Vengeful trolls Prigogine. A former employee of the so-called “troll factory” spoke about the scheme of its work: From athletes to prisoners
The organization of Internet trolling in Russia is a deeply complicated and secretive business, despite the fact that thousands of people are drawn into its orbit. In St. Petersburg and Moscow, in the notorious mansion in Olgino, young people do not look up from their keyboards, writing laudatory publications about Putin and Sobyanin online, scolding Navalny and the United States, and generally forming the desired picture of the world. The organizational and financial support for this activity is believed to be provided by a PR technologist, Vladimir Putin’s favorite restaurateur, previously convicted, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who traditionally denies the relevant information. Perhaps this chef’s connection with a number of “Internet research” companies will be proven during a lawsuit initiated by a former employee of the “Troll Kitchen.”
As Kommersant learned, on June 1, the Petrograd Court of St. Petersburg will begin considering the claim of a former employee of the so-called Internet troll factory against her employers. Lyudmila Savchuk was, according to her, fired without final payment from the Internet Research company, which appears in a number of journalistic investigations as one of the main suppliers of paid political commentators on blogs. St. Petersburg human rights activists representing the interests of Ms. Savchuk do not hide the fact that the main objective proceedings - bringing the activities of the company and its management into the public field. According to the 34-year-old resident of St. Petersburg, she was initially interested in an advertisement on a job site, which offered to write comments and posts on the Internet on a given topic. She came to get a job in December 2014, before the New Year holidays. By that time, various media outlets had already published reports about the Internet Research company.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the director of the company is Mikhail Bystrov. According to media reports, another company with the similar name “Internet Research Agency” is associated with the Internet Research company. At the beginning of May, this company was merged with the New Technologies company, which, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, is engaged in construction work. “The troll factory exists according to very strange patterns, but all these companies are connected with each other, although they are different legal entities,” says Ms. Savchuk.
According to her, when she came to the interview, she was convinced that the newspapers did not lie about the service of paid political commentators. After taking a photocopy of her passport, the new employee was given instructions. “The work was shift work, the shift was 12 hours. All employees were required to write a certain number of posts and comments on various sites,” says Ms. Savchuk’s statement of claim. The plaintiff worked in the special projects department. The unit's job was to write at least five political posts on topics that were sent out at the beginning of each week. The salary was 41 thousand rubles. According to Ms. Savchuk, it was not formalized, and the salary was paid in cash. She was fired in March of this year. Management informed the employee that she had violated the terms of the contract prohibiting discussing the company’s activities with third parties. “I talked to journalists who continued to find out what kind of company it was, and in the end I was fired. Moreover, I did not see either the order or any other papers,” said Ms. Savchuk.
The absence of an official employment contract and dismissal order became the reason for filing a lawsuit in the Petrograd court. In addition, Ms. Savchuk demands to pay her wages for February and compensate for moral damages. The interests of the former employee of the “troll factory” are represented by human rights activists from the St. Petersburg organization “Team-29,” which advocates free access to information.
Lyudmila Savchuk herself, after her dismissal, decided to found a movement “
The man who stood at the origins of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s media empire, Andrei Mikhailov, is a master of black PR, organizer of provocations against Forbes and other means mass media, “the father of all trolls from Olgino,” gave an interview to Novaya Gazeta. He spoke in detail about who and how attacked businessmen from among the “Kremlin chef’s” competitors and journalists from various publications. At the end of 2013, Mikhailov was removed from business: customers and performers did not agree on a budget of several tens of millions of rubles, the parties blamed each other, and Mikhailov was left without work.
Andrey Mikhailov. Photo: Denis Korotkov / Novaya Gazeta
Maybe he wouldn't share his former employer's secrets. But shifting to unusual openness can be a way of protecting yourself. In May 2017, according to the statement that Mikhailov submitted to the police, some men took him to the forest, beat him, forced him to write a receipt for 3 million rubles and transfer his share in the business to himself. As Mikhailov says in his statement, the kidnappers were led by a lawyer he knew from working together for Prigozhin (his last name is in the editorial office), and it is unlikely that he acted on his own initiative.
— When did your collaboration with Yevgeny Prigozhin begin? How did you even get to him and send him your resume?
— This story began in the late spring or early summer of 2012, when one of my acquaintances, let’s not involve him here, said that there was an interesting topic, there were customers who were interested in my abilities. I agreed to talk. We were invited to the Taverna cafe on Vasilyevsky Island. I arrived, on the second floor, two people were waiting for me on a small balcony. One of them was well known to everyone today [Evgeny Arkadyevich] Gulyaev [head of Prigozhin’s security service].
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Evgeny Arkadyevich Gulyaev For many years he has been working as the head of the security service for Yevgeny Prigozhin. In the past, he was an operational officer of the Leningrad and St. Petersburg police, started in the Directorate of Special Police Service (a unit responsible for working with foreigners that existed until the mid-90s), and finished his service in the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the North-Western Federal District.
His role in Prigozhin’s security service is confirmed by data from the correspondence of employees of Prigozhin’s companies stolen in 2013 by Anonymous International, numerous joint trips and flights with identified Prigozhin employees, including the commanders of the “Wagner group” Dmitry Utkin and Andrei Troshev.
In May 2016, he was caught on video among employees of the Concord company during the detention of a car with Yevgeny Prigozhin on Trezzini Square by FSB operatives for the illegal use of special signals.
— And you didn’t know Gulyaev then?
- No, I didn’t know him before. Two people came to the meeting. I don’t even remember now who was with Gulyaev; I didn’t come across him later. It was clear that [the people] came from the authorities. People of a certain appearance are sitting, their profession leaves its mark. Leather jackets, and so on...
— Did they introduce themselves somehow, say where they work?
— Gulyaev said that he had recently been appointed head of the security service at Concord Catering, and he had a problem: he urgently needed to come up with something before he was kicked out of his job.
His task was to do something about [entrepreneur] Kirill Ziminov and his company Caramel Catering. It was necessary to make sure that people from business, the press would come to the event served by Ziminov, and that someone would “get sick” there...
for something to happen: “Think, scribble, do something, otherwise I’ll be fired.”
- What for?
— As I understand it, Gulyaev’s employer was very offended by his former partner Ziminov. Once we started a business together, then we parted ways, and there were insults of a purely personal nature. Secondly, some event was approaching... St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “Concord” really wanted to serve this forum, but “Caramel” had the contract, and it was necessary to break this contract.
— Did you name any deadlines, was the budget determined?
— Regarding the timing, it was said that it needs to be done as soon as possible, that’s all. Literally two days later, I prepared a script according to which some kind of public event was being prepared with the participation of government and business representatives, and journalists. The organization of the buffet is entrusted to "Caramel", all sorts of salads with mayonnaise, fish, buns with cream are ordered - so that there is an opportunity to provoke some stomach upsets. I can’t say exactly the budget now, maybe 250-350 thousand. This included renting a hall on Zodchego Rossi Street, or rather, not Ostrovsky Square, catering, and payment to me and my people. Ambulance the private one for the “poisoned” had to come, the ambulance contacts were given by Gulyaev. The script was immediately approved and given the go-ahead.
— What kind of event was organized?
— We convened something like a round table on small business problems. The organizer was my friend Sergei Soloviev, he allegedly created a new business magazine. I invited him to play this role. For money.
