Weapons of mass division

BEHIND the heavily-guarded walls of the whitewashed office block tucked away in downtown Riga is the new frontline in the cyber war with Russia.

This is where StratCom fights the invisible battles that could cripple our way of life.

NATO’s centre of excellence is devoted to analysing Russia’s digital threat so we can figure out how to block it.

Most of Britain is on Facebook and Twitter. It’s the place we feel surrounded by “friends”, where we “like” things that catch our eye.

But it is also where Russia has launched its weapons of mass division.

The Kremlin has built a new virtual vanguard of thousands of Robo-trolls, automated “bots” which can be turned on in seconds to pump out divisive messages.

They act like social media “shock jocks”, creating the appearance that certain views are “trending”.

Accounts like “Robotic Jana”, as the team call her. The picture on it is a former Miss Bulgaria.

It pumps out thousands of tweets, in synch with a team of online “sisters” filling cyberspace with bile.

Behind them come financial links to extremist far-right parties skilled in whipping up a fight.

France’s far-right Front Nationale was caught taking a secret £8million loan from one of Mr Putin’s friendly banks.

Russia’s warplanes buzz Britain’s airspace while its subs lurk in the North Atlantic. Brits are at the core of the StratCom team and say: “Hit the Russians where it hurts. In the wallet.”

London has become home to Russian oligarchs, some entrusted with the delicate task of laundering Putin’s billions.

Last week judges issued ‘McMafia Orders’ which require suspicious individuals to explain where their fortunes come from.

But it’s hardly a crackdown. The National Crime Agency think as much as £92billion a year is laundered in London – and almost none of it is seized.