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zloyodessit · 3 years

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Russia, a global threat

Since 2014, I've been regularly publishing pieces exposing Russian assets across the EU and around the world, Moscow's large-scale disinformation campaigns and psyops, subversive efforts of Kremlin agents in almost every part of the world, as well as the methods and scale of their human asset network. What surprised me most was the avalanche of defying comments claiming this is all a "figment of my imagination", as Russia is presumably "unable to even feed its own people" so how can they allegedly can't proceed with elaborate special operations on foreign soil.

Alas, sometimes people's ignorance and naivety, as well as an acute lack of any will to actually think when things are literally dissected for their convenience is much a more destructive act than actual treason. But there's also a difference between such ignorance at the mediocre level – when wide audiences underestimate or fail to notice Russia's destabilizing efforts in the international level – and government-level failure to see such things.

Today, the Czech Republic's move to officially accuse Russia's intelligence of masterminding a series of explosions at the Vrbetice ammunition depot on October 16, 2014, directly naming as suspects GRU operatives already known to the whole world over the Salisbury poisoning, serves as yet another reminder of what Russia actually is about and why it must be seen exclusively as a global threat.

To begin with, I'd like to remind you of the classic system of infiltration of Russian agents of influence into the international community that's been lasting for decades. Among such agents are the so-called journalists and experts, as well as refugees and asylum seekers – the category which the EU has kindly embraced for the most part.

In 2020, I penned a series of opeds devoted to the Russian methods of infiltrating the Western community with their assets. I described in detail the scheme related to media infiltration in my piece entitled Russian propaganda: Kremlin's legion of journalists in Russia and beyond, and creating a puppet pool of experts as well as methods of transferring to Europe potential terrorists under the guise of refugees and controlling radical groups in the EU and beyond – in my review Radical refugees in Kremlin service in Europe and worldwide.

In addition, in my pieces Russia is forming a neo-Nazi coalition in Europe, In Russia, neo-Nazism has long acquired an official status, I wrote about camps set up in Russia where militants and neo-Nazis, including those from the EU, undergo training, while the country hosts actual neo-Nazi forums and greenlights the relevant marches. In fact, Russia has become a refuge for neo-Nazis from all over the world, including the leader of the U.S. paramilitary neo-Nazi group The Base, Rinaldo Nazarro.

But Russia doesn't limit itself to the EU alone – it has long expanded its network across the ocean. Moreover, it is keen to finance absolutely all destructive phenomena in countries that are traditionally considered Russia's antagonists. In particular, this is about the United States, where destabilization efforts kicked off with presidential election meddling in 2016 and culminated in provoking the Capitol riot in 2021. I covered these developments in more detail in my piece Ghosts of a fringe Capitol riot in Washington.

Of course, such special operations require serious financial injections. Starting from buying up loyalty of entire political parties, such as France's National Association, led by Marine Le Pen, whose election campaigns Russia received tens of millions of euros from Russia, and Italy's Lega Nord, funded by Russia through oil deals with Eni.

Besides covering these episodes, I did a deeper study of Russia's support for international separatism, as well as terrorism, in particular, ties with ISIS, the Taliban, and Hezbollah. Moreover, Russia has been making efforts to legalize the latter it legalizes at the official level! More details were offered in my piece Hezbollah and Russia are forming a terrorist alliance of a new formation.

So what we have is a plethora of facts proving Russia has long been investing massively in destabilizing foreign democracies rather than increasing the well-being of their own people and the country as a whole. To each target, Russia has a specific approach, with a varying degree of brazenness and scale, from murdering foreign nationals to setting up terror acts, from orchestrating large-scale protests (Paris, Montenegro, Catalonia, etc.), to masterminding coups d'état. In the latest revelation, we see Russia standing behind ammo depot blasts… Still, this terrorist state remains unpunished at the level of its intelligence capabilities!

And that's not to mention the invasion of Ukraine, occupation of the Crimean peninsula and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as the MH17 downing!

But, by the problem of impunity of Russia's intelligence capabilities, I mean, first of all, the apparent need for foreign counterintelligence agencies to focus on targets beyond Russian diplomatic missions, traditionally filled with spies, to cover almost all Russians penetrating their territory with the purpose other than tourism: Journalists, experts, political scientists, and students ... That's right, students are a real thing – here we should recall the story of a notorious Maria Butina, a high-profile spy who was initially deployed as a student.

Russia has launched a large-scale game against the entire Western world. And it's now high time for the West to adequately respond to this threat

https://medium.com/@zloyodessit2.0/russia-a-global-threat-ea5df5ea8a8c

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zloyodessit · 3 years

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Handelsblatt spearheads Russian propaganda in Germany

On March 18, Germany's Handelsblatt published on its website an article entitled "Shadows of Nord Stream 2: Significant Opportunities for Ukraine." The piece claims U.S.-German negotiations are allegedly under way to ensure increased assistance to Ukraine on the part of Berlin in exchange for the U.S. ceasing efforts to block completion of Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Well, given that Handelsblatt is one of Germany's oldest daily newspapers, it probably doesn't make sense to mistust its reporters... Or does it?