— Is this the same Solovyov who a year later gained fame after provocations against Dmitry Bykov and Forbes magazine?
- He is. But no one later remembered the story of the round table and did not recognize Solovyov.
— How was the buffet?
— In total there were about 40 people: businessmen, representatives of the association of entrepreneurs, deputies of the Legislative Assembly. There were about ten dummies, mostly from the Concorde security service, these worked for a salary. Symptoms of poisoning appeared in our six children. One even spent time in the hospital. The poisoning was plausibly staged: one of our people very professionally foamed at the mouth if he put soap under his tongue.
— None of the unauthorized persons were poisoned?
- No, only our own. And there was no poisoning, it was a clean production.
Staged poisoning at a business conference
— Was the ordered result achieved?
— At first there was no review in the press, a day later I went to an Internet cafe and sent out a newsletter to the media. Many people gave news about the poisoning, and they didn’t have to pay for a single publication; they picked it up themselves. I honestly don’t remember what happened to Caramel’s contracts for servicing the [St. Petersburg International Economic] Forum. I wasn't interested.
Help "Poisoned"Andrei Mikhailov’s story is confirmed by publications in the St. Petersburg press about the round table “Prospects for the Development of Entrepreneurship,” which was held on June 15, 2012 at Ostrovsky Square, building 11. As reported, “six entrepreneurs” received food poisoning at a buffet organized by Caramel Catering. The organizer of the event was Sergei Solovyov, who introduced himself as the editor-in-chief of the New Entrepreneur magazine, dedicated to the problems of small business development.
The New Entrepreneur magazine never existed. Sergei Solovyov, who can be seen in the Delovoe.tv story (01:09-01:30), is the same person who in 2013 acted under the guise of an “entrepreneur” in provocations against the writer Dmitry Bykov and Forbes magazine.
— How did you personally meet Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin?
— Some time after the round table, I was invited to one of the offices on Vasilievsky Island - not to the central office on the Lieutenant Schmidt embankment, to another, I don’t remember now, on the 6th or 17th line [of Vasilievsky Island]. Gulyaev himself and people from his team were present. They say: there is such a project “For Honest Media” or something like that. They already had their own media outlet “Newspaper about Newspapers” registered; they had to open the newspaper’s website and other sites and write information directly. I was offered to deal with organizational issues. When I prepared proposals for the project, I was taken to the main thing.
— Where and when did you meet?
— At the end of summer, maybe at the very beginning of autumn 2012. It was said: now let’s go to the office on the embankment, where our leader Evgeniy Viktorovich sits.
It was in his office. You can get there in two ways. From the main entrance on Lieutenant Schmidt embankment, through the turnstile and to the second floor, or from Academichesky Lane, so that, like, no one sees you. Nice oak office, everything is stylish, pragmatic, large screen for video conferencing. The massage room is nearby.
I was introduced to Prigozhin as the person who would be directly involved in the “Newspapers about Newspapers” project, and I reported the concept to him.
Evgeniy Viktorovich was very pleased, and immediately gave out money for four rooms in cash from the safe - a million and a half rubles.
True, after the release of three issues, he began to yell that everyone had screwed up, the project should be closed, and you will be severely punished, in general. But I must say that he never laid his hands on me, and he never laid his hands on anyone in front of me. Although there were rumors about it.
—Have you often met with Prigozhin?
- For all the time - three or four times, maybe five. Evgeniy Viktorovich personally presented the prize. Under New Year once, under good mood two, for Good work three. For Dmitry Bykov, for Forbes. Then the task was assigned to them personally.
— What was the concept of “Newspapers about Newspapers”?
- What was the point?
It was necessary for the media to print non-existent information and to take money in cash for it. They did it.
First there was the story with “Arguments and Facts”. Something about the provision of shoe covers in clinics. It was the “first shot”, I almost forgot. Well, many projects were launched in parallel. "Nevskie Novosti" was registered as "News Agency of Kharkov". Why, we ourselves didn’t really know. There was a command: let’s make a couple more publications and work on them. Pure preparation. This was discussed at the end of December 2012, registration was supposed to be at the beginning of 2013.
— The beginning of 2013—is this the story with Dmitry Bykov? By the way, why Bykov?
“We had to find a “corrupt journalist.” The idea arose with Bykov, since he was considered the second most important person after Navalny.
In the documents of the “troll factory” handed over to the editors, there is a draft description of a provocation against Alexei Navalny on the eve of the Moscow mayoral elections They suggested it, it was said: we are working on it. We contacted Bykov through the agency that organized his trips. We pulled them out as far as possible from big cities to avoid force majeure. This is how Nizhnyaya Tura appeared. The contract was concluded with the agency, the date was agreed upon, February 22. We agreed with the cultural center and hung up posters. For Evgeniy Viktorovich [Prigozhin], everything went quickly, quickly, there was never time for preparation, everything was “on the fly.”
It was necessary for Bykov to say something in support of the local politician, played by our Sergei Soloviev. Bykov was not told about supporting the politician, he was led to this.
He met with our Solovyov, a very respectable man. Solovyov said that he would run for office somewhere, Bykov’s entire speech was filmed, and he said what he had to say. What was planned happened. ( This is Mikhailov's interpretation. In reality, Bykov did not advertise the “deputy”, but only thanked him for the invitation— “New”)
— The same Solovyov played a businessman in the Russian Forbes?
- This was the next stage. There was not just an issue of Forbes, but an anniversary issue, and there was an article by our Solovyov with unverified information and without the mark “advertising” - we had to show that everything was bought at Forbes too.
Help Provocations against the mediaProvocations against AiF, Dmitry Bykov, Forbes and some other publications with the participation of Andrei Mikhailov and Sergei Solovyov were the subject of journalistic investigations by Novaya Gazeta in 2013.
— In the spring of 2013, just on Victory Day, the websites of Novaya Gazeta, Echo of Moscow, Moskovsky Komsomolets, Dozhd, Forbes and the St. Petersburg Fontanka.ru came under DDoS attacks. Can you tell who organized this action?
“I don’t know who organized the attack; I never even saw these people.” One of ours, Kirill Fulde, ordered it.
I have no idea where he is now and who he works for. Maxim Bolonkin, who recorded an appeal on behalf of the “Network Hamsters” movement, which allegedly organized DDoS attacks, was found through some acquaintances, through second or third hands, and hired for little money.
The appeal was recorded directly in the office of “Newspapers about Newspapers” in “Petrovsky Fort”. There were options to develop “Network Hamsters,” but it didn’t work out. Evgeniy Viktorovich wants such a project today, but tomorrow he doesn’t want it. He is an impulsive person.
— How much did this share cost?
— I can’t name the budget from memory right now. Not one million rubles, but I don’t remember exactly. Approximately 5-7 million rubles.
— How were such actions financed?
— If a non-standard action is needed, then the scenario is reported and an estimate is drawn up. If Prigozhin agrees, then he either issues the cash himself, or puts an “Agreed” stamp on the facsimile, and the accounting department issues the money. It is on the 17th line in the Senator business center. Finances were managed by two people - Irina Mukhina and Yulia Kholodkova. To one of them. Either they gave it out right away, or they called and clarified it.
Facsimile of Evgeniy Prigozhin — Around this time, you switched from targeted work to massive work. The same “trolls from Olgino” appeared, which long ago became a meme. Whose idea was this?
