this report. reporter: in january of this year, well after the presidential election, new york martial arts instructor says he was contacted by a group called black first, saying it would pay him to hold free self-defense classes for members of the black community. did you ever think this was weird? yeah. a lot of times i thought it was weird. reporter: weird, but the money was good. $320 a month, paid direct through paypal and google wallet to teach just four classes, and black fist would promote it. what was also weird, no one from black fist ever showed up to meet him. his only communication was in text and far away sounding phone calls from this man named taylor. hello. this is taylor. i wanted to confirm the self-defense classes that we talked about the last time. the digital trail suggests the contact on the phone was part of a russian propaganda
what was also weird, no one from black fist ever showed up to meet him. his only communication was in text and far away sounding phone calls from this man named taylor. yes, hello, this is taylor, i wanted to confirm the self-defense lesson wes talked about last time. reporter: suggests that contact on the phone was part of a russian propaganda arm seeking to stoke official tensions and disrupt the u.s. political system. cnn has confirmed the social media accounts connected to black fist are among the pages facebook identified as coming from russians according to a source federal with the map. links appear on the black fist website and black fist which portrayed itself as an activist group seeking to empower black americans was likely developed inside the russian troll factory in st. petersburg, russia. they convinced you. very easily.
classes and black fists would pro moat it. what was also weird, no one from black fist ever showed up to meet him. his only communication was in text and far-away sounding phone calls from this man named taylor. yeah, hello. this is taylor. i wanted to confirm the self-defense classes that we talked about last time. reporter: the digital trail suggests the contact on the phone was part of a russian propaganda arm seeking to stoke racial tensions and disrupt the u.s. political system. cnn has confirmed the social media accounts connected to black fist are among the pages facebook identified as coming from russians, according to a source familiar up with the matter. links to those accounts appear on the black fist website and black fist, which portrayed itself as an activist group seeking to empower black americans, was likely developed inside the russian troll factory
was contact bid a group called black fist, saying it would pay him to host self-defense class for members of the african-american community. particularly, but not exclusively for black people. did you ever think this was weird? a lot of times i thought it was weird. reporter: weird, but the money was good. $320 a month paid directly through pay pal and google wallet. and black fist would promote it. what was also weird, no one from black fist showed up to meet him. his only communication was in text and far away sounding phone calls from this man named taylor. yes, hello, this is taylor. i wanted to confirm the self-defense classes that we talked about last time. reporter: the digital trail suggests the contact on the phone was most likely connected to vladimir putin s state sponsored progress arm seeking to stoke racial tensions and disrupt the u.s. political system.
good. $320 a month paid direct through papal and google wallet to teach just four classes, and black fist would promote it. what was also weird, no one from black fist ever showed up to meet him. his only communication was in text and far away sounding phone calls from this man named taylor. hello. this is taylor. reporter: the digital trail suggested the context on the phone was part of a russia propaganda arm seeking to stroke racism. the accounts connected to black fist are among the pages facebook identified coming from russia. links to those accounts appear on the black fist website.