FBK, bots and elves

The media Mikhail Svetov accused the FBK in connection with the bottlers similar to the "troll factory." Supporters of Navalny deny this

The Libertarian media of the SVTV Mikhail Svetov accused the Fund for the fight against corruption (FBK) of using bots to write comments and posts - similar to the “troll factory” Evgeny Prigozhin, which praises the Russian power. According to SVTV, the “opposition bots” within the project are called “elves”.

Meanwhile, the Free Russia Foundation told The Insider that it is engaged in the Elves Legion project. We tell the main one about the new scandal in opposition circles.

In his material, SVTV refers to information received "from a former employee of the bootoferma in the form of a text file-investigation and data archive with hundreds of thousands of screenshots and internal documents." At the same time, the publication invites readers to confirm the reliability of these data themselves.

The unnamed SVTV source says that Free Russia Foundation ( Free Russia, an international non -profit organization founded in 2014 and advocating the democratic development of Russia. - Ed. ) Washed in Washington, is engaged in the financing of the FBK.

The interlocutor of SVTV also claims that the director of Free Russia Foundation in the South Caucasus Egor Kuroptev, the coordinator in the South Caucasus Anton Mikhalchuk and the IT specialist Pavel Elizarov, as well as the vice-president of the international lawyer Vladimir Milov and the Foundation Director Natalia Arno, participate in the bots.

It is headed by a factory of opposition bots, according to the SVTV informant, the former head of the Moscow headquarters of Navalny Oleg Stepanov, and the former lawyer of the headquarters of Navalny in Ufa Fedor Telin chooses posts for commenting.

“Director of Anti-Corruption Foundation Ivan Zhdanov also participates in the solution of key issues,” the text of the Libertarian publication says.

The New Gazeta Europe applied for comments on the representatives of the Free Russia Foundation. Anton Mikhalchuk replied that he would not comment on the information yet.

SVTV writes that those who want to work “bots” conclude agreements with the referum by the non -profit organization Reforum and undertake to issue an individual entrepreneur in Lithuania.

It is argued that one hour of the “elf” (the person who writes comments under posts from false accounts) costs 10 euros. According to a former boot farm worker, each employee earns from 1,200 to 1,800 euros, depending on activity.

Another interlocutor SVTV said that three offices are operating in Vilnius: 25 people work in them (presumably, one of the offices has now closed, the publication notes). Another 70 people work "bots" in the capital of Georgia Tbilisi. In addition, a separate unit is engaged in similar activities in Belarusian policy - about 50 more people work in it, the material says.

The source of the publication Svetova says that the fake accounts of VKontakte purchased on the black market are used for the boot farm. More precisely, not quite fake: the former owners lost access to them as a result of phishing attacks. For the work of bots, all old data is erased in these accounts and the photograph changes, however, the mobile numbers of the old owners are tied to the accounts, the SVTV interlocutor notes.

The FBK bots are accused of the Kremlin of a criminal war, which led to numerous victims, a fall in the standard of living and to the return shelling and attacks of drones.

In addition, SVTV claims that “bots-elves” also criticize people of opposition views with whom the FBK conflict. For example, the publication gives a document in which the instructions for criticism of Ksenia Sobchak are registered. The attack of the "elves" could also be subjected to Alexei Venediktov and Maxim Katz.

Sota also talked with several former employees of the Elves factory. According to them, the Lithuanian and Georgian offices of the boot farm existed separately, they had different chats: Vilnius Lorien and Tbilisi Rivendeil. One of the leaders of the Tbilisi office, according to Sota sources, is the ex-head of the headquarters of Navalny in Chelyabinsk Boris Zolotarevsky.

According to the publication, the ex-head of the Moscow headquarters of Navalny, Oleg Stepanov, headed the Lithuanian office, but recently he closed-allegedly due to the inefficiency of Stepanov as a manager and his constant conflicts with employees.

Criticism of the material

Journalist-investigator Andrei Zakharov wrote that he studied documents published by SVTV, and noted that such a number of reporting is difficult to fake. At the same time, he emphasized that the statement that the project with the “Elves farm” is related to the FBK and created precisely for its needs is not supported by evidence. The journalist also draws attention to the fact that the publication of SVTV about communication with the FBC is built in the words of one source.

“The fact that Free Russia Foundation has a“ trolls/elves factory ”, I think generally proven. And I am skeptical and negative about such practices. But I saw other opinions, ”Zakharov said.

Another former project employee, with whom the journalist is familiar with personally, said that the whole Tbilisi knew about the Elf Factory. “He also confidently points to Mikhalchuk and another Free Russia figure Yegor Kuroptev as the leaders of the project,” added Zakharov.

