According to a report published on Sunday by the UK government, Russians are using social media to spread misinformation.
The operation had links to the founder of theIRA. The IRA made a concerted effort to put Trump in the White House, according to US intelligence officials.
The report commissioned by the UK's Foreign Office said Russia was engaged in a large-scale disinformation campaign designed to manipulate international public opinion of Russia's illegitimate war in Ukraine.
The Foreign Office didn't reply to Insider.
The group of cyber soldiers was operating from an old factory in St. Petersburg, Russia, where they were using the Telegram social-media platform to actively recruit and coordinate new supporters to spam platforms with pro-Putin and pro-invasion comments and content.
According to the UK government, the groups operated by turning on a virtual private network and using it to make comments on several platforms. The report said that it was harder to detect if they were posting original content.
Targets included high-profile Kremlin critics, UK government officials, and other world leaders.
TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Telegram did not respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.
The UK's foreign secretary Liz Truss said in a statement that the UK cannot allow the Kremlin and its shady troll farms to invade our online spaces with their lies about Putin's illegal war.
The UK government has alerted international partners and will continue to work closely with allies and media platforms to undermine Russian information operations.
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