InformNapalm international intelligence community presents the report by Myrotvorets (Peacemaker) that analyzed the DPR terrorist organization’s propaganda measures targeted at Western journalists. The report describes the setup of one such program and looks at the personalities of the Western visitors who have become willing supporters of terrorism.

The terrorists are very keen on attracting as many journalists to the occupied territories as they can, especially on organized media trips, in which the route and the program are determined by the inviting party. For that purpose, a non-governmental organization is created and, under the pretext of independent journalism development, the concerned people from all over the world are gathered: Czech Republic, Canada, USA, Vietnam, Great Britain, Bulgaria, Serbia, Brazil, etc. In this investigation the Myrotvorets Center journalists disclose the names and reveal the main point of this fraud.

The mailbox of the so-called “minister of information”, E. Nikitina, contains messages from Alexander Monaenkov (Facebook, Twitter), an activist of The Young Guard of United Russia, who is listed in the Purgatory for being a terrorist accomplice as well as for an illegal border crossing.

The Young Guard of United Russia (website, VK, Wikipedia) is a social and political youth organization affiliated with the United Russia Party. The organization is run by Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin and his deputy Irina Yarovaya. The Young Guard of United Russia supplies personnel for the ruling party.

Monaenkov was in charge of organizing group media trips to the occupied territories of Donetsk Oblast for foreign journalists.

In his first message he lists the journalists to whom Nikitina refers to as “our guests”:

1. Zlatko Percinic – www.neopresse.com– Switzerland
   2. Tomáš Pavlíček – MAFRA – Czech Republic
   3. Dr. Webster G. Tarpley Ph.D. – an American political expert with publications and interviews on CBS, CNN, Fox News, and C-SPAN – USA
   4. Roger Annis – newcoldwar.org– Canada
   5. Halyna Mokrushyna – Counterpunch.org – Canada
   6. Max van der Werff – http://7mei.nl/ – the Netherlands
   7. Иван Сенин – http://www.byoblu.com/ – Italy
   8. Angelo Mandaglio – http://www.byoblu.com/ – Italy

These names can be found in the list of accredited journalists, where we can also see that they are approved by the so-called Parliament of Novorossia with the accreditation valid for the period from 15.04 to 25.04.2015.

In his second message Monaenkov reports on the benefits of this media trip which is in fact a weapon of information war. He also lists the pieces published after the previous groups’ visits.

We can find the same names in the list of journalists accredited by the DPR terrorist organization also stating that they could be contacted via Oksana Bevtsyk from the so-called Parliament of Novorossia (in the Purgatory), accreditation period – 24.03-4.04.2015.

Immediately following the visit to the occupied territory, on March 27, a summing-up event was held in Moscow, which means that they spent only 2 or 3 days in the Donbas, following the program prepared by the organizers. We can also find a publication of 14.04.2015 under the title Foreign Journalists Did Not See a Single Russian Soldier in the Donbas. It is a very good illustration of the purpose of these media trips – the use of foreign journalists to help disguise the Russian aggression and to create the impression of openness by showing them the pre-arranged program. This article describes the event hosted for the third group of journalists intended to prepare them for their visit to the Donbas. This is how we found out that at least three groups of foreign journalists visited the Donbas with the direct assistance of the Great Fatherland Party. All representatives of foreign mass media participated in the Europa Objectiv project (Facebook).

Great Fatherland Party, GFP (website, Facebook) is a quasi-political project established in 2013.

According to their own statement, Europa Objectiv is a media project founded by independent journalists and political experts in September 2014. It is financed by its authors and has no political or economic ties with any governmental organizations whatsoever. Somehow, these “independent” journalists have no problem with cooperating with a Russian party, a youth organization of the ruling party and a terrorist organization. On their website they ask for donations in roubles and euros and list their contact email address as  info@ukraine-crisis.org. Their Twitter account is associated with a website under the same name, which is currently unavailable. The anti-Ukrainian orientation of this “free and independent” journalism project is especially obvious in their Twitter and Facebook, please visit and make your own conclusions.

Their Twitter account directly states the country – Germany, let us see if this is true. The website domain is registered with the Regional Network Information Center, JSC dba RU-CENTER – Russia.

