Russia's foreign intelligence service creates bots for social networks for 30 million rubles

According to Lenta.ru, at the beginning of the year, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of Russia held 3 closed tenders for the development of “public opinion polling” methods through social networks.
The technical task sounds like “the development of a special software complex for the automated distribution of information in large social networks and the organization of information support for events according to prepared scenarios of influence on a given mass audience of social networks”.

The program complex consists of three modules, “Dispute” (4.41 million rubles), “Monitor-3” (4.99 million rubles) and “Storm-12” (22.8 million rubles). The customer is “Military unit N54939”.
All three systems are closely interconnected. At the first stage, the system “Dispute” works out - it is responsible for “researching the processes of forming communities of Internet information distribution centers in social networks”.
Next, the work is picked up by the Monitor-3 system, which is responsible for “developing methods for organizing and managing the Internet by a virtual community of involved experts, including setting assignments, monitoring social work and regularly receiving information from experts in given subject areas”
Finally, the Storm-12 system casts the necessary information into the social network.

Monitor-3 and Dispute are scheduled to be completed in 2012, and Storm-12 in 2013. Iteranet, which has repeatedly been involved in fulfilling government orders in the interests of the special services, has become the contractor for all three tenders.

In my opinion, now the principle of “Trust, but verify” is more relevant than ever, and “Public opinion - that the pole, turned, and came out.”