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exclusive Putin's 'chef' behind Russian troll factory
Exclusive: Putin's 'chef,' the man behind the troll factory
(CNN)Yevgeny
Prigozhin is a Russian oligarch dubbed "chef" to President Vladimir
Putin by the Russian press. In 2002, he served caviar and truffles to
President George W. Bush during a summit in St. Petersburg. Before that,
he renovated a boat that became the city's most exclusive restaurant.
But
his business empire has expanded far beyond the kitchen. US
investigators believe it was Prigozhin's company that financed a Russian
"troll factory" that used social media to spread fake news during the
2016 US presidential campaign, according to multiple officials briefed
on the investigation. One part of the factory had a particularly
intriguing name and mission: a "Department of Provocations" dedicated to
sowing fake news and social divisions in the West, according to
internal company documents obtained by CNN.
Prigozhin
is one of the Kremlin's inner circle. His company is believed to be a
main backer of the St. Petersburg-based "Internet Research Agency"
(IRA), a secretive technology firm, according to US officials and the
documents reviewed by CNN. Prigozhin was sanctioned by the US Treasury
Department in December of 2016 for providing financial support for
Russia's military occupation of Ukraine. Two of his companies, including
his catering business, were also sanctioned by Treasury this year.
CNN
has examined scores of documents leaked from Prigozhin's companies that
show further evidence of his links to the troll factory.
One contract provided IRA with ways to monitor social media and a "system of automized promotion in search engines."
Other
documents show that the monthly budget for IRA was around $1 million in
2013 -- split between departments that included Russian-language
operations and the use of social media in English. The "Department of
Provocations" offers this mission: "how do we create news items to
achieve our goals."
Another
document shows a 2013 contract drawn up by an employee at Concord
Management and Consulting, Prigozhin's main business, based in St.
Petersburg. The contract was for 20 million rubles (then $650,000) for
construction work at the IRA and was signed by the director general of
IRA.
Additionally, company records reviewed by CNN show that an employee at Concord Consulting subsequently joined IRA.
Several emails and calls from CNN to Concord Consulting went unanswered. The IRA no longer exists.
Prigozhin
is notoriously image-conscious. Last year, he filed 15 lawsuits against
the Internet company Yandex, using a Russian law that obliges online
search engines to remove "illegal, inaccurate, or irrelevant
information." The case was subsequently dropped.
The
Internet Research Agency has long been in the crosshairs of US
investigations. A declassified assessment by the US intelligence
community published in January concluded that the "likely financier of
the so-called Internet Research Agency of professional trolls located in
Saint Petersburg is a close Putin ally with ties to Russian
intelligence," though it did not name Prigozhin.
Prigozhin
has a colorful past. He spent nine years in prison in the 1980s for
fraud and robbery, according to Russian media reports. After his
release, he went into the catering business -- renovating a boat and
opening New Island, one of a half-dozen upscale restaurants he owns in
St. Petersburg. Putin turned to him to cater his birthday parties as
well as dinners with visiting leaders, including President Bush and
Jacques Chirac of France. A headline in The Moscow Times referred to Prigozhin as Putin's "Personal Chef."
Prigozhin
subsequently won lucrative catering contracts for schools and Russia's
armed forces. He escorted Putin around his new food-processing factory
in 2010. By then he was very much a Kremlin insider with a growing
commercial empire.
Origins of IRA
The
Internet Research Agency was based at 55 Savushkina Street in St.
Petersburg before it officially ceased operations on December 28, 2016.
But investigative journalist Andrei Zakharov, who works for the business
media group RBC, says its work continues.
"They have a lot of legal entities," Zakharov says, "and they still, I think, change it every year or every two years."
Company
registrations retrieved by CNN appear to confirm that. Another company
at 55 Savushkina Street is Glavset, whose director general has the same
name as the boss of IRA. The name matches that of a former regional
police chief in St. Petersburg.
CNN has also tried to reach Glavset's management without success.
Glavset
lists the "creation and use of databases and information resources" as
well as the "development of computer software, advertising services and
information placement services" among its activities. It was listed as a
company in the Russian legal entities registry in February 2015.
A
short time later, it began advertising for staff on a headhunting site
(hh.ru). One post looking for a copywriter says the job involves
"writing diverse texts for the Internet and content for social
networks." The posting offered a salary of 30,000 rubles a month (then a
little over $500) and said experience was unnecessary. Recruits would
work with a team of "young and enthusiastic colleagues" in "a
comfortable and stylish office," according to the posting.
That's
not how Ludmila Savchuk remembers IRA, where she worked for two months
in 2015. She told CNN a card system restricted access to other floors
and employees were always under camera surveillance.
"Employees are not really allowed to talk to each other," she said.
Savchuk
says she estimates that now "there are about 1,000 people working at
Savushkina Street. And this is just one building." She believes other
employees work remotely.
Another
former employee, interviewed anonymously by the independent Russian TV
network RAIN this week, said: "There was a goal -- to influence
opinions, to lead to a discussion. ... There was a strategy document. It
was necessary to know all the main problems of the United States of
America. Tax problems, the problem of gays, sexual minorities, weapons."
The
former employee said the mission was to "get into the dispute yourself
to fire it up, try to rock the boat." He gave an example: "It was
necessary to write that sodomy is a sin. This would always get you a
couple of dozen likes."
He said IRA made its employees watch the US TV series "House of Cards" to improve their English.
Not
unlike the fictional White House of Frank Underwood, Savchuk says, "The
atmosphere there reminded me of some anti-utopian Gulag."
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