The thing is that, having faced total fiasco in an attempt to have their pipe finally reach the German coast in the Baltic Sea, Russian propaganda started slowly but confidently to cultivate the narrative of the alleged secret talks being held between Berlin and Washington behind Kyiv's back on the completion of Russia's project.

A number of vested interests both in Russia and Germany are working to circulate these narratives. It is these vested interests that are trying to push these ideas to achieve r own geopolitical and economic goals within the EU media space and beyond.

After the new presidential administration took over in the United States, the intensity of these spins further increased, because it is very convenient to imply that the change of power fits into the paradigm of those "new negotiations" in the framework of which, it is claimed, Ukraine is nothing but a bargaining chip!

Surprisingly, these narratives kept being spun even after the new U.S. Presidential Administration declared a tough stance on Nord Stream 2 and, moreover, expressed readiness to make additional efforts to completely block NS2 completion.

Hence the question – what is the Handelsblatt piece is even talking about if realities show that things are exactly the opposite across the pond? The United States never changed its stance on the Russian pipe – moreover, it is radically strengthening its intentions to not let Nord Stream 2 be completed.

Here it would be wrong to turn a blind eye to the fact that it was Handelsblatt that was among the first media outlets to attack the AstraZeneca vaccine, as part of a larger-scale campaign to discredit the Oxford-made drug. In January 2021, Handelsblatt claimed in its piece that the vaccine is practically ineffective for the elderly recipients. However, in that material, a "respected" newspaper practically spread rumors, manipulated data on the number test subjects per certain age groups, and the efficacy rates. As a result, a scandal erupted, which called into question the newspaper's credibility.

Recently, Handelsblatt went on to publish another piece, mainly based on rumors, insider information and tips from unnamed sources, in the absence of indisputable facts that should be inherent in "high journalism" unlike paid puff pieces.

In both of these cases, it is worth noting that the attack on AstraZeneca and claims of some secret negotiations between the U.S. and Germany on Nord Stream 2 were all consonant with long-standing propaganda narratives designed in Russia. It seems that Handelsblatt journalists draw their inspiration from Russian news feeds!

And perhaps this isn't just an impression… Perhaps it's the newspaper itself, which, by the way, has collaborated with Russia's RBC agency for more than ten years, actually works to channel Russian propaganda in its latent and veiled ways. And perhaps it's from their eastern counterparts that they receive the so-called temniki (this is how Russians call secret instructions for the media on how to cover specific events) on compromising Astra-Zeneca and spinning rumors of U.S.-Germany talks on NS2. And no one seems to care about journalistic standards and controversial essence of claims spun.

Obviously, this is exactly the case.

https://medium.com/@zloyodessit2.0/handelsblatt-spearheads-russian-propaganda-in-germany-f1e274a22ffe

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zloyodessit · 3 years

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Why does Russia pass own neo-Nazis off as Ukrainians

In February this year, Russia's FSB released a sensationalist report on the arrest of the three members of a "neo-Nazi Ukrainian group", the MKU, which allegedly operated on the Russian territory. Almost all Russian media emphasized in their news headlines that this group was "Ukrainian".

But, as it turned out a little later, all the detainees were Russian citizens, while all material seized during searches (literature, symbols and paraphernalia) completely lacked the Ukrainian context. Moreover, actual Russian neo-Nazi organizations were outraged by the arrest because, firstly, they were surprised such an organization as the MKU even existed without their knowledge, and secondly, because the detainees had been members of the Russian Corps, a quite real neo-Nazi group!

In fact, it was the first time Russians ever heard about the MKU (Maniacs. Cult of Killers) when the three thugs were arrested in Voronezh. And it was precisely the FSB who delivered the original report which was then immediately picked up by Russian media.

Then, on February 18, in my piece "Neo-Nazi Russia is again cultivating fakes about 'Ukrainian fascism'", I focused on the fact that this is not the first time when a certain Ukrainian "neo-Nazi" group emerges in the Russian infospace literally out of thin air, aimed to terrify and intimidate worse than the ISIS.

In particular, I recalled the story of how the Misanthropic Division group emerged in the media space – the organization that had never actually existed in Ukraine until a Polish radical on a short Russian leash, Tomasz Maciejczuk, started telling boogeyman stories about it. This Pole, who poses as a "Russophobe" only to conceal his Russia ties, told these stories on notoriously propagandistic panel shows on Russian TV.

