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A Russian “fake news” campaign to stir up the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ with untrue social media rumours was revealed yesterday.

The covert trouble-making bid to sparked violence with Facebook, Twitter and Reddit stories has included bogus DUP wanting a united Ireland claims and a republican group having links to Islamic State.

Putin’s trolls tried to spread a story about the Real IRA trying to coax Islamic State fighters into becoming engaged in a new wave of violence.

A Russian troll even fabricated claims that Brexit Remainers were plotting to assassinate Boris Johnson and Irish republicans launched the Sergei Skripal Novichok poisoning.

The untrue IRA - Novichok link was credited to a made-up series of quotes from disgraced former defence secretary Gavin Williamson.

Researchers from the Atlantic Council’s digital forensic research laboratory in Washington DC have revealed the chilling operation in a new report.

The think tank was founded in 1961 to improve links between the US, Britain and Europe.

Senior fellow for defence, Ben Nimmo, said: “It takes very little investment for Russian operators to do this, and if only occasionally one of the stories goes into wide circulation they are achieving their aim.”

Planting a seed that the IRA were behind the Skripal attack - which was actually carried out by Russia - a troll posted a fabricated tweet from Gavin Williamson they claimed "gives reason to believe that the information is sensitive and classified".

According to the Atlantic Council, last August the Russians produced a forged email claiming that the DUP’s leader Arlene Foster had written to the EU Brexit chief Michel Barnier saying she was ‘ready to leave the United Kingdom under certain conditions’.

A Reddit thread this year falsely claimed the Real IRA was using Arabic speakers to reach out to ISIS fighters displaced from Syria to come to Ireland and fight.

The astonishing levels of Russian internet stirring are believed to have been launched from the Kremlin’s notorious "troll factory" in St Petersburg.

The Russians’ rumour mill is run by Putin henchman and former hotdog seller turned billionaire Yevheny Prigozahn who has earned the nickname “Putin’s chef”.

But in this latest case of Russian interference, according to a US think tank, a small team of web specialists set up disposable social media accounts to spread their wild conspiracies.

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