Page 73 - Cyber Defense eMagazine September 2023

thus extremely difficult to trace, and it is currently unknown to what extent these businesses will be shut
down, taken over by competitors or left in operation.

The Troll Factory: Kremlin’s Privately Owned Psy-Ops Center

As a part of his lucrative business with the state, Prigozhin elevated his relationship with the Kremlin ten
years ago, when he used his catering profits to fund the creation of the now infamous Internet Research
Agency, known in the West as The Troll Factory. The agency was then used as a bedrock for Prigozhin’s
new business interest – a media group – which is now a sprawling empire, playing an important role,
firstly in influencing domestic public opinion (and vilifying the opposition, as ordered by the Kremlin) but
also in election meddling in countries, deemed hostile to Kremlin, and undermining social cohesion by
promoting pro-Russian narratives, or supplying autocrat support packages. The nature of the operations
is a mixed bag of private enterprise and deniable government-ordered information operations.

The two approaches then intersect into so-called autocrat support packages, which are a combination of
traditional tools of political marketing services with fake social media activity (used to support the power
of various autocrats from Africa and Asia), and the projection of false images of popular support to third
country audiences. Foreign countries pay for the services, but the customers are vetted by the Kremlin.
On top of that, there is also a significant share of the standard advertising market and the ability to set
the news agenda through the key node of the media empire, the RIA FAN news agency.

Wagner Pmc, Or Becoming Modern-Day Wallenstein

A further step of taking on roles typically performed by government – either overtly by the military, or
covertly by the secret services – was establishing Wagner PMC, a private military company, operated by
Yevgeny Prigozhin on the behest of Kremlin, since 2014. Prior to its establishment, some factions of the
Russian military advocated for the use of private military companies to execute government policy in
deniable operations. Most of these advocates were from military intelligence, with general Vladimir
Alekseyev being the most senior known representative of this school of thought (often mistakenly labeled
Gerasimov doctrine).

Recently revealed documents reveal fighters of Wagner PMC were among the first local militia groups
that were used by the Russian government in its initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014. They also performed
the role of Russian infantry in the Syrian war, where the operation to prop up the regime of Bashar al-
Assad was sold to the Russian public as an air-campaign-only type of engagement in which no Russian
servicemen were expected to die. It quickly became clear, however, that the Syrian army needed help
on the ground: this was outsourced to the Wagner group, who were equipped and logistically supported
by the Russian army. Prigozhin thus assumed the role of a modern-day Wallenstein, a warlord operating
on the behest of the government, while pursuing his own business interest at the same time.

A similar scheme was then applied in other countries like Libya, and other African nations like the Central
African Republic, Mali, and Sudan.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – September 2023 Edition 73
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