It was Tomasz Maciejczuk and his curator from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Dmitry Yermolaev, editor-in-chief of the Federal weekly Rossiiskie Vesti, and concurrently co-chairof the Eurasian Popular Front (ENF) and the Anti-Bandera Movement, who designed a fake story about some Ukrainian neo-Nazi group, Misanthropic Division. Subsequently, when the project turned out to be a success in the media space, it received additional funding and a number of staged actions were carried out for which this mysterious "Misanthropic Division" claimed responsibility – all aimed at discrediting Ukraine in the eyes of the international community.

In fact, "Misanthropic Division" was a project by the Russian SVR, being at the time a potential branch of the FSB. Recently, however, the confrontation between the two agencies' leaders has escalated, so the issue of any joint projects has become quite burdensome. Therefore, the FSB decided to repeat the relative success of the Misanthropic Division on their own.

And exactly in a month, the FSB conducts a major raid, detaining who the agency claimed were members of the "Ukrainian" neo-Nazi group, MKU. Thirteen were arrested in Gelendzhik and another one in Yaroslavl. Moreover, the FSB claimed the group was supervised from Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Surprisingly (actually, not), almost all of these "Ukrainian" neo-Nazis are also citizens of Russia, former members of Russian neo-Nazi groups, including the “Russian Corps”! Moreover, they regularly took part in various events praising ideas of the revival of the Russian Empire, preaching pagan cults, and at the same voicing absolutely no pro-Ukrainian rhetoric.

So, what is actually happening in Russia? Why is it so important for the Russian FSB and propaganda media to cultivate among Russians a narrative about a certain "Ukrainian" neo-Nazi group operating on Russian soil?

Currently, we can see how Russian propaganda is cultivating – primarily for domestic audiences – a narrative about the "Ukrainian threat". On the one hand, they keep spinning regular reports about the "impending offensive" by the Ukrainian Army in Donbas (which never started over the past month despite those hysterical claims, which makes claims by Russian propaganda pundits even more ridiculous), and on the other hand, the FSB reports that some kind of "SBU spies" have been exposed in the occupied Crimea and mainland Russia. And all this is being circulated along the lines of intimidating Russians by the invented "Ukrainian neo-Nazis". Looking at this set of measures undertaken by Russian intelligence simultaneously, there comes an unnerving suggestion that this all could lead to some major and bloody provocation. For example, this could be some terrorist act, with dozens of victims. And of course, it would be "Ukrainian saboteurs" or "Ukrainian neo-Nazis" who would be blamed.

The FSB's MKU project was created for a reason. In the same way as the 1999 explosions in apartment blocks in Moscow, Buinaksk and Volgodonsk gave the Kremlin carte blanche to launch the second Chechen war, the FSB could now attempt to play their new marked card – the sham "MKU" project.

https://medium.com/@zloyodessit2.0/why-does-russia-pass-own-neo-nazis-off-as-ukrainians-572fcfdf8652

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zloyodessit · 3 years

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Russian disinformation on Pfizer, AstraZeneca jabs seen as terrorist act against international community

For more than a year now, the restless Russian propaganda has been exploiting the coronavirus pandemic for its own, revanchist purposes. A year ago, Russia's major narrative spun across their multiple media platforms was of Europe "plunging into a pandemic abyss", while the emphasis was put on the claim that Russia keeps the COVID spread in its own territory under control and even offers aid to other countries. A stunt to remember is a deployment in Italy of the Russian "medics" with a suspicious military background. Of course, it eventually turned out that the stories about the "controlled epidemic" in Russia and the invaluable assistance of the Russian military to Italy were nothing but deceitful and hypocritical elements of a Kremlin propaganda campaign.

Now that the coronavirus pandemic remains on top agenda, Russian propagandists have only changed the context – now it's all about vaccines. As expected, Russia has been vehemently attacking Western vaccines, while doing its best to promote own drug – the notorious Spuntik V.

Currently, the Russian media is circulating a narrative claiming the Pfizer vaccine wouldn't cover the entire global demand, while more and more countries are snubbing the Oxford AstraZeneca. At the same time, Russian media pundits claim that Europe allegedly can't wait to have Sputnik-V deliveries greenlighted.

I won't tire to repeat that Russia's production facilities have certain limits, capping production at 2 million doses per month at full load, which doesn't even allow Russia to cover own needs, let alone ensure stable exports elsewhere. By the way, the already disrupted terms of delivery to Argentina and Paraguay, as well as the acute shortage of Sputnik-V in Russia itself further prove my point! But now I would rather focus on how Russian propaganda is working to compromise Western vaccines.

When it comes to Pfizer, the narrative is being spun claiming that their vaccine is in short supply and there's an acute shortage already. And it's for this reason that Russian propagandists suggest Sputnik-V is capable of drastically changing the situation for the better. This, however, is a blatant and shameless lie.

