A look inside russia's memes

In the run-up to Russia's presidential election, we took a look at modern Russia in our "Ghost Empire" series. Part of the story of modern Russia is the Kremlin's propaganda factories, including the now-infamous troll factory in St. Petersburg. 

For this interactive, we curated and translated 85 different memes and organized them into different categories so readers could explore them. It's an interesting way to see the pro-Russia, pro-Putin perspective. The story was paired with a radio piece and a digital story about a Russian journalist who worked undercover in the factory and then went on to give many interviews about his experiences.