— This is the idea of Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin himself. I had to read that this was an order from the Kremlin, “ homework", which Prigozhin performs in exchange for billions of government contracts. Based on what I saw and heard, I am sure that he did not receive “instructions” from anyone, did not consult with anyone and did not ask permission.
And there were never any commands from any “towers”; everything came directly from Prigozhin.
He even selected the premises for the “troll factory” personally; this building in Lakhta is located right on the road to his dacha ( Yevgeny Prigozhin's house in cottage village"Venice of the North" on Lakhtinsky Razliv. — Ed. ). By the way, we never called this structure a “troll factory”; it is a purely journalistic brand that has stuck tightly.
— What tasks were assigned to you regarding the “trolls”?
— To begin with, it was necessary to rent the entire building, and at the same time people were recruited there. 2013 was a very active year, many tasks were set in parallel. Employees had to not only post information on blogs, but also search for negative information on the Internet using keywords.
Then we worked closely with [IT entrepreneur Igor] Ashmanov and implemented [the social media monitoring system] Kribrum.
He helped create and maintain the system—not himself, of course, but his employees. But Prigozhin personally met with Ashmanov, and this was the first and last meeting when Evgeniy Viktorovich personally met with the performer.
— Were you present at this meeting?
— The meeting was in Moscow, I was not present there, but I organized this meeting.
— How many people worked at the start of the project?
— At first there were about 200 people. It was divided into departments, some worked in Ukraine, some in America.
In reality, the trolls were ineffective. I had another team operating in parallel, a team of professionals - there were about ten of them - which covered this entire structure.
—Can we name these “ten professionals” by name?
“We can’t name these people because... because we can’t name them.”
Help FactoryAndrei Mikhailov’s story about the organization of a “troll factory” controlled by the media, and his personal participation in this activity is confirmed by documents at his disposal: staffing schedules, original receipts for receipt of money by the authors, certificates, electronic and paper correspondence, invoices, etc. Novaya Gazeta has reviewed these documents (the editors have copies at their disposal).
Petr Sarukhanov / Novaya Gazeta — Your activities were not limited to online activity and sometimes went offline? Tell us how you met, who talked about dirty work for Prigozhin’s people. What other work did he do - for you or for the organization you worked for?
— I may be confused, it was 2012 or 2013. I recognized him by chance, an acquaintance through an acquaintance... The point was that Evgeniy Viktorovich periodically had grievances against some people, and was tasked with somehow sorting out these people. And Valera [Amelchenko] is a person who, at the first meeting, said: I’m ready for anything, just pay me money.
— How was his “willingness to do anything” used?
— While I worked for Prigozhin, there was nothing very criminal. At the beginning of 2013, there was a story with the owner of a clinic on the Petrograd side.
— Are we talking about Elena Cherevko, the owner of Denta-L LLC at 9 Bolshoy Prospekt?
- Yes, she seemed to be the chairman of the HOA of that house, and Prigozhin either had a restaurant there, or he was going to open it, I don’t remember exactly, and even then I wasn’t particularly interested in the reasons. Gulyaev presented it in such a way that
the woman treated Evgeniy Viktorovich with disrespect, he was dissatisfied. Personal grudge. Someone was placed under her wheels, causing a collision.
—Who staged this “play”?
— The task of simulating an accident was set by Gulyaev. The number of her [Cherevko’s] car and the clinic were known. Next, a person was hired who agreed to get hit by a car. The car we needed was on its way, she was accompanied and given information. The man was ready. At the right moment, he threw himself under the car. Everything was developed by the security service.
Valery Amelchenko The meaning of this action was unclear to me, the result is unknown. On my side there were only performers, I gave them Valera Amelchenko and the guy who agreed to fall under the wheels - his name is Nikolai, but I don’t remember his last name now, even if I knew it.
All direction and action are the security service; Valera and Nikolai directly interacted with Gulyaev on this topic. There, besides them, about five people from the Security Service were involved, I have video recordings that they made, Amelchenko is clearly visible there, how he plays the “good Samaritan”, who rushes to help the victim.
— There are other “sympathizers” visible on the recording, do you recognize them?
- No, it’s most likely someone from the SB, you can’t remember them all.
Help "Collision"Mikhailov’s story about the provocation against Elena Cherevko is confirmed by her own comment given to the Sobesednik publication in 2016 (Cherevko avoided talking to Novaya), as well as several videos provided by Mikhailov, made at the scene of the incident on February 7, 2013, according to which it is clear how a fake accident was organized. In the video frames, Valery Amelchenko is clearly visible and recognizable, “providing assistance” to the “victim.”
— What other tasks did Amelchenko perform?
— Are you hinting at a Sochi blogger in the summer of 2013? It happened. This blogger [Anton] Grishchenko, huipster, wrote some wrong things, and it was necessary to talk to him strictly.
- Where did he come from, who remembered him? I understand that Dmitry Bykov is the goal. Why suddenly Grishchenko, whom no one has ever heard of?
— Targeted work has already been carried out in Internet search engines on negative reviews, there
They found something very offensive about our president, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, and this client was proposed directly by Evgeniy Viktorovich.
Blogger Anton Grishchenko (right). The photography was taken by Prigozhin’s people, handed over to the editors by Andrei Mikhailov I don’t remember who specifically provided data on it. They brought me surveillance data on him, it went through Gulyaev. They told him to sternly talk to him so that he would not do this again.
— Do I understand correctly that Amelchenko flew to Sochi to “talk” with his partner, Vladimir Gladienko? By the way, where did Gladienko come from in your structure?
— Gladienko is Valera’s friend. How they moved, what they did, I don’t even know.
— Huipster stopped writing, deleted his accounts, which means the task was completed. That something happened to his hand - I learned about this later from Valera, when she [with Gladienko] returned. As he said: just hit the hand with the tool - and that’s fine.
- What instrument?
— With an iron rod.
Help Attack on a bloggerMikhailov’s story about the attack on Anton Grishchenko in Sochi in October 2013 is confirmed by photos of hidden external surveillance of Grishchenko provided by Mikhailov, as well as by the words of Valery Amelchenko (he subsequently disavowed his story, but the audio recording of his authorized interview is at the disposal of the editors). The story is partially confirmed by Vladimir Gladienko, who says that at the indicated time he actually flew to Sochi for several days with Amelchenko, although he denies the fact of an attack on the blogger.
— Why did Amelchenko go to Ukraine at the end of 2013?
— One of the goals was that he gave away money for performances. For organizing rallies. How the cashier went.
— He was organizing something ?
— No, he himself could not organize anything, he had to simply give money to certain people. Courier. To whom and for what - you need to pick up the papers and remember. You see, he had a couple of episodes with me, later Amelchenko had direct contact with Gulyaev, and he could work directly. I didn’t ask him any questions, but I know that his supervisor, who is now directly involved in him, is Andrei Pichushkin. When I worked for Prigozhin, I knew Pichushkin as still an active police officer, but even then he worked “on the side,” for Gulyaev, and therefore for Prigozhin.
Besides, it was the end of 2013, and I was already being pushed away from work. I can say that that fall we registered a dozen non-profit organizations in Ukraine, often under the name of relatives of the same Gladienko, but whether they were used and how, I no longer know.
— Have you organized any other events outside the Network?