Free Russia Foundation issued an application in which he rejected the charges of cooperation with the FBC as part of the counter -propaganda projects.

“We declare that the material published on the SVTV website is inaccurate in large number of points. In the projects of the Fund there are dozens and hundreds of activists from all political organizations, we never participated in the discrediting of any opposition politicians, journalists, projects or groups, ”the report said .

At the same time, the fund noted that after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the Free Russia Foundation founded the Center for Strategic Communications "as an immediate response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and an unprecedented -scale campaign of misinformation and promotion of the Kremlin."

“Dozens and hundreds of Russian activists and activists, professionals in the field of media, SMM, work in different countries seven days a week for the only purpose - to help convey the truth about the crimes of the Kremlin and the consequences of the bloody war, unleashed against Ukraine, to their fellow citizens in Russia,” said Free Russia Foundation.

Vladimir Milov commented on the material of SVTV on the air of "Rain":

“Everything that he [Svetov] wrote about the FBK bottlers is not true. FBK had nothing to do with this at all. Well, there are many other fictions. I was also mentioned, although I just heard about this project out of my ear. ”

“They [Free Russia Foundation] Indeed, a number of projects in the information sphere, including in social networks, are conducting. But here the question is that many began to compare this with what Prigozhin did. Prigogine was engaged in the spread of misinformation and lies. And here we are talking about the fact that people in social networks write: "Look, Putin stole everything, killed everyone, brought the country to the pen." That is, there is no lie here.

Here we are talking about the spread of the truth.

Therefore, I do not see a problem in this aspect, ”said Milov.

Egor Kuroptev, director of the Center for Strategic Communications of the Free Russia Foundation, answering Anna Mongait's leading “rain”, whether people pay people for writing comments from fake aounds, said that he would not confirm or refute this. “There are safety issues of hundreds of people who work with us at different projects in different countries. This wave, as I understand it, was primarily aimed at the FBK, judging by the absolutely false information that Svetov’s resources were distributed, ”Kuroptev said.

He added that projects on social networks with Free Russia, of course there. “After February 24th, hundreds of Russians left were looking for ways to contribute and immediately help counteract the war, but the main thing is to counteract the lying, propaganda and aggression machine that extend to Russian citizens,” Kuroptev explained.

The representative of the fund noted that it is impossible to talk with Russian citizens through the Rain TV channel because they do not watch it. “There are many different effective ways to convey truthful information to people hesitating and to a pro -government audience,” he said, without specifying what ways we are talking about.

Later on the same day, November 16, The Insider published a video about the Botoerm of Free Russia. In it, Kuroptev talks about the creation of the “Legion of Elves”, which, according to him, “for several months has become a huge machine from the experimental project,” the purpose of which is to combat propaganda.

Anton Mikhalchuk and Anton Mikhalchuk gave a comment to reporters. It is presented in the plot as the Elf Legion project coordinator.

“We are testing different formats and came to the conclusion that it is now important to work on counter -propaganda, for the audience of Russians. To bring them true information about the war [...] our task is to work with real people who are sitting on social networks, ”he said.

Mikhalchuk noted that VKontakte, of all social networks, turned out to be one of the best sites “from the point of view of technology for the spread of narrative and monitoring the movement of this narrative”.

The Insider also talked with the employees of the very “Elves farm” about their work. One of them explained that their work is very important, since without this only “Kremlin propaganda” would be in social networks.

FBK Director Ivan Zhdanov called the SVTV edition of the Fund’s connection with Boto -Forema.

“This network does not have anything to do with the corruption fund or to me personally (including ACF as an international direction of the FBK). Neither in financing, nor in resolving issues, nor in anything else close. This is ready to confirm this in court, ”he said.

The ally of Navalny Leonid Volkov was also outraged by the fact that SVTV connected the Boto -Feater with the activities of the FBK: “Now the FBK is to blame ... The fact that the Free Russia Foundation is engaged in agitation [in]“ VKontakte ”. You can discuss the effectiveness of this project, and the donors of the Free Russia Foundation may well raise questions about choosing a platform and methods of agitation. What can not be done is to lie in the back, as the STV does, calling this project a “FBK bottlers”. ”

He emphasized that the FBK and Free Russia Foundation are different organizations that are not interconnected in any way.

“FBK does not have and never had any“ botoerm ”. And the authors of the “investigation” know this perfectly, but for some reason they lie, ”Volkov wrote.

SVTV was not the first to write about the "troll factory" from the opposition. Last fall, Fontanka published a material based on the words of the former Elf, which worked in Tbilisi. The interlocutor of the publication connected the “Boto -Forem” with the US Free Russia Foundation and pointed out Anton Mikhalchuk as one of the representatives of the Fund in Georgia.

Updated at 23:28 Moscow time