Russian Intelligence to Spend $1 Million for Spambots

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service will pay about $1 million to develop systems for “monitoring the blogosphere” and “shaping public opinion via social networks”, influential Russian daily Kommersant reported, quoting the terms of a relevant governmental contract. The bulk of the money is to be invested in the system designed for "mass distribution of messages in social networks with a view to the formation of public opinion." Specifically, the contractor is required to "develop a special software complex for automated distribution of information in large social networks and for providing information support for activities under given scenarios to influence the selected mass audience of social networks." In non-technical language this apparently means $1 million worth of propaganda spambots.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2009256
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-27/russian-intelligence-service-to-monitor-blogs-kommersant-says.html