Russian attack | Ukrainian police uncovered a massive Russian troll factory – SVT: Swedish SIM cards used to spread propaganda

Foreign countries|Russian invasion

Swedish public broadcasting company SVT says that Swedish SIM cards have been used in Ukraine by Russian troll factories that have spread propaganda and misinformation.

In December, the Ukrainian police, the country’s cyber-security police department, telephone network companies and the prosecutor carried out a nationwide operation in which they worked together to uncover Russian troll factories operating inside the country.

Ukrainian police bulletin in 24 raids, it confiscated more than 100,000 SIM cards from the homes and troll factories of the suspects, which were used to open fake accounts in various social media services, e-mail providers and messaging services.

According to the police, about 1.5 million accounts were opened with the help of the cards, which published pro-Russian content, supported the Russian attack, and spread propaganda, misinformation and illegal content.

In addition to SIM cards, the raids also found large numbers of mobile phones.

According to the police, there are 31 suspects in the case who lived in different parts of Ukraine. In their raids, the police uncovered a total of 13 troll factories.

of SVT according to the video published by the Ukrainian police, it can be seen that among the SIM cards there are cards from the Swedish companies Comviq and Lycamobile, the packaging of which has Swedish text. Comviq, which belongs to the Tele2 company, suspects that its subscriptions have been used for criminal activities in troll factories.

“We can assume that Comviq’s cards have been used for something that is criminal activity at these factories,” says Tele2’s communications manager Fredrik Hallstan for SVT.

After the start of the Russian war of aggression, Comviq announced that it would offer free calls to and from Ukraine to facilitate the communication of those fleeing the war.

“If this has been exploited and misused in something that can be considered a criminal activity, we naturally take it very seriously,” commented Hallstan.

According to SVT, it used to be very easy to get a SIM card in Sweden, but the country gave up anonymous and unregistered cards at the beginning of last August.