— I’m telling you: everything went in parallel, 2013 was generally a crazy year, project after project, both on the Internet and not only. In the fall, we simultaneously worked at hospitals in Samara, where it was necessary to win contracts for feeding patients, and at RIA Novosti throughout the country.
— Why Samara?
— The task was set by Gulyaev. It was necessary to ensure that all tenders for the supply of food to hospitals in Samara were won.
And why exactly Samara - such a question was not asked, I don’t know. A list of hospitals was given in which it was necessary to carry out some staged actions related to poor food and unsanitary conditions. The script and estimate were submitted, he [Gulyaev] showed it to Prigozhin, it was approved, and a seal was put on it.
— How many people were involved?
— A total of 12 people. Of which four were from Prigozhin’s security service. Eight were local, for the operation with the collection of signatures and a staging of the coffin, which was carried out to the city administration.
We made staged videos with cockroaches in hospitals, with dissatisfied patients, with picketers.
There was a difficulty. It was necessary to release cockroaches into hospitals. It turned out there was a problem. They thought that they could catch them and put them in a jar, but it turned out that there are no free-grazing cockroaches in St. Petersburg.
We went to the Kondratievsky market, where we bought red-haired and mustachioed ones. I don’t know why they are sold there. The rat itself luckily got into our frame; no one bought it or brought it.
— Were cockroaches brought from St. Petersburg and poured out of a jar in Samara hospitals?
— Yes, it's not a difficult matter. Collecting signatures, taking the coffin to the administration. As I understand it, the videos were made so that Prigozhin would take someone to the right person to get contracts. The videos (available to the editors) were not made for wide viewing, but it got through on the local news.
— Was the result achieved?
- Yes. As I was told, at that time the task was completed.
Screenshot from the report video about the work performed. The video was made available to the editors by Andrey Mikhailov Help Attack on competitors Mikhailov’s story about the Samara events is confirmed by the documents he presented, including both rough footage and finished videos, as well as correspondence, reports and estimates, including the costs of purchasing cockroaches (the documents are at the disposal of the editors).
A still from the reporting video where activists are collecting signatures. The video was made available to the editor by Andrey Mikhailov — You mentioned RIA. What didn't you like about the news agency?
— I assume that Prigozhin had a goal to remove [Svetlana] Mironyuk from the post of editor-in-chief of RIA Novosti. This was served with the following sauce: does the largest news agency verify the information? What was the reason and what was the reason? Don't know.
I was given a task through Gulyaev - I needed to check the purity of the information. Come up with a news story, put money behind it and post it. We chose Vladivostok, Novosibirsk and St. Petersburg.
A script was being written, absolutely fake news was being created. A new breed of dog was developed in St. Petersburg. In Vladivostok, circus performers perform for free. And funny things like that, absolutely fake. A person from the street comes to RIA and places it.
How was this done? It was necessary to find out who is responsible for posting news information in the editorial office, and then talk to this person.
The newsman was simply fooled, and then money was transferred to him through a third person, supposedly for posting the news, creating the impression of corruption. Of course, everything was hidden on video.
— Were there actually any agreements with RIA journalists?
— No, the employees who posted the news did not take money. This is an imitation. The fact that they didn’t check the news—yes, they posted obvious fakes without checking.
Then a certificate was written about the work completed, videos were made about the corrupt RIA Novosti, all this was given to Gulyaev, Gulyaev passed it on to Prigozhin. I don’t know how Prigogine used this; these videos didn’t seem to appear on the Internet. But Mironyuk was filmed in December 2013, which means the task was completed.
— Who trained, hired, directed these people who posted fakes in RIA?
— It's me. We were alone in St. Petersburg, but other guys went on the trip. We all know the guys who worked in Prigozhin’s structure. They were on the payroll to carry out certain activities, so the cost of the entire operation was paying for flights and hotels.
Help Attack on RIA NovostiMikhailov’s story about the operation against RIA Novosti is confirmed by both rough video materials and edited videos, correspondence, certificates and other documents (available to the editors).
Novaya Gazeta spoke with two alleged participants in the provocations in Vladivostok and Novosibirsk. Konstantin Podmarev denied his participation. Anton Grachev admitted that he participated in the events, but refused a detailed conversation.
A still frame from a video with a provocation against RIA Novosti employees. Edited by the people of Yevgeny Prigozhin. Transferred to the editors of Novaya Gazeta by Andrey Mikhailov — You agreed to openly talk not only about how Prigozhin’s media empire was created, but also about the organization of obvious provocations in the real world. Why are you doing this and what reaction do you expect from Prigozhin?
“Well, they’ve already taken me to the forest, I hope they won’t repeat it.” But I don't want my first trip to go unpunished. I can’t predict the reaction, but practice shows that sitting quietly under a snag is the worst option for protection.
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An ex-employee of the so-called “troll factory”, which the media associates with businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, Alan Baskaev, who worked in the American department, spoke about working in an extremely closed structure until recently, Prigozhin himself and ways to deceive his superiors.
An interview with Baskaev was published by the Dozhd TV channel on the evening of October 26. He stayed at the so-called “factory” for six months. During this time, he worked in the foreign department and published comments required by his superiors on websites. For his work he received 50 thousand rubles monthly.
In the office on Savushkina, 55, according to him, all computers are monitored and there are cameras. “I doubt they record sound. So many times we listened to the anthem of ISIS (the organization is banned in the Russian Federation) and greeted each other with the words “Glory to Ukraine, glory to the heroes,” says Baskaev.
He considers billionaire Prigozhin “a very talented, versatile person.” “I only knew about his activities as our boss, our guy who gives money. They said something about the word “cook”. I don’t know, maybe he really is a chef and knows how to cook,” Baskaev reflects.
According to Baskaev, the “trolls” accessed the network using different IP addresses - as a result, it looked as if they were in Seattle, Florida, Alaska, Hawaii - in general, in any of the cities and states of the United States. In one day, an employee managed to be a redneck from Kentucky, a “white dude” from Minnesota, and a resident of New York. For each case, a different slang was used for plausibility.
However, the credibility, apparently, was poor - the “trolls” were constantly blocked. It was necessary to create more and more new accounts. Baskaev also did not forget about the “viral” videos: “They sent me a video on YouTube where an African-American, but, as it turned out, an African in the uniform of an American soldier, shoots at the Koran! They told me that our idiots did it. Then they hired a black man and made a video of him having sex with a prostitute. If you get drunk and blur the zoom, she supposedly looks like Hillary Clinton, can you imagine? Supposedly a sensation."
Over time, Baskaev became more experienced and came to Savushkin prepared - with pre-written comments on his topic. Then he published them on suitable forums. However, this work optimization scheme did not suit the bosses - the young man was asked to resign. He now lives in Thailand.
"Fontanka" that a new secret media structure in St. Petersburg appeared in 2013. Main in number " fighting strength"At first it was based in Olgino. Later she moved to Savushkina, 55. The structure’s employees were busy posting a lot of paid comments that directed discussions on various network platforms in the right direction.
In addition, our publication is about Internet sites with personal data of bloggers critical of the government, who were subsequently attacked. Control over these portals was allegedly carried out by employees of structures associated with Prigozhin.
In mid-October, media reported how the St. Petersburg “troll factory” worked in the American elections - expenses of $2 million over two years, about a hundred people on staff and 6 million subscribers.
