Oligarch Known As Putin’s ‘Chef’ Suspected Of Funding Troll Farm Used To Sway U.S. Election
- 7 years ago
U.S. investigators have reportedly identified one of the main financiers of Russia’s efforts to sway the 2016 U.S. election by posting fake news online.
U.S. investigators have reportedly identified one of the main financiers of Russia’s efforts to sway the 2016 U.S. election by posting fake news online.
He is Yevgeny Prigozhin, and according to CNN, his company is suspected of having been a funding source for a now-defunct “troll factory,” known as the Internet Research Agency, or IRA. (1,1,1)
The wealthy businessman, whose nickname is reportedly “chef” based on his food service background and close ties with the Russian government, has been linked to such covert propaganda operations as far back as 2015.
This is when PBS reported that the group was thought to have been behind hoax stories about a Louisiana chemical factory explosion in 2014 and an Ebola outbreak in Georgia.
As reporter Adrian Chen explained at the time, this kind of work was initially borne out of a desire by the Kremlin to “pollute the Internet, to make it an unreliable source for people, and so that normal Russians who might want to learn about opposition leaders or another side of things from the Kremlin narrative will just not be able to trust it.”
And according to the Telegraph, these efforts are believed to have expanded into the U.S. political system during the 2016 campaign; an unnamed person who claims to have worked for the IRA during this time told an independent Russian channel, “Our goal wasn't to turn Americans toward Russia. Our goal was to set Americans against their own government. To provoke unrest, provoke dissatisfaction, lower [former President] Obama's rating.”
“Everything was always bad about Hillary Clinton; we bashed her," he added.
Late last year, Prigozhin was sanctioned by the U.S. government for his involvement in Russia’s conflict with the Ukraine.
U.S. investigators have reportedly identified one of the main financiers of Russia’s efforts to sway the 2016 U.S. election by posting fake news online.
He is Yevgeny Prigozhin, and according to CNN, his company is suspected of having been a funding source for a now-defunct “troll factory,” known as the Internet Research Agency, or IRA. (1,1,1)
The wealthy businessman, whose nickname is reportedly “chef” based on his food service background and close ties with the Russian government, has been linked to such covert propaganda operations as far back as 2015.
This is when PBS reported that the group was thought to have been behind hoax stories about a Louisiana chemical factory explosion in 2014 and an Ebola outbreak in Georgia.
As reporter Adrian Chen explained at the time, this kind of work was initially borne out of a desire by the Kremlin to “pollute the Internet, to make it an unreliable source for people, and so that normal Russians who might want to learn about opposition leaders or another side of things from the Kremlin narrative will just not be able to trust it.”
And according to the Telegraph, these efforts are believed to have expanded into the U.S. political system during the 2016 campaign; an unnamed person who claims to have worked for the IRA during this time told an independent Russian channel, “Our goal wasn't to turn Americans toward Russia. Our goal was to set Americans against their own government. To provoke unrest, provoke dissatisfaction, lower [former President] Obama's rating.”
“Everything was always bad about Hillary Clinton; we bashed her," he added.
Late last year, Prigozhin was sanctioned by the U.S. government for his involvement in Russia’s conflict with the Ukraine.