Steve Marcus/Reuters
The office building of the main troll factory behind Russia’s misinformation campaign was set ablaze early Tuesday morning after a Molotov cocktail was tossed onto the ground floor, according to a report from The Moscow Times. The Moscow Times notes that the troll farm was rebranded last year as a media outlet known as the Federal News Agency (FAN), and that the FAN office was located “a stone’s throw” from the factory’s original location in St. Petersburg. The troll farm is believed to be owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a billionaire restauranteur informally known as Vladimir Putin’s “cook” who was indicted this year for allegedly interfering with the American political process.
A yet-unidentified person broke the ground floor window of the building and tossed in the cocktail, which sent the building up in flames. “I believe this is tied to FAN’s activities,” chief editor Yevgeny Zubarev told the Moscow Times. “We’re most often attacked online, but these types of attacks have already taken place offline.” The St. Petersburg police said they are still searching for the culprit, and plan to launch criminal proceedings.