A group of news portals related to the so-called 'troll factory' has become the largest media holding in Russia
A group of news portals related to the so-called "troll factory" has become the largest media holding in Russia, as stated by the RBC news outlet.
This holding now consists of 16 media outlets, two of which are devoted primarily to Ukraine (nahnews.org and KyivSMI). The largest portal of the group, the Federal News Agency (RIA FAN), in February 2017, had an estimated audience of 11 million people, the whole group has an estimated audience of 36 million people per month. This is more than the 28 million audience of RIA Novosti or Komsomolskaya Pravda’s readership of around 33 million.
FAN and several other of the holding company’s outlets appeared in 2014 and were initially based at 55 Savushkina Street in St. Petersburg. This is where the notorious "troll factory" is based, where employees leave comments in support of the Russian government for money. In 2015, the media holding company moved to another location.
Now about 225-250 people work on these websites, earning an average salary of 50-55 thousand rubles (870-950 dollars). The holding's content, according to various estimates, costs from 3.1 million to 4.7 million dollars. At the same time, there is almost no advertising on their sites, they are almost completely subsidized by the owner.
His name is not mentioned, but the edition hints that it's the restaurateur Eugene Prigogine, also known as "Putin’s chef."
Last fall, the Russian oppositionist, Alexey Navalny, said that Prigogine's wealth comes from a 2001 visit by President Putin to his restaurant. Over 15 years, the restaurateur went from serving lunch to catering Putin's inauguration and multibillion-dollar contracts for food of the staff of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MOE), Moscow students, and military personnel.
Over the past 5 years, companies associated with Prigogine have received government contracts in the amount of more than 200 billion rubles (3 billion dollars).