How Russia's 'troll factory' promotes free arms sales to the United States

The Senate has published a report on Russia's intervention in US elections: key findings

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