“Disinformation for Hire” by Jeff John Roberts, published in the ‘Fortune’ September 30, 2019
article summary:
– a cyber-security company in Massachusetts called Recorded Future created a fake U.K. company
– then it hired two Russian PR firms to wage information warfare on the company’s behalf
– the range of services offered by the Russian PR firms is startling
– the price to plant news articles in English-language media outlets includes
Reuters: $8,360
Wallpaper*: $8,404
Mashable: $13,370
Financial Times: $49,440
– Recorded Future hides the identity of its analysts who engaged the Russian firms
– director of analysts at Recorded Future is Roman Sannikov
for more detail please read the source
https://fortune.com/2019/09/30/russian-disinformation-for-hire/
And, here is the article by Vladimir Kornilov analyzing the Fortune’s news:
in russian https://ria.ru/20191006/1559466764.html
– investigators do not name either the fake UK company they created, nor the companies they hired (to “protect their sources”) So, it’s impossible to check the story.
– Roman Sannikov‘s company has been providing Russian-English translation services in the US http://www.sannikovtranslations.com/
– he himself claims that he worked as a translator at the FBI for 20 years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kCZIX6a-6o
– he says he worked at CrowdStrike from January 2014 to September 2016 https://www.linkedin.com/in/roman-y-sannikov-bb9815 (it was CrowdStrike who accused russians of hacking DNC server)
– he was a translator for some dignitaries, including former FBI director Robert Muller https://www.flashpoint-intel.com/blog/potential-impact-of-fin7-arrests-on-stolen-payment-card-ecosystem/