First of all, the Pfizer jab is used most widely worldwide, enjoying highest demand. In such conditions, some delays in deliveries are rather expected. Also, while Russia this year will be able to produce from 25 million to 30 million doses of its Sputnik-V, Pfizer intends to supply to its customers some 2 billion doses! Feel the difference, as they say!..

When AstraZeneca is highlighted, Russians resort to pure manipulation. Virtually all Russian and pro-Russian media claim that one EU country after another is turning the AstraZeneca drug down over an alleged thrombosis threat for patients.

In reality though, these countries are not abandoning the Oxford vaccine, but rather suspending its use until all circumstances of this possible side effect are clarified. In turn, organizations such as MHRA, EMA and, of course, WHO spoke out to deny any direct link between the vaccine and blood clot incidents.

Most importantly, to date, more than 17 million people have received their AstraZeneca shot in the European Union, while only 40 (!) thrombosis cases have been reported.

In turn, the UK, Canada, and Poland have pursued with using AstraZeneca jabs, having objectively assessed the current situation. At the same time, Russia's propaganda machine has made maximum use of the "thrombosis" issue, trying to push their manipulative agenda to a global level.

Taking into account the fact that it's precisely the AstraZeneca vaccine that is now being used in Ukraine, this infowar blow is directed including against our country. Indeed, Moscow still harbors hope to impose their Sputnik V drug on its neighbor. While they realize that a large-scale information campaign launched by Viktor Medvedchuk's media outlets to promote Spuntik V has failed miserably, now they attempt to discredit the AstraZeneca vaccine.

By the way, AstraZeneca's production potential is about 100 million doses per month – something Russia can only dream of. However, through their malign campaigns in the media space, Russians are disrupting a large-scale vaccination spree worldwide, which in fact equals to carrying out a bacteriological terrorist act of an international scale.

https://medium.com/@zloyodessit2.0/russian-disinformation-on-pfizer-astrazeneca-jabs-seen-as-terrorist-act-against-international-a91776a3e07c

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zloyodessit · 3 years

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Russia's subversive journalism with Croatian passport: What Daria Aslamova is doing in Donbas

Over the past few weeks the Russian media has been gradually, but steadily, in waves, pumping up the narrative claiming that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are "plotting an offensive" in Donbas. Such a simultaneous and persistent circulation of the same statement by multiple outlets, in the absence of actual preparations for an offensive on the part of Ukraine, suggests that Russia could in fact provoke another escalation of conflict, for example, through some sort of violent act of sabotage.

Throughout this time, I've been closely watching the information flow seething in the hybrid media, its nature and structure. While previously their whole point was to distribute spins, so to say, remotely, trying to distance themselves, now they've started playing hard.

The thing is that Russia, in tailoring provocations, always acts by the same classical scheme. On the eve of the impending act of sabotage, journalists (read operatives of one of Russia's intelligence agencies) are deployed in the designated area to appear at the scene at the right moment. During active hostilities in Donbas, not all Russian journalists worked by to this scheme, but only those who enjoyed a special status.

For example, Alexander Kots and Dmitry Steshin, could be called the two harbingers of trouble, as almost all settlements they visited would suddenly come under fire. And of course, they claimed it was Ukraine's Armed Forces who were shooting. According to the investigation, in almost all such cases, the shelling came from the non-government-controlled territories, which testified to the acts of sabotage on the part of these wannabe "journalists", who are in fact Russian military intelligence operatives.

I had to make such a lenghty preface to make sure readers understand that a Russian journalist today is not an enthusiastic professional craving to shoot a hot report and striving to get to the bottom of the truth. Actually, it's not even a gear of a propaganda machine as many believe. In fact, a Russian journalist is more often a spy and/or saboteur. And one such figure working on the clandestine front of the media domain has recently surfaced in Donbas.

Yesterday, an interview was published with Denis Pushilin, taken by Russian journalist Daria Aslamova. The interview, in fact, deserved absolutely no attention, since it was replete with classic propaganda, lies and manipulation, including on the topic of some kind of an "offensive" being plotted by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Donbas. But the interviewer does deserve our attention though. After all, even though Daria Aslamova hasn't earned such a toxic reputation as Kots, Steshin, Pegov and other "journalists" throughout the years of bloodshed in Donbas, her contribution to subversive journalism was much greater than that of her mentioned colleagues combined.

Daria Aslamova is not just a journalist with the Komsomolskaya Pravda, a newspaper supervised by the Russian defense ministry, some of whose correspondents are officers on active duty. Daria Aslamova is not some cannon fodder, who no one would care to lose in the conflict zone as an expendable. The lady has been put on black lists in Ukraine, Turkey and a number of other countries as a spy, an exposed agent of the Russian military intelligence.

