Thank you to everyone who joined Julie Roginsky and me for our ongoing conversations and series on Russia’s attack on the 2016 election. If you missed it live, you can watch it here. And thank you as well to all who are following and sharing our series!! Next chapter drops next Monday…
Active Measures: The Kremlin's Troll Factory
Last week, we traced how the Kremlin penetrated Fox News and the broader right-wing media ecosystem. And over the past chapters, we have returned again and again to Russia’s growing reliance on troll factories — operations whose fingerprints can be seen in the endless stream of posts, memes, and comments that flood our screens every time we log on to so…
Julie and I have put together a snapshot of troll accounts, fake news sites, disinformation tactics, and Kremlin operatives that fueled Russia’s information war to help install Trump in the White House in 2016. The IRA may be gone in name, but its methods continue — now upgraded with AI technology and more sophisticated tools of deception. Read these extras, share them, and remember — pushing back against disinformation begins with each of us.
Kremlin’s Troll Factory Extras
The Operations
Internet Research Agency (IRA) — The original St. Petersburg troll farm. Founded in 2013, disguised as a marketing firm, it was a Russian intelligence operation financed through Prigozhin’s Concord business. At its height, hundreds of staff churned out memes, fake personas, disinformation, and hoaxes that reached 126 million Americans on Facebook during the 2016 election.
Social Design Agency (SDA) — The IRA’s heir. Directed by Ilya Gambashidze under Sergei Kiriyenko, SDA absorbed ex-IRA staff after 2018 and ramped up the operations with AI tools, deepfakes, and fake local news sites. A disinfo center, testing new methods across Europe and the U.S.
Storm-1516 — One of the networks seeding fake U.S. news sites during the 2024 election.
Key Characters
Yevgeny Prigozhin — “Putin’s Chef,” the face of both Wagner and IRA.
Vladislav Surkov — Kremlin puppet-master behind early web brigades.
Vyacheslav Volodin — Helped impose controls on Russia’s internet.
Mira Terada — Runs the fake human rights “Russian FBI” (FBR) operation.
Sergei Kiriyenko — Kremlin deputy chief of staff; he currently oversees SDA, the next-gen troll factory.
Ilya Gambashidze — Now steering the Social Design Agency, IRA’s heir.
John Dougan — Former Florida cop and U.S. defector living in Moscow. His DC Weekly and other cloned “local news” sites became vehicles for Russian disinformation, fusing Kremlin narratives into the U.S. media stream.
Timeline Snapshots
2013: Internet Research Agency (IRA) founded.
2014: Crimea annexation; trolls flood comment sections.
2014 July: MH17 disinfo blitz (40,000 tweets/day).
2015: Hoax “Columbian Chemicals” plant explosion.
2016: Blacktivist & Heart of Texas pages hit hundreds of thousands.
2018: Mueller indictments.
2024: AI-driven disinfo campaigns with Storm-1516 during the 2024 election.
The Troll Factory
Quotas: 100 comments/posts per troll per shift.
Shifts: 12 hours, two days on / two days off.
Training: Watch House of Cards, learn slang, memorize NFL trivia.
Formats: Memes, hoax news, fake protests, sock-puppets.
Budget: $1.25M/month by 2014.
Russia’s Notable Operations
Columbian Chemicals, 2014: Fake explosion at a Louisiana chemical plant. Dozens of fake accounts + doctored video.
Ebola Panic, 2014: Fake reports of outbreaks across the U.S. to stoke fear.
MH17, 2014: 40,000 tweets in 24 hours pushing four contradictory lies.
Fake Police Shootings: Exaggerated or invented claims designed to inflame race relations.
Top Fake Persona Accounts
@TEN_GOP — Posed as the Tennessee Republican Party, racked up 100,000 followers (including real politicians).
Jenna Abrams — Fake “All-American girl” blogger, quoted by major U.S. outlets and even politicians.
SouthLoneStar — Masqueraded as a patriotic Texan, pumped out anti-immigrant and pro-Trump memes.
Blacktivist — Pretended to be part of Black Lives Matter, drew 350,000+ followers, bigger than real BLM pages.
Heart of Texas — Called for secession, pushed anti-Muslim hate, gained 250,000+ followers.
Being Patriotic / Secured Borders — Targeted conservatives with pro-Trump, anti-immigrant propaganda.
United Muslims of America / LGBT United / Black Matters US — Progressive masks designed to splinter left-leaning coalitions and suppress turnout.
Top Disinfo Topics of 2016
Clinton’s Emails — Trolls amplified WikiLeaks dumps and pushed conspiracy theories about “deleted” emails.
Clinton’s Health — Memes and fake stories claimed she was gravely ill or unfit for office.
Immigration & the Border — Fear-mongering posts about migrants, Muslims, and “open borders.”
Race & Policing — Fake BLM pages vs. Blue Lives Matter memes to deepen divides.
Religion — Anti-Muslim propaganda, “Christian values under attack” themes.
Traditional Values & Anti-LBGTQ+ — Posts portraying LGBTQ+ rights as a Western assault on morality, while pushing “family values” rhetoric “aligned” with Russia.
Election Integrity — Claims of “rigged voting machines” and ballot fraud, seeding distrust before Election Day.
Third-Party Boosts — Troll accounts urging votes for Jill Stein or Bernie Sanders to siphon support from Clinton.
Repetitive Memes
Hillary in prison stripes.
Hillary’s “illness” memes to question her fitness.
Anti-immigration “keep out migrants” graphics.
Fake BLM protest graphics designed to inflame divisions.
“Heart of Texas” memes railing against Muslims and immigrants.
Endless recycled slogans like “Crooked Hillary” and “Lock Her Up,” amplified until they felt organic.
A Few Samples of False Flag Protests (All Staged by the IRA)
Houston, 2016: Anti-Muslim rally vs. “United Muslims of America” counter-rally — both sides summoned by trolls.
Dallas, 2016: “Blue Lives Matter” vs. “Black Lives Matter” dueling protests (same time and location).
By The Numbers
126 million Americans reached on Facebook.
50,000 bots on Twitter.
2 million+ tweets about the 2016 election.
$100,000 spent on U.S. ads that helped spark street protests.
IRA vs. Wagner
Wagner: Mercenaries; operations in Ukraine, the Balkans, Latin America, Syria, and Africa.
IRA: Trolls, memes, fake personas, fake pages, fake news sites, operations online.
Both were built to give the Kremlin deniability while carrying out Russia’s hybrid war.
