CHARLOTTE -- Some of the protests following the Keith Scott shooting may have been organized and actually funded by Russian groups.

Two Charlotte protests -- one in September last year, another in October of 2016, were promoted by "BlackMattersUS" -- a group reportedly operated by a Russian "troll farm.”

It is the same farm that CNN says it is linked to thousands of fake Facebook ads and connected to blackfist.pro, which paid personal trainers to run free self-defense classes for African-Americans. 

"I thought i did the research. I looked at their social media, I looked at their website, and everything looked great," said Conrad James, the president of Living Ultra Violet. 

While those protests remained mostly peaceful, groups involved believe the Russians posing as activists meant to cause conflict in cities like Charlotte. 

The report now puts into question how protests may have been organized or where some groups get their funding from.

"Oh, definitely, if it was this intricate…I mean they gave me a OneUnited bank card to buy the speakers,” said James.

James said activists and the public will have to become more careful, or risk being manipulated like he was.

"Their intent was malice. and the impact was benevolent because of the passion of the activists that they tried to be predators upon,” he said.