Russia's military bloggers are reaping the rewards of a growing advertising market on Telegram.
By Grigor AtanesianRussia's pro-war influencers are generating big advertising revenues from their social media coverage of the conflict, the BBC has found.
To find out how much they charge, members of the BBC's Global Disinformation Team posed as hotel owners interested in posting ads on their channels., a veteran correspondent for a pro-government newspaper who became a war influencer, with more than 600,000 followers on his personal Telegram channel., known as WarGonzo, was another. Perhaps the most well-known Z blogger, he has more than 1.3 million followers.
Speaking from the occupied Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, he described himself as a reporter in an information war. Nevertheless he understood Russia's propaganda depended, in part, on people like him. Last March, prominent influencers including Alexander Kots posted a dashcam video that purported to show two Ukrainian soldiers stopping a car with a woman and a small child.
And the cross on the vehicle is different from the one used by Ukraine's armed forces. All these elements suggest the video was staged.
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