Infamous St. Petersburg 'Troll Factory' Set on Fire

[Botany]

Source: https://themoscowtimes.com/news/infamous-st-peters

The office of Russia's infamous troll factory believed to be at the vanguard of Russia's information war has been set on fire in St. Petersburg overnight.

An investigation revealed last year that the secretive troll factory had rebranded itself as a media conglomerate with 16 news websites generating more than 30 million pageviews every month. Its operational hub, a website called FAN (Federal News Agency), is based a stone's throw from the troll farm's original location in northern St. Petersburg.

The Fontanka.ru news website cited police as saying that an unknown suspect broke the agency's ground-floor window and threw a Molotov cocktail inside at around 3 a.m. on Tuesday.

snip


The troll farm is believed to be run by billionaire restaurateur Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as President Vladimir Putin's "cook." A U.S. special counsel indicted Prigozhin and 12 other Russians this year on charges of defrauding the U.S. government by interfering with its political process.



Read more: Moscow Times

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Putin is covering his tracks.



Nothing burns like cinder block and stone.

[awesomerwb1]

1. Yes, it's gotta be Putin

Those troll farms are 24/7 operations. Where were the "workers"?

Get rid of evidence and keep working from the new location.

[Botany]

3. They were busy last week helping Kavanaugh

https://qz.com/1409102/russian-trolls-and-bots-are-flooding-twitter-with-ford-kavanaugh-disinformation/

[awesomerwb1]

5. Obviously from a new location

24/7 operation. There were no "workers" in the building.

[Initech]

6. They moved underground into the basement of a laundromat.

[leftieNanner]

20. Nah

Pizza parlor

[Initech]

21. Support your local Los Pollos Hermanos!

[Initech]

2. Yup, this is that part in the series where the bad guy has to cover his tracks.

Now it will just be a matter of time before he calls "the cleaner". He makes problems go away.

[Bfd]

4. Well how bout that. Data centers set on fire, journalists & investigators poisoned

Putin's mission must have been accomplished.

Nothing left to do but erase the evidence.

[awesomerwb1]

8. Plenty left to do.

This type of stuff will go on forever. It's what Russia does. It's the present and the future.

No doubt they have other troll/hacker farms.

[Botany]

9. Some people "just go missing" w/bags over their heads

Stoyanov allegedly developed a program introduced into a prominent bank's computer system to gather privileged information on customers, REN-TV reports. That information, it reports, was then sold to the West.

In another twist, Russian media says the FSB believes Mikhailov tipped U.S. intelligence about Vladimir Fomenko and his server rental company "King Servers." The U.S. cybersecurity company Threat Connect identified King Servers last year as an "information nexus" used by hackers suspected of working for Russian intelligence in cyberattacks on electoral systems in Arizona and Illinois.


The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta says Mikhailov was arrested during an FSB meeting in early December when officers came into the room, put a bag over his head and took him away.

The cause of the arrests was not clear. The newspaper said only that the FSB discovered Mikhailov's alleged involvement in the purported plot after the U.S. accused King Servers of the cyberattacks on the U.S.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/26/report-arrested-russian-intel-officer-allegedly-spied-us/97094696/

[Bfd]

11. Ah yes. I recall the 'King Server' saga.

In 2018 this:
Quote
"See 45 real customers reviews & our expert's opinion of King Servers before signing up and learn why they are ranked 74th out of 4411".

74th out of 4411in 2018, must have been newly discovered the RU influence

[SHRED]

7. Link broken

[Botany]

10. Try this one

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/infamous-st-petersburg-troll-farm-set-on-fire-63130

[BumRushDaShow]

12. "an unknown suspect"

Right.

[Botany]

13. "an unknown suspect"

[BumRushDaShow]

16. Pretty much nailed it. nt

[dalton99a]

17. Yep.

[FSogol]

14. Cider block? New for the Fall, I suppose.

[Botany]

15. So I missed an "n"

[FSogol]

18. LOL, I can't see anything in the first photo. I must have a cider block!

[IronLionZion]

23. Cider block beats pumpkin spice block any day

[kimbutgar]

19. Bullshit fire story to lull us into thinking Russia will not be meddling in our November election

No, they just moved the severs to another building.

The Russians will be botting and spreading propaganda to Facebook and twitter and other social media.

[IronLionZion]

22. That cinder block and stone makes me wonder if American buildings were made to burn

houses especially are built on wood structures here, but concrete in other countries.