The first ever offensive cyber attack by the Pentagon took place - and its target turned out to be Russia, or rather the “troll factory” in the form of the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency (IRA) of the “oligarch close to Putin” Yevgeny Prigozhin.
According to The Washington Post, the United States was able to “cut off” AI’s Internet access in key moment- on the day of the midterm elections to the US Congress on November 6, 2018.
Read more. The WP publication is based on the words of several US federal officials. “This is a warning that actions against the United States have a price,” the newspaper writes.
The strike against AIA was part of an offensive cyber campaign against Russia aimed at preventing election interference. This is the first combat operation of the US Cyber Command, carried out jointly with the most secretive American intelligence service, the NSA.
The operation was led by a special group to counter the Russian threat, created last year on behalf of the Donald Trump administration from employees of Cyber Command and national intelligence. It was personally supervised by the director of the NSA and Cyber Command, Lieutenant General Paul Nakasone.
The impact deprived AIA of the Internet - “they just turned it off.” The blocking of AII was so successful that the “trolls” began to complain to their system administrators.
The operation was not strategic, but tactical, and its purpose was to “demonstrate US capabilities” and send a clear hint that the rules of the game had changed.
Prigozhin responded to WP’s request on VKontakte, writing that he could not comment on the activities of the AII, “since he is not connected with it in any way.”
Context. Half a month ago, Nakasone asked Congress to increase the budget and staffing of Cyber Command ahead of the 2020 presidential election. During the discussion, senators asked him to publicly present examples of the successes of cyber warfare. The command now has nearly 6,000 staff and an annual budget of $610 million.
Shortly before the operation, in October 2018, the US Department of Justice filed the first absentee indictment against a Russian citizen for attempting to interfere in the midterm elections on November 6. The defendant in the charge is 44-year-old Elena Khusyainova, chief accountant of the Lakhta project, which in the United States is considered a cover for a “troll factory.” » Prigogine. Allegedly, it was she who distributed $10 million allocated, among other things, for financing “ information war against the USA."
Around the same time, The New York Times wrote about the start of an online operation to counter Russian attempts to disinform voters and interfere in the elections. However, this operation was more defensive: “trolls” were warned that they could be subject to sanctions.
In August 2018, Cyber Command received authority from Trump to conduct offensive cyber operations during peacetime.
A year ago, on February 16, 2018, the US Department of Justice indicted 13 Russians and three organizations for interfering in presidential elections 2016. In particular, Prigozhin and his companies Concord Management and Concord Catering were included in “special prosecutor Mueller’s list.”
A media holding with an audience of more than 36 million people a month appeared in St. Petersburg. At first, the editorial staff lived at the address of the notorious “troll factory”; they have common managers and, probably, one investor
Photo: Ekaterina Kuzmina for RBC
St. Petersburg, July 5, 2016. The Kuibyshevsky District Court, a stone's throw from Nevsky Prospekt, is considering a lawsuit against Yandex from businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the Concord group, which services landmark events with the participation of President Vladimir Putin. Taking advantage of the provisions of the Law “On Oblivion,” a St. Petersburg businessman demands that the search engine remove from the search results 22 links to articles devoted to his business - obvious and shadow. At the doors of the courtroom, Fontanka.ru reported, there was a crowd of “men in civilian clothes” and correspondents from the Federal News Agency (FAN): they all rushed to the benches as soon as the court secretary opened the door. Journalists from other media outlets were not allowed into the hall; only a correspondent from the local Kommersant was able to get inside.
On the eve of the meeting, a man named Evgeny Zubarev - also the name of the director of FAN - left a message in the work chat of journalists of this agency on Skype. As follows from the screenshot of the correspondence (available to RBC), “all reporters present in St. Petersburg” must come to court half an hour before the start of the trial. “[We need to] reduce the number of colleagues entering the room. The task is to prevent the dissemination of information about the names of articles, links to which the plaintiff wants to remove,” Zubarev demanded, judging by the screenshot.
The agency’s journalists did not know who those mysterious “men in civilian clothes” were, but they assumed they were employees from Prigozhin’s office, recalls a former FAN correspondent. In a conversation with RBC magazine, Zubarev said that at that court hearing there was only one reporter from the agency and two from FAN-TV, and refused to comment on “leaks allegedly from work chats.” The avatar from the screenshot matches the photo of Zubarev’s Skype account, registered to his personal email.
The special operation was only partially successful: a Kommersant journalist was able to enter the courtroom and write news, and the names of the articles that Prigozhin wanted to remove from the search engine results were already known from previous meetings. For example, several “objectionable” materials concerned the restaurateur’s possible participation in financing the so-called “troll factory” - a St. Petersburg organization whose employees are supposed to write blog comments in defense of the current government, criticize oppositionists, and promote patriotic values.
FAN and some of the portals close to it were associated with the “troll factory” from the moment it appeared: the first editorial offices were located at 55 Savushkina Street in St. Petersburg - this media building was nicknamed the “den of trolls.” Now the media group, of which FAN is the largest, includes at least 16 online information resources, nine of which are officially registered by Roskomnadzor as mass media, RBC magazine calculated (for more details, see the infographic).
A group of sites connected to each other does not have a main legal structure. But this does not prevent the organization’s management from using the word “holding” when meeting representatives of federal media, a participant in one such meeting told RBC magazine. Already now, “non-core” areas (accounting, IT, etc.) are common to all editorial offices; the group is really thinking about the need for “legal beauty,” said a source familiar with the work of the “media factory.”
For a long time, the sites of this unique “patriotic holding” remained on the sidelines of the media space. In December 2015, the total audience of the group’s websites barely exceeded 5.5 million users (archive statistics Alexa Rank); by mid-February 2017, about 33 million were visiting the same portals. Liveinternet counters show a higher value - over 36 million people, of which 11 million of them are FAN readers. It is impossible to see the intersection of portal audiences within a group - the statistics are closed.
The sites of the “media factory” are unanimously bypassing the largest Russian information publications on the Internet: the site “ Komsomolskaya Pravda" during the same period, about 33 million people visited, RIA Novosti - about 28 million (Liveinternet data). And the average monthly audience of the federal network of urban Internet portals Regional Network (part of the Hearst Shkulev group of companies) is 25 million unique users, as indicated on the official website.
How did the media, once associated with the “den of trolls,” manage to bypass the established players in the media market? And how successful are they in getting rid of their “factory” past?
Photo: Denis Vyshinsky / TASS
Factory overcoat
In 2015, American journalist Adrian Chen came to St. Petersburg to collect material for the New York Times Magazine - this article, succinctly entitled in the word The Agency (“Agency”), subsequently glorified Savushkin, 55 as a “troll factory” throughout the world. IN northern capital Chen met with Katarina Aistova, who allegedly had a connection with Internet Research Agency LLC (one of the legal incarnations of the “troll factory”). She came with an athletic man, introducing him as her brother.
After the meeting, the American journalist went to the office center on the street. Savushkina, 55. Chen then found FAN in the list of tenants and called the internal number. Zubarev came down to the journalist and invited him to his office: his colleagues had a pleasant conversation, while the head of the publication denied any connections with the “troll factory,” and called himself and the agency “victims of black PR.”
The day after Chen left Russia, FAN published a note that the American journalist met in a St. Petersburg cafe with the famous activist of far-right parties Alexei Maksimov (“Mukha”) - it was he, as it turned out, who came to the meeting with Aistova under the guise of her brother The publication was accompanied by photographs taken in the cafe with a hidden camera.
