An associate of Vladimir Putin who was sanctioned for running the troll factory targeting the 2016 US elections has been accused of attacks on anti-Kremlin bloggers.

Valery Amelchenko, 61, told independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta that he was paid by catering mogul Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is known as “Putin's chef” after he prepared many state dinners for the president, to carry out brutal intimidation tactics against regime critics.

He claimed to have helped assassinate one blogger with poison.

Amelchenko, who agreed to talk after journalists identified him as part of an investigation, has since gone missing.

Prigozhin was indicted by a federal grand jury and sanctioned in the United States this year for funding the St Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, which impersonated US political organisations and ran fake ads on social media to interfere in the 2016 election.

Andrei Mikhailov, a key troll factory figure named by Amelchenko as his immediate overseer, confirmed to Novaya Gazeta that he had hired Amelchenko while working for Prigozhin in 2012-14.