Translator Project operatives would eventually run hundreds of accounts with fictitious American identities, with the stated aim of becoming ‘leaders of public opinion’. Working round the clock to hit all the US time zones, they were instructed to ‘inflame political intensity through supporting radical groups, users dissatisfied with the social and economic situation, and oppositional social movements’. To that end, their pages on Facebook and Instagram fomented unrest about the Obama administration. Under the title, ‘Secured Borders’, one online group strove to fuel voters’ anger at the Democrats’ alleged failure to curb immigration. Another fanned the flames of racial discontent with a Black Lives Matter-style page titled ‘Blacktivist’. Yet others appealed to old north–south resentments with groups named ‘South United’ and ‘Heart of Texas’ or targeted religious groups with pages such as ‘United Muslims of America’ and ‘Army of Jesus’. United Muslims of America encouraged Muslims to boycott the elections because ‘most of the American Muslim voters refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton’. And an IRA fake Instagram account titled ‘Woke Blacks’ declared, ‘A particular hype and hatred for Trump is misleading the people and forcing Blacks to vote Hillary. We cannot resort to the lesser of two devils. Then we’d be surely better off without voting at all.’
The IRA’s Twitter accounts that served as cheerleaders for Trump appeared to be authentically American, with like hashtags like @TEN_GOP, ‘Tennessee GOP’, and were retweeted by senior Trump officials including General Mike Flynn, Kellyanne Conway and Donald Trump Junior. By having each fake account repost, retweet and promote the content of the others, Prigozhin’s trolls were able to amass hundreds of thousands of followers. ‘Over time, these social media accounts became Defendants’ means to reach significant numbers of Americans for purposes of interfering with the US political system,’ Mueller’s indictment says. ‘They had the strategic goal to sow discord.’
Prigozhin’s team decided on key messages and on key targets for their attack bots, pouring vitriol on Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, using all available means to boost the Trump campaign. English language specialists monitored the team’s posts to ‘ensure they appear authentic’ and offered guidance on wording and visual content. A system of bonuses encouraged workers to make extra effort and compete with their peers. The monthly budget of Prigozhin’s IRA was now estimated to be around $1.25 million.
When campaigning commenced for the 2016 election, the IRA took out fake political advertisements, paid for via a shadowy internet agency. As many as 10 million people viewed the ads, which promoted divisive political and social messages, supporting Trump and attacking Clinton. Not content with buying their own publicity, the trolls began opening counterfeit PayPal accounts in the names of unsuspecting US citizens, stealing their Social Security numbers and driving licence details to authenticate the payments. The accounts were used to purchase advertisements with messages like, ‘Trump is our only hope for a better future’, ‘Support the Second Amendment’, ‘Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote’ and ‘Ohio Wants Hillary 4 Prison’. The IRA bosses instructed employees to ‘use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump – we support them) … it is imperative to intensify criticizing Hillary Clinton’.
Not satisfied with sowing discord over the internet, the Kremlin put agents on the ground. In the summer of 2014, Prigozhin instructed Alexandra Krylova and another IRA employee, the data analyst Anna Bogacheva, to apply for US visas, according to the indictment, in order ‘to collect intelligence for their interference operations’. The women falsely stated that they were travelling to the US for personal reasons and concealed their place of employment. They equipped themselves with cameras, SIM cards and untraceable burner phones, agreeing on pre-planned ‘evacuation scenarios’ in case something went wrong. Between 4 and 26 June, Krylova and Bogacheva travelled through Nevada, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, Texas and New York, for the purpose of what the indictment calls ‘the collection of intelligence’.