In 2017, traveling with a Croatian passport, she tried to fly to Moldova's Chisinau via Romania's Bucharest. She never went beyond the airport though, since she could not clearly explain the purpose of her visit. It is also known that Aslamova during an interview with the security and immigration spoke Croatian, claiming she had "forgotten Russian"!

Daria Aslamova's husband is Croatian journalist Robert Valdeca, a Russian asset in Croatia, as well as a provocative element of Russia's propaganda projects throughout Europe.

For example, it was he who sparked interreligious clashes in Paris, organizing and taking a direct part in putting up posters in support of the Marine Le Pen's National Front (funded by Russia) in the Muslim quarters of the French capital. He also is a frequent guest of Croatian TV shows where he regularly criticizes the EU's migration policy...

As they say, what a couple God's created! Or, to be more precise, the GRU's created...

This couple has already been spotted working toward destabilization in Spain through the crisis in Catalonia, in Sweden – as supporters of protests against "violent" migrants, and in Germany – as strong supporters of the rightist AfD party…

In 2020, she covered the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, making staged reports about the shelling of settlements by "Azerbaijani rocket artillery" and telling other sentimental stories about Azerbaijani "fascists".

The appearance of Daria Aslamova in Donbas and the interview taken with Denis Pushilin suggests that at least the hawkish part of handlers of both Pushilin and Aslamova is serious about escalation in eastern Ukraine. And such escalation would be impossible without some act of provocation.

It is not yet clear whether it will be Aslamova who will cover this particular provocation. In any case, she doesn't stay long in any hot spot as Kots or Pegov do. Her trips are of a short-term and high-precision nature. That is, if the goal is to have Aslamova cover the upcoming provocation, it will take place within two to three days. If, on the eve of such provocation, the goal was to interview Pushilin as a propaganda element for domestic use, then the task has been completed. But I don't believe Aslamova would be deployed from her cozy home in Croatia to perform such a simple function.

In any case, whatever the developments will be in Donbas in the coming days, agent Aslamova has fulfilled her function before returning to Croatia, where local law enforcement and security agencies don't seem to care that an actual Russian spy and saboteur lives in their country unimpeded.

https://medium.com/@zloyodessit2.0/russias-subversive-journalism-with-croatian-passport-what-daria-aslamova-is-doing-in-donbas-28c0b175873c

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zloyodessit · 3 years

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Russia intends to blame "insidious" West for its vaccine failure on world stage

The Russian campaign to promote their Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine, implying bribing government officials and medical experts to promote the drug abroad, as well as spreading fake news about Western vaccines, boomeranged against the masterminds behind this very campaign.

First, the United States and the EU have openly accused Russia of large-scale circulation of lies and manipulation as regards the efficacy of Western vaccines.

Secondly, over the past few months, Russia has been facing a total fiasco in their vaccine exports. In Argentina, the delivery schedule has been badly disrupted. Similarly, in Paraguay, where the situation is even more disastrous… At the same time, one political scandal after another is sweeping over the countries intending to purchase the Russian drug. After all, the facts are being exposed of corruption schemes and bribery of officials who had been lobbying for Sputnik-V in their home countries.

Thirdly, the Russian plan to produce their vaccine at facilities abroad, given the shortage of domestic capacities, has also turned against Moscow. After all, right after Russia proudly claimed that their Sputnik-V would be produced in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, the official authorities of the respective countries immediately refuted such statements.

Russian propaganda keeps stepping on rakes in the global battle to promote its vaccine. This time, they couldn't think of anything better than to announce that the United States was preparing a large-scale campaign to compromise the Russian drug to help Pfizer! Actually, Russia decided to blame the United States for what Moscow has been doing over the past year… Very "clever", indeed. In fact, it's truly ridiculous an attempt, and you know why?

The thing is that the existing production capacities will allow Pfizer to sell 2 billion doses before year-end. In turn, Russia's capacities cap this year's sales of Sputnik V at 25-30 million doses.

Exactly, Sputnik-V, which has no decent competitors globally, is so much "in demand" and so "massively distributed" that guys in Pfizer are probably grab their heart pills whenever they hear the name. So, yes, they just crave to go discredit the Russian jab!

In fact, though, why bother? After all, the Sputnik V has long completed a rather easy task of discrediting itself.

Actually, Russia's game of preemption, aimed to blame some third party for the fiasco of their vaccine on the world stage, is clear as day. But will be of any help to Russia? I doubt it!

https://medium.com/@zloyodessit2.0/russia-intends-to-blame-insidious-west-for-its-vaccine-failure-on-world-stage-7b5ddc141f64

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zloyodessit · 3 years

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Another "super-win" for Russia's "super-vaccine" Sputnik-V!

Chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Thomas Mertens, has referred to the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine as a good one, suggesting that it should be approved for use in the EU.