EUROPAOBJEKTIV.COM – the registrant is hidden
mcv.ru, optdisktorg.ru – same owner
ga (‘create’, ‘UA-53931029-6’, ‘auto’);
UA-53931029-6 – identifier
UA-53931029: wooshop.ru, analyz24.ru, Adelantemats.ru, strojpolimer.ru, krovlya71.ru, eurobeauty.pro, mcv.ru, optdisktorg.ru – all resources in the .ru zone

/* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * */
var disqus_shortname = ‘ukrainischekrise’; // required: replace example with your forum shortname
ukrainischekrise

Registrant Contact Information:
Name: Dmitry A Sukhov
Organization: Dmitry A Sukhov
Address: Starokachalovskaya, 4-29
City: Moscow
Postal Code: 117628
Country: RU
Phone: +7.9163386616
Email: sukhov@a-markt.ru

In the public resources, we can find the information on the registrant, Dmitry Sukhov (LinkedIn, Facebook), for whom this is, most probably, just business, but we have to make sure that this business is of Russian origin.

Sukhova, Irina Valerievna
Telephone number: +79163386616
Address: 4 Starokachalovskaya St., 29, Moscow, Moscow and Moscow Region, Russia
Type of telephone number: Cellular
Operator: Mobile TeleSystems OJSC

This confirms that Europa Objectiv, an “independent” journalism project, has its roots in Russia (the aggressor state) where mass media are used for propaganda as a weapon of hybrid war.

This publication shows that a group of journalists from Germany, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Slovenia and Iran participating in the Europa Objectiv project began working on March 30. We can find this group in the accreditation list with the period from 31.03 to 10.04.

In the list of journalists we can find one more group with the accreditation period from 8.04 to 18.04.2015.

The fifth media trip started on 22.05.2015, its accreditation period was till May 1.

Thus, we have established that this project included five media trips to the Donbas with the participation of journalists from various countries.

Let us analyze the report sent to the so-called “minister of information” of the DPR terrorist organization by its Russian partners, as well as the publicly available sources describing these visits.

According to the report, a story about the first media trip was broadcast by the Russia-1 channel (watch from the 38^th minute). This piece also included an interview with Andrea Palmeri, an Italian militant (in the Purgatory).

Janus Putkonen (Finland) gave an interview to a Russian newspaper for the main purpose of denying the Russian military aggression.

Why do Western journalists avoid coming to the Donbas and instead describe the situation there while sitting in their offices?

Janus Putkonen: they are afraid to see the truth which will immediately catch their eye. First, there are no Russian troops, not a single serviceman or volunteer, nor there are Russian officers in the militia command. The Kiev aggressor is opposed only by the volunteers from the local men. Once they mention this, the Western journalists will have to admit that their previous reports were lies and to abandon their propagandist schemes.

Putkonen (in the Purgatory) has already been investigated by the Myrotvorets journalists: The Kremlin Propaganda in Finland Originates from Donetsk: Moscow’s Management of Terrorist Propaganda from Donetsk is a Proven Fact

James W. Carden (USA) writes for The Nation and is the editor of the eastwestaccord.com.website. Previously, he was an advisor on Russia and a special representative for international affairs in the U.S. State Department. He studied in Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

His articles contain a wide variety of pro-Russian propaganda bits: speculations on humanitarian problems, “ethnic Russians of the Donbas”, “civil war”, and many others – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Irena Pan, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn accounts, made a video which was shown on one of the TV channels in Slovenia. This video claims that the Maidan, not the Russian aggression, was the cause of the war, contains multiple interviews with locals saying that Ukraine attacked them without cause, that the Ukraine is no longer a proper state, and many other similar claims. Only one point of view is shown with no attempts of analysis or search for objective information whatsoever.

The news piece and documentary were made by Igor Pozgai from Bosnia, Facebook.

 Pepe Escobar from Brazil (Facebook) wrote a number of articles after his visit to Donetsk: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Vanya Savelevich (in the Purgatory) from Serbia made stories on the Serbian combatants participating  in the war in the Donbas as members of illegal armed groups –1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Cristian Eloy Torres represents HispanTV, a Spanish language channel broadcasting in Latin America – 1, 2, 3

 Ognyan Georgiev (Bulgaria) interviewed A. Kofman whose data can be found in the Purgatory.

Riley Waggaman, Twitter account, is described by Monaenkov as a member of his team; this could be the reason why his name is not among the accredited journalists. He wrote a fake article under the heading “I Saw What Pravy Sektor Does to City Dwellers. Yarosh Isn’t an “Army Advisor” – He’s a War Criminal”. We can only wonder how he could possibly see it.

Polonca Frelih from Slovenia (the second group of journalists) wrote articles (1, 2) and interviewed A. Kofman.