The FAN website was registered in May 2014, the editorial office was operational about a month later, one of the publication’s ex-editors told RBC magazine. Professional journalists were invited to launch the new media. The first editor-in-chief of the agency was the former top manager of the regional branch of RIA Novosti Vladislav Kraev (left the “patriotic holding” in 2015), and the director was Zubarev, ex-editor of Rosbalt, nominee for the main award of the St. Petersburg journalistic community “Golden Pen” "
If an impersonal “troll factory” always existed “behind the scenes” and hid under various legal masks such as “Glavset”, “Internet Research Agency” or “Teka”, then FAN immediately set a course for working “openly”. At the end of 2014, the agency received a certificate from Roskomnadzor. The founder of the media was a legal entity of the same name, and three more portals were registered in the Roskomnadzor register - “Economy Today”, “Federal Agency of Incidents” and “ Free time" As the actual location of the editorial office, one address was indicated in the certificates - Savushkina, 55 (archived licenses are stored on Comobzor.ru).
It will no longer be possible to catch Zubarev on Savushkina, 55, as Chen once did - in 2015, FAN moved from the building glorified by the American journalist. No one explained the reasons for the move to the team at the time, but everyone understood without words that the proximity to the “trolls” worked at a disadvantage for the editorial staff, says the ex-editor of the agency. Although the organizations sat on different floors and only intersected in the smoking room, the dining room and the accounting department, two former editorial employees recall.
There was no need to transport computers far: an office was rented for the media editorial offices in the Ilyich business center on the street. Beloostrovskaya, 8 - a few kilometers from the “troll factory”. In addition to FAN, “Ilyich” now runs “Politics Today”, “Economy Today” and “People’s News”. The “Politics Today” website is redirected from the portal of the “Federal Agency of Incidents” (FAP; fapnews.ru), the support of which ceased in December 2016: in English slang the word fap is used to mean “masturbation,” so no matter how hard the editors try , search engines stubbornly threw out FAP news from the search results, mistaking it for a porn site, Zubarev laughs.
The director of the agency met the RBC correspondent not in personal account, and in a small news room, which seemed to have been specially vacated for interviews: on the computer tables there were personal belongings of the correspondents. During the meeting, a young man looked into the room, but when he saw the boss, he slammed the door in fear. Talking about FAN, Zubarev was clearly proud of achieving record readership. But he answered pointed questions by averting his eyes. "Troll Factory"? FAN is not connected with her in any way.” “Why were they sitting on Savushkin? It was cheap and convenient there.”
After part of the editorial staff moved to a new office in the “troll factory,” a new portion of information portals for the “patriotic holding” began to grow. At the end of 2015, at least five resources appeared on Savushkin - “Word and Deed”, “Politpuzzle”, “Inforeactor”, “PolitExpert”, “Newinform”, their total audience now reaches almost 9 million people.
In February 2017, Inforeactor, PolitExpert, and Newinform received media certificates from Roskomnadzor; the founder is St. Petersburg-based Novinfo LLC. The sole owner of the company is a certain Yuri Krasnov. When a correspondent for RBC magazine called him, introducing himself as an employee of the supervisory authority, he confirmed that, in fact, three editorial offices of Novinfo were under Savushkin.
The connection with other portals of the media group is indirect, but can be traced: the administrator of the VKontakte group of the Slovo i Delo portal communicated with a correspondent of RBC magazine from an IP address that, at least until the summer of 2016, was rented by Glavset LLC (one of the legal entities "trolls") Two Inforeactor employees wrote messages to RBC from the same IP. And the head of “Politpazzle” Vladimir Mezentsev about a year ago presented “Word and Deed” on Instagram as “his brainchild”; the post was accompanied by the words “We have come. Gloomy because our Russia has been slandered.”
The evidence from Roskomnadzor and the course taken towards civilized work do not yet allow the “patriotic holding” to completely get rid of its “factory” past. None of the 16 portals indicate on their website the address where the editorial office is actually located. Thus, until the beginning of March, “People’s News” sent all potential guests to a residential building on the outskirts of St. Petersburg: when asked by RBC magazine whether this complicates the portal’s communication with the outside world, the publication’s editor-in-chief Timofey Shabarshin did not answer anything, but soon The address on the website has been corrected to Krasnogvardeisky Lane, 23 - the building next to Ilyich. The FAN editorial office is also located there, judging by the information on the portal (as of March 10).
In Ilyich, the editorial offices of the “media factory” rent two floors - about 1 thousand square meters. m, with a separate entrance from the street. Not every business center security guard knows where FAN or its friendly editorial offices are located, and there are no signs with the names. As in the case of addresses, the management system of the “patriotic holding” is built according to the best shadow standards.
Foreman-developer
At dusk, the coffee-red Ilyich building resembles a typical Scandinavian business center: lamps are lit in the huge, almost panoramic windows of the building, the curtains are open. Dirty and unsightly Beloostrovskaya is flooded with office light; from the street you can observe the life of tenant companies. The windows behind which FAN works are tightly covered with milky blinds. Only by leaning against the glass can you see through the cracks on the ground floor a small news room, a calendar with Vladimir Putin on the wall and computers with inventory numbers stamped on them.
RBC magazine correspondents were not able to walk around the office: from what they were able to see from the inside, there were the same office desks with computers at which employees aged 25-30 work. The media group is managed by several managers, but only Zubarev is officially represented on the FAN website. Editorial offices are managed on a geographical basis. Ilyich has its own manager, where a team of about 100 people from the holding’s five media portals sits. The editorial offices on Savushkina, where about 125-150 employees work from at least six sites, have their own manager.
The Hub on Beloostrovskaya is run by 29-year-old Alexey Nikiforov. Before joining the “media factory” at the beginning of 2016, he headed a small company “Spetsstroyproekt”, which was engaged, for example, in the manufacture of metal structures for the Bolshevik poultry plant in the Leningrad region. “I’m tired of construction; there are fewer funds in this area, and more words and promises. I wanted something new, I saw an ad on HeadHunter and responded,” Nikiforov explains the change of profession to a correspondent for RBC magazine. He does not have public accounts on social networks, and in the photo from the editorial office, which his deputy posted on Instagram, Nikiforov covers his face with his hand.
Now he officially represents the holding in business negotiations, although Zubarev is listed as the general director of Federal News Agency LLC in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The latter disavows administrative work: in a conversation with RBC magazine, he emphasized several times that he is responsible only for content, and all economic issues are the responsibility of his younger colleague.
The editorial offices working for Savushkin are managed by Oleg Vasiliev, a source familiar with the activities of the “patriotic holding” told RBC magazine. Unlike Nikiforov, before entering the media sphere, Vasiliev allegedly worked in a “troll factory”: ex-employee of Internet Research LLC Marat Mindyarov in 2015, in an interview with Novaya Gazeta, called Vasiliev one of the organization’s top managers.