Russian media are extatic over what they present is yet another confession! But, I'm just wondering, has anyone in Russia ever heard of that Stiko? Or let's put it this way, how many Germans are aware of having such an "influential" organization? You will be surprised: the situation is about the same as it is in Russia.

The fact is that Stiko is not a government agency, but merely a group of volunteers with some 18 permanent members on the board, who meet twice a year to discuss pressing issues in Germany. A kind of a discussion club or a panel. The most attention the group has ever gotten from the media was when it turned out that they fed off of the opaque financing by a number of vaccine manufacturers for publishing rather dubious, laudatory reviews about certain drugs.

Back then, the scandal reached the Bundestag level, but the unscrupulous pharmacists were never eventually brought to justice.

Nevertheless, the Stiko organization has long compromised itself, and bias in its reporting is beyond doubt. But still, the question remains relevant – what did the Russian side promise to Thomas Mertens for praising Sputnik-V? According to a classic scheme, with an eye to Gerhard Schroeder, Karin Kneissl and other Kremlin lobbyists in the EU, I would assume this could be a cosy post with the Russian Ministry of Health or some pharmaceutical company? Or perhaps it could be a one-off crypto payment?

But it's still funny to watch how Russian propagandists fall into a hurray-patriotic euphoria after a corrupt pharmacist, totally unknown in Russia and little-known in Germany, claims that Sputnik-V is a good jab. In turn, organizations such as WHO and EMA distance themselves from the Russian vaccine as from a plague-ridden flask.

Well, isn't that hilarious?

https://medium.com/@zloyodessit2.0/another-super-win-for-russias-super-vaccine-sputnik-v-b810b8773a55

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zloyodessit · 3 years

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Nord Stream 2 construction may result in major environmental disaster

Russia has delivered the atropine antidote to the pipelaying vessel engaged in completing the project.

The Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine on Monday, March 1, revealed in its report that workers and crew members at the ships involved in the laying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipe, were supplied with stocks of a peculiar drug – atropine – which is an antidote used if someone gets poisoned with chemical warfare agents ...

I should dwell a bit on what atropine and chemical warfare agents have to do with the Nord Stream 2 project, which is already more than a year behind its initial deadline and still struggling to be completed due to sanctions.

Back in October 2019, in my piece "'Safe' route of Nord Stream 2", I wrote that the Danish Energy Agency had issued Nord Stream 2 AG a permit to lay a section of the gas pipe on the country's continental shelf, southeast of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, where, after World War 2, four Soviet ships carrying chemical weapons were sunk, with a total load of 15,000 tonnes.

Also, in the eastern part of the sea off Bornholm, the Soviet fleet uncontrollably buried 8,000 tonnes of chemical munitions. The hazardous load was being dropped along the entire route to the designated burial site. So at the time the ship carrying the deadly load arrived at the site, it actually weighed less.

According to the letter by the Soviet Minister of Internal Affairs, S. Kruglov, addressed to Joseph Stalin, dated August 1948, the dumping of chemical weapons was indeed done randomly. This is the quote from that letter: "Often, due to poor visibility and heavy storms, shells with chemical warfare agents are thrown into the sea beyond the designated areas."

And now, let's get back from the echo of the past to modern-day realities. The thing is that the only vessel with dynamic positioning that Russia has is the Akademik Chersky, which requires serious additional modernization, which in turn no Western company is ready to carry out. Once again, that's because of the looming threat of being sanctioned. Meanwhile, Russia is unable to carry out such modernization due to the lack of appropriate technologies.

Therefore, Russia hastened to obtain from Copenhagen a permit to use a vessel with anchor positioning, which was the Fortuna pipelayer, which simultaneously applies 12 anchors! That is, while previously it was only the immediate pipelaying posed a risk of engaging hazardous deposits on the Baltic Sea bottom, now those 12 anchors have added up to that risk as they are literally plowing the sea bed.

It is difficult to imagine a scale of disaster is anything of this kind happens, but the Russians have already supplied to the pipelaying ship ampoules with atropine. On the other hand, not only such an emergency could harm the ship and the infrastructure facility, as well as lead to the human casualties, it could also but also inflict serious damage to the environment in the area of Bornholm Island and the entire Baltic Sea.

What an irony... The descendants of "Europe liberators" are working on dirty minefields planted by their ancestors across Europe.

https://medium.com/@zloyodessit2.0/nord-stream-2-construction-may-result-in-major-environmental-disaster-9b59601fb8d3

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zloyodessit · 3 years

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It was a hot night in Spain

It was a hot night in Spain.

Thousands of radicals have taken to the streets of Spanish cities after Catalan rapper Pablo Hasél was sentenced to nine months in prison for insulting the king and the police in his tweets and song lyrics. But there's something else in this story that's more important to us here in Ukraine...