Natali Boronat Rovira, an AVUI correspondent (Spain) from the same group as the Slovenian journalist, published similar materials – on the situation in Donetsk, an interview with A. Kofman and an article on Zelimkhan, a Chechen from Ramzan Kadyrov’s “army”, who left his wife in Chechnya and came to the Donbas to fight “for the right to think in Russian” and on his local “wife”, Stanislava, a sniper from the Don Cossack Union. The interview with them predictably pushes worn-out fakes, for example, about the Donbas feeding the rest of Ukraine, and the Spanish journalist diligently broadcasts them for her audience. Mustn’t the “independent” journalists check these “facts”? Stanislava’s father, Marsel (there is one more publication and a video about him) is a commander of an illegal armed group of about 60 people. These people emphasize that they do not fight for money and are volunteers instead. The journalist interviews war criminals who broke multiple laws, one of whom came to another country to kill people, but keeps repeating her interview subjects’ statements that Ukrainians are “fascists”. Did she really see the fascists? Did she hold any investigations? Where did she get it from? This point was thrust on her by the media trip organizers who planned the trip program carefully and supplied the necessary information.

The articles by Dagmar Henn from The Saker Community (Germany) – 1, 2

The article by Jon Hellevig from Finland repeatedly claims that there is no Russian presence in the Donbas. Can anyone pretending to be a journalist fail to realize his or her responsibilities? He was taken along a pre-arranged route and shown a short pre-arranged program, and he already draws such global conclusions.

Tomas Pavlicek, a journalist of Hospodářské noviny, Czech Republic, published his articles after the media trip 1, 2. From his publication we can identify a foreign combatant fighting in Ukraine – Alexis Castillo (VK), a communist from Columbia where he served as a soldier. His photo against the Russian intelligence flag which he posted on his VK account is an especially good proof of the Russian propaganda statement that there are no Russian military men on the Donbas.

Zlatko Percinic (Twitter), a journalist of NeoPress, Sputniknews (Germany). In his own words, his mission is to provide a counterbalance to the “western propaganda”. He wrote an article about the Donbas and filmed a video where some people talk about tortures. The video largely resembles the story of “the boy in his underwear” which has already become a meme.

Ivan Senin (VK) and Angelo Mandaglio (ОК), journalists from Italy. They participated in a video interview for the Italian audience and also made an article effectively paraphrasing the story by one of the militants who told them about a female sniper who allegedly fought for Ukraine, had a German passport and was wounded or killed. He went on to talk about the “Kiev Junta” having no control over its paramilitary units, which could easily result in chaos. That, he says, can be used against the Junta. And the diligent reporter explains that he is talking about “army of Kiev”. The text leaves the impression that the journalists did not really believe the story and had to repeat their questions multiple times. However, they still published it without even trying to verify this information in other sources.

We have also found a very interesting video of Angelo Mandaglio in the studio of Novorossia-TV. He is described as a volunteer and he confirms it saying that he helps the DPR terrorist organization and that it began with his first visit organized, according to his words, by his Russian colleagues from Europa Objectiv. Together with Sara Reginella (she is mentioned in the list of journalists accredited in the DPR terrorist organization under No. 8310 and visited Donetsk in May, 2016) they gave an interview to The Saker, a pro-Russia resource, where they state that they saw no Russian troops in the Donbass. Sara Reginella made a film, I’m Italian, which presents, as the Russian informational war experts recommend to say, an “alternative” point of view on the situation in Ukraine.

Webster Tarpley from the USA (website, Twitter). He styles himself as a writer, historian, economist, journalist and lecturer. He has a video on the Donbas war on YouTube with 8 views. Or, we can find audios on his website with the annotations – Nazis on the Maidan, Kiev uses cluster bombs, phosphorus and (here the author got a bit uneasy and inserted “most likely”), depleted uranium. At the same time the occupied territories prosper – all banks have been nationalized, electricity, coal and infrastructure are controlled by the government, modern supermarkets and agricultural cooperatives, pension and welfare, increased production and even family building and population growth, obviously, excited by everything around them and aiming at 3 children per family. Yeah, right.

Roger Annis, a socialist from Canada (website). After a short trip following a pre-planned route, he was ready to give an interview to Russia Today as an “eyewitness”, write articles (1, 2), speak at conferences (1, 2), and create a whole section on his website dedicated to what he calls a new cold war in Ukraine and beyond. There, based on his beliefs of fighting NATO and western media, he engages in what we think can be regarded as anti-Ukrainian propaganda (1, 2).