The same Vasiliev allegedly asked ex-employee of the “troll factory” Olga Maltseva not to publicize the story of her dismissal without payment of maternity benefits, the BBC claimed (the agency has a recording of the conversation). Maltseva did not agree to this proposal and filed a lawsuit, but lost in February 2017, as follows from the case file. In a conversation with Novaya Gazeta, she recalled that she was fined for being late and laughing at the workplace. A source from RBC magazine, familiar with working for Savushkin, confirms that Vasiliev often accepts “absurd administrative decisions" It was not possible to communicate with Vasiliev: like Nikiforov, he obviously avoids unnecessary contacts - the telephone number on which he communicated during the conflict with Maltseva is no longer in use.
However, Nikiforov and Vasiliev can hardly be called the main curators of the “media factory” - rather, they are performers. Former employee one of the group’s media outlets, recalls that “key issues had to be resolved with [Mikhail] Burchik.” Some of the employees of the “patriotic holding”, whom RBC magazine approached with a request to talk or comment on this or that fact, reported this to a certain Mikhail Leonidovich - Burchik has the same middle name.
30-year-old Burchik developed his own companies VkAp.ru and GaGaDo, which developed games and applications for both social networks and mobile platforms, the magazine “Secret of the Firm” wrote in 2010. Also, the St. Petersburg IT entrepreneur published newspapers for the municipal districts “Smolninsky” and “Dvortsovy” (data from the government procurement website). Burchik told RBC magazine that he does not work for the media holding, but “consults it” as a specialist in the promotion and development of Internet projects. Burchik refused to tell the details of the cooperation, as well as answer other questions.
In 2014, the hacker group Shaltai-Boltai published an array of letters exchanged between the management of the troll factory (the authenticity of the correspondence was confirmed by Fontanka.ru sources). In one of the files, Burchik was identified as the "executive director" of the Internet Research Agency. In a conversation with Chen, the entrepreneur denied his connection with Savushkina, 55. As indicated in the SPARK-Interfax database, Burchik owns and heads the Commercial News Agency company: a company with revenue of about 8.5 million rubles. (for 2015) was created at the end of 2013, the main type of activity is the work of news agencies. RBC magazine was unable to find out what exactly the company does.
As the “media factory” grew, St. Petersburg journalists from local media joined it. Not all of them shared the ideological agenda of the “patriotic holding,” says a former FAN employee, but there was no other work. In addition, despite the “limited financial resources,” salaries in the media group for a number of positions by local standards are higher than the market average.
To each according to his work
“I provide information support to the activities of government bodies, [expletive],” is how the editor-in-chief of one of the holding’s portals, who previously worked in the St. Petersburg editorial office of a federal newspaper, describes his activities on Twitter. His colleague in the media group proudly displays a three-year US visa on Instagram and writes on Facebook about her love for Los Angeles: during working hours, her publication publishes a translated article entitled “True Lies: How Obama and His Faithful Aides Are Fooling the American People.”
The average salary indicated in St. Petersburg media vacancies for the position of correspondents and editors is 43 thousand rubles, a HeadHunter representative told RBC magazine. FAN is ready to pay 45 thousand rubles only to lower-level workers - content managers. Their responsibility is to rewrite 20-30 notes per day. The salaries of production editors, who must call experts and prepare, according to Nikiforov’s definition, “exclusive materials” - 3-7 daily - are about 55 thousand rubles. Editor-in-chiefs receive a little more, 60 thousand rubles. In FAN alone, five people work in this position: they look for topics and correct errors in the texts of their subordinates, says Zubarev.
An RBC magazine interviewee, who worked for several different publications of the holding, calls the announced amounts “close to real.” “People are now leaving FAN because of salaries,” admits the editor-in-chief of a large St. Petersburg newspaper. The editorial offices work in a white-collar manner, Nikiforov and Zubarev say, the salary project is carried out at the St. Petersburg Bank. This happened in the summer of 2016, clarifies a source from RBC magazine familiar with the management of the media group. “Both before and now everything was within the bounds of the law,” Zubarev insists.
Individual employees receive a “bonus” in the form of their own media: the holding still does not have a single legal entity. For example, Federal News Agency LLC went to former employee of Gazeta.ru and former editor-in-chief of Narodnye Novosti Anna Botneva, who left all structures of the group in August 2016. She did not answer RBC magazine’s question as to why she is still listed as the owner of FAN, citing previously signed non-disclosure documents.
The wife of the editor-in-chief of FAN and part-time editor-in-chief of the portal, Tatyana Stepanova, owns Narodnye Novosti LLC, and the owner of Economy Today LLC is Elena Vasilyeva (data from SPARK-Interfax), the full namesake of the editor-in-chief of the publication of the same name. Vasilyeva and Stepanova did not answer questions from RBC magazine about how they suddenly found themselves owners of a media business. “This is not a crime,” Zubarev said when asked about the practice of recording assets on employees.
Maintaining a media holding with editor-owners costs up to 15 million rubles. per month. This amount also includes the cost of rent at Ilyich, Nikiforov cites figures. A source from RBC magazine, close to the group’s management, voices a large amount - 20-22 million rubles. monthly. Thus, the operation of a “media factory” with a staff of 225-250 people costs from 180 to 264 million rubles. in year.
The second figure is closer to reality, judging by the expenses of the St. Petersburg JSC AZHUR-Media (the largest asset is Fontanka.ru). In 2015, the group spent 113 million rubles on maintaining 80 employees and office expenses, according to SPARK-Interfax. In 2016, expenses increased slightly - to 120 million rubles, says an interlocutor in one of the local publications familiar with the work of AZHUR-Media.
However, the “patriotic holding” does not focus on local media, not considering them as competitors. “We are working on the federal agenda. Our goal is to be like RIA Novosti, TASS, RBC or RT,” says Nikiforov. Of the 16 resources of the “media factory,” only Nevskie Novosti is currently “closing” the local agenda. Several portals at once - “Politics Today”, “PolitExpert”, “Word and Deed”, “Politpuzzle”, “Journalistic Pravda” - cover geopolitical conflicts, confrontation between Russia and the West, and the sites “Kharkov News Agency”, “KievSMI” - events in Ukraine. The holding company positions “Economy Today” as a business publication, and “PolitRussia” does not shy away from news like “Nastya Zadorozhnaya posted a photo without underwear.” However, FAN found an exclusive agenda.
In the line of fire
July 2016, southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari. The Kurdish People's Self-Defense Units and the regular Turkish army are fighting fiercely. In the distance is a Kurdish mountain camp: FAN correspondents Kirill Romanovsky and Vyacheslav Druzhinin spend the night there, on a narrow mountain ridge, in rocky shelves, in sleeping bags. One night there was shelling: Romanovsky suddenly jumped up and the backpack lying at his feet flew down the cliff. “There was no way to stay, we took off, packing as quickly as possible,” Romanovsky recalls in a conversation with RBC magazine. On that day, medicines and a hermetic bag with a monetary NZ, as well as a tripod attached to the side, flew off the cliff along with the backpack.
For the first time, FAN war correspondents went to Syria in 2015, even before the start of the operation of the Russian Aerospace Forces. The model of working in hot spots was tested earlier in Ukraine: the media holding’s portals fully covered the military operations on the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, including through their own correspondents. In 2015, Nevskie Novosti reporter Andrei Zakharchuk was even detained in Nikolaev by SBU officers, but they managed to include him in the prisoner exchange program and return him to St. Petersburg.
