Vladimir Putin revealed to employ 'trolls' to flood websites with pro-Russian propaganda

The army of workers are paid £500 a month to work exhausting 12-hour shifts, during which they must write at least 135 pro-Russian comments per day - or face immediate dismissal.

The repressive system - which was described by one worker as like something from George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 - also requires that employees remain silent and face fines for being a minute late.

Forging friendships with each other is also highly frowned upon.

The authoritarian procedure was exposed by one former worker, who compared the unassuming four-storey modern headquarters where he toiled to the Ministry of Truth in Orwell's book.

Asked if he agreed that it sounded like something from the classic novel, Marat Burkhard said: “Yes, that’s right, the Ministry of Truth.

"You work in the Ministry of Truth, which is the Ministry of Lies, and everyone kind of believes in this truth. Yes, you’re right, it’s Orwell."

He described the daily procedure as simply creating the "illusion of actual activity" on various news and social media websites.

Once they have found a story, the workforce split into groups of three where one plays the villain, criticising the authorities, while the other two argue with him and support the government.

Between them, the pro-Kremlin pair must provide one image to fit their argument and a link to some relevant content.

Mr Burkhard told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: "You see? Villain, picture, link.

"So in this way our little threesome traverses the country, stopping at every forum, starting with Kaliningrad and ending in Vladivostok.

"We create the illusion of actual activity on these forums. We write something, we answer each other. There are keywords, tags, that are needed for search engines.

"We’re given five keywords – for example ‘defence minister’ or ‘Russian army’. All three of us have to make sure these keywords appear all over the place in our comments."

One unusual assignment he was given involved US President Barack Obama chewing gum in India and then spitting it out.

"[I was told] ‘You need to write 135 comments about this, and don’t be shy about how you express yourself. Write whatever you want, just stick the word Obama in there a lot and then cover it over with profanities’.

"In the assignment, there’s always a conclusion you’ve got to make that Obama doesn’t know anything about culture.

"You stick him in ancient India and he chews gum there. It’s funny in the sense that they’re ready to grab onto any little thing. On the other hand, it’s not funny. It’s absurd and it crosses a line."

He further described how there are around 40 rooms with about 20 people working in each one, with teams dedicated to Facebook and other websites.

He said: "They write and write all day, and it’s no laughing matter - you can get fired for laughing. And so every day, any news does the trick - it could be Obama, could be [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, could be Greece, North Korea.

"Even a political scientist can’t be an expert about the entire world, but here people are expected to write about everything. And how you write doesn’t matter; you can praise or scold. You just have put those keywords in."

Mr Burkhard stayed at the "troll factory" for just two months before quitting the "absurd work".

He added: "I don’t share this ideology, I'm absolutely against it. I was located in the enemy camp.

"To keep on working made no sense, even for money, because it’s such hard work that - just forget it, forget the money. Just don't make me go there anymore."

Russian president Putin has been accused of brutally shutting down critics of his regime.

Observers recently raised fears about the oppression of political opponents in the country following the murder of high-profile Putin critic Boris Nemtsov in central Moscow.