Hasél had been performing across Spain in support of the so-called "DPR" and "LPR" – Russian proxy entities in Donbas – and sending the funds raised from his gigs to these pro-Russian terrorist groups. So it turns out he's among sponsors of Russian invasion in Ukraine. And now, almost all Russian propaganda puppets, including Alexander Kots, Semyon Pegov, and Zakhar Prilepin (the trio at the forefront of infowar operations by the Russian GRU military intelligence – the agency that played a crucial part in destabilizing Catalonia), as well as the platform affiliated with a fringe Russia-sponsored Ukrainian blogger Anatoly Shariy – they all support the defiant Catalan rapper.

The Spanish authorities had been turning a blind eye to Hasél's efforts to raise money to sponsor the killing of Ukrainians, but as soon as he insulted the king, he's got locked up. It's too late though, as thousands of radicals rallying around the artist they deem a martyr are already setting streets on fire. That's what happens when you choose not to notice the lingering destructive action of the Kremlin puppet on you own soil.

https://medium.com/@zloyodessit2.0/it-was-a-hot-night-in-spain-5fe31b79da7b

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zloyodessit · 3 years

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Anatoly Shariy subversive actor working for Russian intelligence on European soil

Anatoly Shariy, who recently starred on a Catalan separatist TV channel, voicing false accusations against Ukraine, has further confirmed his affiliation with the Russian intelligence.

Russia has long been implementing a large-scale campaign to have their assets penetrate the Western media space — tailoring these assets’ emigration, bribing local actors (experts, news agencies, and outlets), as well as financing and investing in return for favors, which can also be attributed to actual bribery.

As a result, today, practically in any country within the European Union a pool of Russian assets have been formed, including experts, information resources, public figures, movements, and sometimes the entire political parties defending Russian interests and being directly involved in circulating Moscow’s propaganda that harms both the EU member states and their partners. And this is exactly the plot of Russia’s destructive efforts — to compromise and disorganize.

ATthe other day, one of such Russian assets came into a spotlight as a symbiosis of a corrupt pseudo-expert and a TV channel that is just as corrupt. This is about a pro-Russian blogger Anatoly Shariy who has for years been directly handled by Russian special services, and a Catalan TV channel TV-3, the mouthpiece of local separatists.

Shariy, who is currently living in Spain in a posh villa estimated at EUR 1 million, was invited to tell the Catalan audience about the “rampant neo-Nazism” blooming in Ukraine. At first glance, why would a niche audience of viewers living thousands miles from Ukraine even be interested in anything about Ukraine? Why tell them these boogeyman stories thickly powdered with lies and manipulation, like anything Anatoly Shariy “reports”?

In fact, the use of the “foreign media” element plays an important role in Russian psyops as part of brainwashing. While local consumers of information might doubt what their domestic media tell him, they harbor more trust, at the subconscious level, in foreign sources.

To this end, Russia has for years been forming across Europe the mentioned pool of experts, journalists, and media who would endorse Russian propaganda from their respective platforms. At the same time, Russian media may refer to the reports by these foreign actors to try to prove own point.

What we’re having here is a multi-level circulation of certain narratives: “We informed you first, and now Spanish, German, French, or any other foreign media confirm what we’ve told you.”

In turn, the propaganda narrative claiming “neo-Nazism” in Ukraine has long been part of a Russian hybrid warfare toolkit, aimed to compromise Ukraine in the international arena. However, the problem for the Russian special services is that the neo-Nazi elements actually present in Ukraine are scarce, outlawed and quantitatively comparable to the same groups present in any other European country. In turn, today it is Russia that is the cradle of modern neo-Nazism, where its adepts enjoy government patronage.

For example, it is no longer a secret that hundreds of neo-Nazis from all over the world have undergone combat training at the Partizan center, located just outside St. Petersburg. The facility was run by the Russian Imperial Movement (RID). It provided its members with everything required to study the tactics of urban warfare. Many of the “trainees” later emerge in various hot spots around the globe, including as part of the Wagner Private Military Company.

Incidentally, founder and leader of a U.S. paramilitary neo-Nazi group The Base, Rinaldo Nazarro, who fled to Russia hiding from the FBI over his homegrown terrorist activity, now resides in a luxurious apartment in St. Petersburg facing no charges from local law enforcement.

Moreover, a prominent Russian politician Dmitry Rogozin, who has roots in the neo-Nazi groups, is now their patron and curator.

This might seem too off-topic, but it only demonstrates the extent of the spread of neo-Nazism in Russia and its handling by the Moscow government. Now let’s get back to a sudden collaboration between Mr Shariy and the Catalan TV-3…

Shariy’s appearance came amid the ban Ukraine imposed on Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk’s NewsOne, ZiK, and 112 TV channels, all of which had been spinning Russian propaganda and whose favorite guest was precisely Anatoly Shariy. Since these platforms have lost the lion’s share of their influence, Russian puppet Shariy was deployed to spread his word on the Catalan separatist platform, which is also in the focus of Russian intelligence.

