The web brigades (Russian: Веб-бригады ) are alleged online teams of commentators linked to security services that participate in political blogs..

The web brigades (Russian: Веб-бригады ) are alleged online teams of commentators linked to security services that participate in political blogs and Internet forums to promote disinformation and prevent free discussions of undesirable subjects. Allegations of the existence of web brigades were made in a 2003 article "The Virtual Eye of the Big Brother"




An article "Conspiracy theory" published in Russian journal in 2003 criticized the theory of web brigades as an attempt at creating myths by Russian liberal thinkers in a response to the massive "sobering up" of the Russian people. A point was made that the observed behaviour of forum participants may be explained without a theory of FSB-affiliated brigades.

As mentioned in 2007 sociological research of large groups in Russian society by the RIO-Center, the belief in the existence of web-brigades is widespread in RuNet. Authors say "it's difficult to say whether hypothesis of existence of web-brigades corresponds to reality", but acknowledge that users professing views and methods ascribed to members of web-brigades may be found at all opposition forums of RuNet.

The expression "red web-brigades" (Красные веб-бригады) used by Anna Polyanskaya as a title to her article is a pun with "Red Brigades".