Former Pro-Putin Internet Troll Seeks to Expose Kremlin 'Propaganda Factory'

A Russian freelance journalist who claims she went undercover as a pro-government Internet troll says she is suing her former employer in a bid to expose the workings of the Kremlin's online army.

"This propaganda on the Internet is very dangerous," Lyudmila Savchuk, 34, told AFP today. "It has to be brought to light."

Savchuk has lodged a case against her mysterious former employer, The Agency for Internet Studies, in Saint Petersburg - where she says she and colleagues spent their days praising President Vladimir Putin and slamming his enemies online.

She is claiming it failed to pay wages and hired employees without putting them through the books.

"But our main aim is to attract the attention of society to this shameful phenomenon," she said.

Unmasked after two months in the job, Savchuk was sacked after she published articles under a pseudonym in local newspapers denouncing the "propaganda factory".

Savchuk went public with her claims in April, but did not at the time mention that she had infiltrated the organisation purposefully.

A court in Russia's second city on Monday postponed the case to June 23 after no-one showed up to represent Savchuk's former employer.

"We are pleased that the activities of this organisation are becoming visible and we are going to fight against it in court," said Savchuk's lawyer Ivan Pavlov.

"But trolls do not like light and can't exist when there is transparency."

The Kremlin has ratcheted up its propaganda campaign -- from state-run media to online social networks -- as the crisis over Ukraine has sent tensions with the West soaring to their highest level since the Cold War.

The West and Ukraine accuse Russia of sending its troops to fight in its ex-Soviet neighbour but Putin flatly denies the claim and Russia's government media has done all it can to deflect the accusations.