RUSSIA: Cyber Front Z

Russia has been involved in information warfare for decades. It is no surprise that the war in Ukraine happens online, as well as on the front line. Just before the start of the invasion, on 24 February 2022, a mysterious group appeared on Telegram called ''Cyber Front Z''. This was before the famous ''Z'' symbol became synonymous with Russian war crimes and genocide and compared to the German Third Reich symbolism.

Cyber Front Z is the latest troll farm set up to propel the Russian propaganda train forward. Especially when it comes to spreading lies about Ukraine. It is based in St Petersburg, and allegedly run by Putin's chef, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Let’s explore what it's like in the newest troll army fighting for Kremlin's losing war.

YEVGENIY PRIGOZHIN 

We can’t start talking about Russian troll farms without mentioning one famous name, Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin. This name may be familiar because Prigozhin is the money man behind the notorious Wagner Group. The Kremlin backed mercenaries that have tied to the FSB. We explored them in-depth in this post.

Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin (source: Unknown)

Prigozhin most well-known moniker is “Putin’s chef” because he has many catering and restaurant businesses. He handles supplying catering for major state dinners and international events hosted by the Kremlin. He is also allegedly responsible for feeding the Russian troops in Ukraine.

He is alleged to have founded three companies tied to trolling and trying to influence the 2016 United States Presidential elections, and many other political events internationally. These are the Internet Research Agency and the Concord Management and Consulting. The third one has an unknown name.

Prigozhin is wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). He is wanted for “his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the Federal Election Commission, the United States Department of Justice, and the United States Department of State. This occurred in Washington, D.C., from early 2014 to February 16, 2018.”

They are offering a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to his arrest.

“Putin’s chef” lives in St. Petersburg on a massive compound with his family. He has a private jet and a 35-meter yacht. He is estimated to be worth over 1 billion roubles in illegal wealth.

WHAT IS A TROLL FARM?

The first openly known troll farm was the Internet Research Agency, bankrolled by Prigozhin. It was set up in St. Petersburg around middle of 2013.

The troll farms are housed in the basements of offices, or in some old factory. It runs like a normal office and people get employed to spread pro-Kremlin narratives by commenting or writing blogs on the internet, and social media. The job is very unrewarding and tiresome.

The premises of the Internet Research Agency (source: Wikipedia)

It is a low-skilled job with long hours and low salary. Employees are expected to write around 100 to 120 comments per day on various social media accounts or generate 10 blog posts per shift with around 750 words minimum. They often control multiple aliases and accounts, or what is referred as sock puppets.

They get paid a few hundred dollars per month and must work 12 to 14 hours per day. The most common social media websites they use are VKontakte, LiveJournal or Telegram groups to spread the scripted propaganda

WHAT IS THEIR PURPOSE?

The main purpose of troll farms is to amplify Russian state propaganda and to influence international politics, or a specific group of people. They do this by mass commenting on social media posts to make it seem that many people are talking about this. They write inflammatory or provocative comments that incite negative comments around their targeted subjects.

These trolls are trained to latch on existing issues and make the negative emotions around them bigger. Often, they will start a fight and then step away from the action once it is in full swing. When the interest dies down, they step back and try to resuscitate it so that it plods along lifelessly.

Topics can include anything, but the main ones are:

• Attempting to influence elections or political decisions
• Anti-Ukraine propaganda
• Anti- NATO narratives
• Pro-Kremlin / Pro- military operation
• Criticism of the West

CYBER FRONT Z 

Cyber Front Z is the latest troll farm that was established in March 2022. It is specifically created to spread anti-Ukraine propaganda tied to the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is also believed to be tied to Yevgeny Prigozhin. It is a Telegram channel that appeared around the time of the invasion, trying to spread the “patriotic” Z symbol to fellow Russian sympathisers.

They ran a big recruitment campaign in the beginning of their posting for spammers, commentators, content analysers and programmers and designers. They are based in St. Petersburg as well.

Giveaway goods advertised by Cyber Front Z Telegram group for their members (source: Telegram)

Cyber Front Z employees refer to themselves as “cyber patriots” and they work for the “Z patriotic movement”. They comment, write reviews, and even make in-person talks. One dangerous thing that they do is make a “call” to their followers to go and “check out” some target that is going against their values. They post the target’s social media addresses and encourage their followers to go and spam these people to teach them a lesson.

To work there is like in any typical troll farm. They expect up to 200 comment per day. You work two days on and two days off schedule. The leaders provide you with a script and instruct everything that you must write down or convey.

TROLLING TARGETING TO FINLAND?

Besides Ukraine, Finland has been a huge target for Russian propaganda since the end of February. This is because of the potential NATO application which has revved up the information war by Russia. Several established outlets have been linked to Russian propaganda such as Verkkomedia, Finnbay and Sputkin News.

As well as the media outlets, there are various famous people that are alleged to have ties to Kremlin. These are Johan Bäckman, Janus Putkonen, members of political party Valta kuuluu kansalle (VKK).

Disinformation targeted towards Finns and the Finnish governments is varied, but topics can include:

• Finland going to NATO is illegal
• Finland applying to NATO will create a state of war between Russia and Finland
• There are Finnish Nazis trying to influence the Finnish government, and Finland must be “denazified”
• Various other propaganda related to Ukraine that tries to influence the Finnish media to have a positive view of Russia and negative view of Ukraine.

CONCLUSION

These troll farms can be very effective at spreading disinformation campaigns and amplifying the Kremlin's ever growing lies. The best thing one can do is to recognise what Russian propaganda looks like and ignore it. The more attention we feed these trolls, the more opportunities they have to succeed in their target. 

It is very important that we don't interact with any of their posts, or photographs. You don't share anything that is not verified or from a credible source. More information can be found in last week's post about identifying troll media. 

References: 

• VICE - Inside Cyber Front Z 
• Fontanka -  Looking inside the lines of Cyber Front Z
• Wikipedia - Internet Research Agency 
• YLE Kioki - Yle Kioski Investigated: This is How Pro-Russia Trolls Manipulate Finns Online – Check the List of Forums Favored by Propagandists
• Euractiv - Russia uses ‘troll factory’ to spread war propaganda online, UK says
• News Week - Russian 'Cyber Front Z' Hackers Hired to Target Ukraine—Report
• YLE Kioski - This is What Pro-Russia Internet Propaganda Feels Like – Finns Have Been Tricked into Believing in Lies