In Syria, FAN members work in shifts - in teams of two people. The business trip lasts about one and a half to two months, after which the journalists are deployed in Russia for a month or one and a half, says Romanovsky. He studied at the University of Berlin, worked as a reporter from the warring Donbass for FAN and the portal “Journalistic Truth” established by the agency. Until the beginning of 2016, three pairs of journalists worked on the military topic; now there are two. The cost of a month's stay for correspondents in a combat zone is $1.5 thousand, excluding the cost of flights, says Romanovsky. One trip to Syria brings a journalist 75-150 thousand rubles, a source familiar with the holding’s management told RBC magazine.
Since the beginning of coverage of Syrian events, FAN military correspondents have received accreditation through the local Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Defense. After the appearance of the Russian military, journalists continued to work through the Syrian authorities: according to Romanovsky, they contact the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense only “periodically.” “To those who receive accreditation in Khmeimim (Russian Aerospace Forces airbase in Syria. — RBC) from the Russian military, in principle they show nothing. They are under the round-the-clock supervision of our contingent and it’s simply not possible to film something worthy,” former FAN military correspondent Dmitry Zhavoronkov said in an interview with the famous military blogger Anatoly Nesmiyan (El Murid) in February 2017. Zhavoronkov himself refused to discuss his work in Syria with RBC.
Of all the Russian media operating in the hottest spot on the planet, FAN actually has the least contact with the command of the Russian armed forces, admits Romanovsky. However, such independence comes at a price: the publication’s correspondents travel to Syria on their own, and not by transport from the Ministry of Defense. First - to Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, then by bus or taxi to Damascus.
In a combat zone, the agency brigade is accompanied by an interpreter and a guide - usually this is the same person. In particular, such services are provided to FAN journalists by retired Syrian general Sami Shikha, who received a military education in the USSR and knows the Russian language well, a military correspondent familiar with the agency’s working methods in Syria told RBC. Shikh’s military background helps journalists, since a civilian specialist would have been turned away at the first checkpoint, says an RBC magazine source. Shikha communicates with FAN journalists not only at the theater of war, but also, for example, comments on their photographs on Facebook. They respond by calling him “dear general.”
Independence from the Russian military department allows FAN military correspondents to be ahead of their colleagues from other media. “Correspondents of FAN and ANNA-News (a news portal covering events in Ukraine and Syria; not associated with the “patriotic holding.” - RBC) are real “scumbags”. They are getting into the thick of things,” says an RBC magazine interlocutor close to the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties. For example, FAN journalists entered the re-liberated Palmyra together with the assault troops of the Syrian army: on the morning of March 3, 2017, the agency was the first Russian media to publish a video of Romanovsky and his partner Roman Martynovich about the capture of the citadel, an ancient fortress in the center of the city. On the website of the Vesti TV channel, a report by military correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny appeared only in the evening of the same day.
One of the reasons for the successful work of FAN correspondents in Syria is the help of the so-called private military company (PMC) Wagner, a RBC magazine source close to the Center for Reconciliation of the Parties is sure. “Yes, PMC connections were used,” confirmed a military correspondent who is closely acquainted with the journalists of the “patriotic holding.” PMC fighters under the command of Dmitry Utkin (Wagner) took part in the first assault on Palmyra in the spring of 2016, RBC magazine previously wrote. Firms related to the businessman served the base in Molkino (a training base, including for Wagner fighters). And according to Fontanka.ru, Wagner moved around Russia for two years in the company of people from Prigozhin’s entourage.
When asked about help from the Wagner PMC, Romanovsky replied that in four business trips he had never seen its fighters. Now they really are not there, an interlocutor close to the Center for Reconciliation of the Parties told RBC. “They [PMC Wagner] were withdrawn in the fall,” confirmed a source familiar with the details of the work of this PMC in Syria. Both interlocutors of RBC magazine claim that other Russian PMCs are now operating in the region, not related to Wagner as a commander. The presence of unofficial units in Syria is confirmed by data from the Conflict Intelligence Team: in March, a research group of at least nine Russian fighters who died in 2017.
No matter who helped FAN, constant news and regular online broadcasts, equipped with videos from the front lines, as well as military-style summaries of Syrian events six times a day, bore fruit: for example, when searching for “Syria news” in the Yandex search results The website of the St. Petersburg agency appeared in first place at the beginning of March. Nikiforov explains that the media outlets reporting to him actively use SEO technologies, optimizing news by keywords and adapting to user requests.
True, the average share of such traffic across all “media factory” portals barely exceeds 8.5% of total traffic, Similarweb statistics for February show. The same FAN has about 4%: the top five most popular keywords are the combinations “news of Ukraine”, “news of Novorossiya”, “Syria”. A much greater effect than working with search engines for the media group’s portals is collaboration with leading teaser (exchange) networks and partnerships with federal publications. The exchange of links with the “federals” allowed several portals of the “patriotic holding” to soar in the Medialogy citation ranking. And “teasers” now bring almost half of the entire audience to the holding’s sites.
Rapid growth yeast
On March 7, 2017, the Ural portal Ura.ru posted news that scientists from the USA and China had found out which color taxi is the most dangerous to get into. In the second paragraph of the note, the author put a hyperlink to the People's News message, and in the third - to FAN. On the same day, Gazeta.ru talked about the Wall Street Journal’s material about Donald Trump’s tightening policy towards Russia, adding inside a link to the FAN article, and not to the original publication of the American publication.
Portals within the “media factory” generously exchange news with each other, thereby increasing the “visibility” of the text in the information space and popularizing each other among readers. However, this type of cooperation is not taken into account in the citation rating of “Medialogy”, where FAN broke into as quickly as it became one of the most read media outlets in the country.
FAN was added to the monitoring system in August 2016 as a news agency, Medialogy representative Nadezhda Zhukovskaya told RBC magazine. At the end of the year, St. Petersburg media with federal ambitions took seventh place, leaving behind, for example, Regnum news agency. At the same time, the breakthrough occurred in the period from October to December - during this time, the citation index of the main resource of the “patriotic holding” jumped almost six times, according to data from the Media monitoring system, which RBC was able to get acquainted with with the help of one of Medialogy’s partners. .
Some federal media outlets were especially eager to cooperate with the St. Petersburg publication. For example, in December, the leader in FAN citations was Gazeta.ru (about 33% of the total citation index for the month), the second and third were Izvestia and the National News Service (NSN), respectively, with an indicator of about 15%, Next is the portal Ura.ru (about 5%). On March 2 alone, Gazeta.ru published 24 materials with reference to FAN, on March 3 - 25, RBC magazine counted. On March 8-10, NSN published ten agency news items daily. In turn, FAN and its resources generously publish news from colleagues: for example, about six NSN notes appear on the portal every day.
To increase the citation index, FAN invites federal media to exchange links to materials, an interlocutor at a large media company told RBC. “Some people even complained that they were doing it too aggressively,” he says. An RBC correspondent also received such an offer from Nikiforov after an interview. FAN and RBC could cooperate in promoting their own exclusive materials, paying “a little more attention” to each other’s news feeds, one of the leaders of the “media factory” outlined the essence of the collaboration.
The heads of the media, noticed in the active exchange of links with FAN, were in no hurry to answer questions from RBC magazine about the partnership. The chief editor of Ura.ru, Ivan Nekrasov, eventually admitted that his portal and FAN actually mutually quote each other; cooperation began in December 2016. The decision, according to him, was related to the behavior of federal publications, which publish information from Ura.ru without reference to the original
