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An african american american advocacy group and hired black americans to further their cause. cnn senior investigative correspondent drew griffin reports, drew. >> reporter: cnn learned a group associated with russia tricked personal trainers, boxing instructors, and paid them to hold free self-defense classes, the classes aimed at african american activists. in january of this year, well after the presidential election, new york marshal arts instructor says he was contacted bay group called black fist saying it would pay him to hold free self-defense classes for members of the black community...

In st. petersburg, russia. >> they convinced you. >> very easily. very easily. some of the things were, you know, sketchy, but at the end of the day, still fitness. it's just training people. >> reporter: look at what black fist said about its self-defense classes. they are by black for black and them know that black power matters. his contact also wanted these, videos and photos of blacks learning self-defense. he wasn't the only one. personal trainers in classes promoted in other cities, los angeles, lancing, michigan, according to event bright and other pages, were classes were being public...

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 identifi...

Election metdsling. the daily beast reports retweeted messages from a russian troll account, most notably don jr. and kellyanne conway, up to a week before the election. next hour we will speak with one of the reporters who broke that story. and this comes as cnn has learned some of the intricate plotses that the russians used, the tactics that they used to try to disrupt the united states population. drew griffin explains. >> 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 fists, saying i...

Russian or anything like that. no, sir. it messed me up. >> reporter: all part of a sophisticated campaign that included facebook ads, twitter posts and efforts to organize at least two big rallies, one against police brutality. u.s. investigators believe it was directed from this so-called troll factory in st. petersburg, russia. >> as a way to suppress votes and stoke fear. a level of sophistication that i don't think we appreciated at the time. >> reporter: investigators say the russian factory also was behind these youtube videos, first reported by "the daily beast," aimed at black communi...