Robert Oulds (Facebook), a representative of the British Conservative Party, politician, military historian, member of the Royal Society of Arts, director of Bruges Group (website, Facebook, Twitter) established in 1989 with the initial purpose of promoting the idea of a less centralized European structure than the one that was being created in Brussels; M. Thatcher was its honorary chair. He gave an interview to Russia Today directly from Donetsk spinning the idea of decentralized Europe and the protection of national interests of one’s country, at the same time ignoring the interests of Ukraine and the threat to the entire world posed by the totalitarian Russia. If Poroshenko wants to establish peace, he can stop the shellings, if he wants peace, he can withdraw his weaponry from the frontline and stop attacking Donbas residents – these are the words of a European politician who illegally entered the occupied territory of Ukraine, was accredited with the DPR terrorist organization and stubbornly fails to see the Russian military aggression.

Joshua Samuel Tartakovsky, a journalist from Israel, wrote a 3000-word piece about his trip where Bandera is mentioned 7 times, Shukhevych – once, Nazism – 4 times and fascism – 7 times (including derivative words), also the word “regime” is used 7 times with negative epithets in connection with the legitimate Ukrainian government. Out of these 26 occurrences only one is related to the DPR terrorist organization, and even that one was “anti-Nazism”. By the way, this piece was published by Novorussia Today and is interesting due to the author’s detailed description of his trip – a group of journalists, including himself, visited Donetsk with the help of Europa Objectiv, which the author calls a German-Russian non-governmental organization. They travelled from Rostov to Donetsk by car (thus violating the rules of crossing the State Border of Ukraine) together with Vietnamese journalists and two Englishmen from Bruges Group. During their trip they saw groups of Russian MiGs and helicopters in the air, however, they noticed no indication of Russia’s participation in the military aggression.

In Donetsk, they “accidentally” ran into Yuriy Sivokonenko, a middle-aged man who told them that he was one of the local unit commanders and lost 20 soldiers in battles with the Ukrainian army. He spoke with tears in his eyes and apologized for that, saying, however, that it had become his personal cause and that he was determined to oppose the restoration of fascism in Kiev. He continued by describing a heavy burden which fell to him, and so on. For more objective information on the above-mentioned Sivokonenko refer to the Purgatory, there is nothing about his tears but a lot about Berkut, the Yanukovych family interests, connections with the State Duma and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, criminal underbosses, special forces and many other things.

Afterwards, they visited Donetsk University where they met another entry in the Myrotvorets database, Sergey Baryshnikov, who expressed his disgust at the “pro-fascist” regime in Kiev. Baryshnikov shared his thoughts about the Kiev authorities but said nothing about himself, which is a pity, as he has a colorful life history – as early as in 2012, he was observed at the “Regional Reintegration as the Launch Pad for Eurasian Consolidation” round table, one of the panels that were, in fact, preparing a war. Later, the terrorists appointed him the president of Donetsk National University, where he had been fired earlier for bribes. He also participated in the attack on the office of Sergiy Taruta’s Industrial Union of Donbass Corporation. If the journalists had taken the trouble to do research on their source, they would have seen the reason for his rejection of the legitimate Ukrainian authorities. However, the “independent” journalists do not care too much about such things, they diligently describe whatever the citizens they “happen upon” tell them. Later, they visited Stepanivka for another tale about Pravy Sector and Yarosh which they, again, diligently wrote down before continuing to Saur Mohyla. On the following day, they left for Rostov, again violating the rules of border crossing.

After this trip, Tartakovsly held a lecture and wrote articles. He visited Lviv looking for Nazism and, failing that, wrote an article about the past, interpreting history in this own way. Why did he have to go to Lviv, then?

This material is the starting point for many investigations, the most interesting ones revealing the financing sources of such tours.

You can have different views on such “independent” journalism, but we can be sure about one thing: all these people violated Ukrainian laws when they entered the occupied territory. Therefore, Myrotvorets Center includes their records in the Purgatory and we, the journalists, inform the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of internal Affairs of Ukraine on the facts of law violations against our state which became known to us.

While we were preparing this article gathering information on the media trips from different sources, our colleagues discovered a consolidated document on the whole project, which even rates the level of trust towards each journalist.

Below is the list of journalists who illegally visited the occupied territory of Ukraine in the spring of 2015. This list should be complemented by adding the name of Riley Waggaman:

The messages that became the source for our investigation.

by Myrotvorets (Peacemaker)

Translated by InformNapalm English specially for informnapalm.org

 An active link to the source for any reprint of other use of the material is required.(Creative Commons – Attribution 4.0 International – CC BY 4.0)