Activist Lyudmila Savchuk: “An atmosphere of utmost secrecy”
Credit: Ludmila Sawtschuk

Lyudmila Savchuk speaks quickly. She also uses two phones at the same time — they’ve been ringing nonstop since a news agency ran a feature about Savchuk and her experiences working as a professional Kremlin Internet troll. Savchuk, who hails from St. Petersburg, says she wants to set the record straight: She isn’t simply a former employee at a St. Petersburg “troll factory,” she is a journalist who deliberately infiltrated it to expose the business of paying people to post pro-Kremlin online comments.

To do so, Savchuk says she joined forces with other activists in a group called InfoPeace. Savchuk now wants to take her former employer to court so that the truth about the Kremlin’s troll houses and the people behind them will come to light.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You worked in a so-called “Troll Factory” in St. Petersburg, where you were paid to post comments supporting the Kremlin line. How did you get […]