Twitter users volunteer to be Russia's latest weapon in the information wars

People who signed up for Russian Embassy news and information were asked to permit automatic retweets to share positive news

Some Twitter users are voluntarily handing control of their accounts to the UK's Russian Embassy, which uses them to retweet the "most important" tweets of the Russian ambassador on a weekly basis.

The programme, described by the embassy as the "Russian diplomatic online club", is sold to its members as "a way for everybody interested in international policy and all things Russian to gain knowledge, get insights from top diplomats and be part of fascinating networking, both online and off".