The list of Russians indicted over of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 US presidential election "does not look like the result of a solid investigation," a Russian investigative journalist said on Saturday

Andrey Zakharov and his colleague Polina Rusyaeva published an October 2017 investigation into the work of Russian Kremlin trolls factory before, during and after the US election.

Zakharov said the list which included the alleged "troll factory" owner Yevgeny Prigozhin, looked "quite random."

Prigozhin is a wealthy St. Petersburg businessman with ties to the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin.

In an extraordinary indictment, the US special counsel has accused 13 Russians of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, charging them with running a huge but hidden social media trolling campaign aimed in part at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The federal indictment, brought Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller, represents the most detailed allegations to date of illegal Russian meddling during the campaign that sent Trump to the White House.

It also marks the first criminal charges against Russians believed to have secretly worked to influence the outcome.

Moscow - 17 February 2018

1. Various set-up shots with RBC investigative journalist Andrey Zakharov

2. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Andrey Zakharov, RBC investigative journalist:

"In general, in my opinion, the list looks quite random. They simply included in it all the names they could find. According to our information part of these people don't work at the factory now and did not even work there during the (US) elections. So this list reminds us of another Kremlin list submitted to Congress earlier, which is pretty much the whole of Forbes list, copy and pasted list of top Kremlin officials, heads of state companies from RBC magazine rating. So they included everyone they knew about. This does not look like the result of a solid investigation."

3. Various of Zakharov looking through report on Kremlin trolls on RBC website

4. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Andrey Zakharov, RBC investigative journalist:

"In regards to the (Trolls) factory there isn't even any indirect evidence (meaning legal proof of Russian entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin's links to the Internet Research Agency) There are some document leaks published by Anonymous International group and many testimonies by former factory workers who say it's a "common knowledge" that this structure is owned by Prigozhin. They have a lot of legal entities, including IRA (Internet Research Agency) which are known about in the States, but in fact this legal entity has not existed for over a year."

5. Various of Zakharov looking through phone

6. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Andrey Zakharov, RBC investigative journalist:

"(Prigozhin takes care of) the state market for food provision for schools and army, and structures linked to him became large catering services providers for (Russian) Defence Ministry military units. Apart from this, he is believed to be sponsoring the Wagner private military company, whose members fought in east Ukraine and then in Syria, where as we know, they recently suffered a heavy defeat."

7. Various exteriors of RBC building