In 2015, Marat Burkhardt decided to try out for a better-paid position, writing in English rather than Russian, at the St Petersburg-based internet company where he worked.

The topic he was given for his 30-minute English writing test hinted at what kind of work his employer's “American department” would be doing over the next 12 months.

“It was a text prompt to write about Hillary Clinton's chances in the presidential election in the United States,” he told The Telegraph. “I wrote that it would be great if the United States elected a woman for the first time. I said she has every chance, the Democratic Party is behind her. The choice is up to the American people.”

Unsurprisingly, he didn't get the job: Mr Burkhardt's employer, the Internet Research Agency, is believed to have been the engine of a secret Kremlin campaign to help Donald Trump win the election.

The full scale of alleged Russian election meddling was revealed on Friday as 13 people who worked for the Internet Research Agency were charged and their alleged crimes recounted in remarkable detail.

Russian media reported as early as 2013 that a "troll farm" headquartered in an anonymous St Petersburg office block was vaunting Vladimir Putin and bashing Barack Obama in comments and posts written by fake people.