TV3 is the main TV channel of the local public broadcaster Televisió de Catalunya. It is funded by the regional autonomous government, Generalitat de Catalunya. The outlet operating at the expense of taxpayers’ money has surfaced in multiple international scandals.

The channel was accused of being inconsistent with the principles of impartiality, pluralism, and neutrality. The Spanish government criticized the channel for being a political tool for the Catalan nationalist sector and for failing to reflect all differing opinions on the issue of national identity in Catalonia.

The channel openly supports separatism in Spain, regularly providing airtime to the movement’s leaders, including Oriol Junqueras, a Catalan historian, academician, and politician who openly called for the region’s secession. Speaking on the air, he would incite people to riots and criticize the Spanish judiciary system.

TV3 is regularly quoted by Russian and pro-Russian propaganda outlets such as Zvezda.ru, inosmi.ru , and the one in Ukraine — Strana.ua. Also, Russians often use the Spanish channel as a primary source for further releasing own material. In most cases, it is twisting and manipulation that the said TV channel preaches, and this, in turn, is exactly what Russian platforms need.

In fact, the channel is one of the main platforms for pro-Russian politicians in Europe. Both Catalan politicians and public figures used the platform to openly call for the recognition of the Ukrainian Crimea as part of Russia.

During turbulence in Catalonia, Russian media actively span the channel’s reports in own information space to back their narrative of “active separatism” in Europe and draw parallel lines with the situation in Crimea.

As for Catalonia’s attempt in 2017 to obtain independence, it is worth recalling that the Russian media were actively helping their Catalan comrades. A massive team of Russian journalists were deployed in the region, and a special brigade was working across social media to spread the “right” messages about the separatist unrest. In general, all these resources aimed at supporting Catalonia’s intentions to withdraw from Spain constituted the main combat potential of Russia’s GRU military intelligence in the media domain.

Russian military intelligence supported the “revolution” in Catalonia, pretty much copying own moves during the onset of the occupation in Crimea and parts of Donbas, with elements of a foiled coup in Montenegro.

The Spanish National Court, as well as the General Information Commission of the Spanish National Police, are confident that Unit 29155 of Russian military intelligence provided support to separatists in destabilizing Catalonia. The said unit has also come into international focus over their efforts to destabilize Moldova, the poisoning of Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, the coup attempt in Montenegro, and the Novichok nerve agent attack on the Skripals in Salisbury.

It is also known that one of the GRU operatives, Denis Sergeev, who works under the alias “Sergei Fedotov” and who is also the third participant in the Skripal poisoning, regularly visited Barcelona, including September 29, 2017, two days prior to the “referendum”, which points to a coordinated effort.

In particular, it is known that the Russian side offered the Catalan separatists, in addition to financial and information support, some armed assistance, which they prudently rejected.

As riots were unfolding in Catalonia, Russian journos came in who had long been performing assignments in the interests of the GRU. For example, a special correspondent with the KP outlet, Daria Aslamova, who disseminated Crimea and Donbas narratives in the Catalan wrapper: “We want to be heard!” — an analogue of the Russian propaganda cliché “Hear out Donbas!”

It should be recalled that Daria Aslamova has been blacklisted by Ukraine, Turkey and a number of other governments as a foreign spy, an exposed agent of the Russian military intelligence. In 2017, holding a Croatian passport, she was flying to Chisinau via Bucharest. But she could never made it out of the airport upon arrival as she failed to confirm the purpose of her visit. At the same time, Aslamova was addressing immigration officials in Croatian, claiming that she had forgotten Russian!

Daria Aslamova’s husband, Croatian journalist Robert Valdeca, is also a Russian asset in Croatia, who is also engaged in acts of provocation within propaganda projects throughout Europe. For example, it was he who was provoking clashes on religious grounds in Paris, putting up posters in support of Kremlin-funded National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, in the city’s Muslim quarters. It is he who regularly appears on Croatian television slamming criticism on EU migration policies. Also, he took direct part in the attempts to shelter a fugitive Croatian general Ante Roso in the south of France.

That is, it wasn’t a journalist who was deployed to cover Catalan riots for the Russian media but — let’s say as it is — an exposed spy from the GRU’s elite pool.

Now, while everything is pretty much clear with separatism in Catalonia, vehemently backed by Russian military intelligence, whose invariable goal since Soviet times has been to destabilize the West, then what about Anatoly Shariy?

In 2020, open source data revealed that Anatoly Shariy was being funded by Russia. As of that time, he owned real estate in Spain, Luxembourg, France, and other EU countries, worth a total of EUR 18 million.

In this context, it’s rather strange how come EU tax authorities European Union have not asked the guy where all those assets came from, exactly.

Moreover, all real estate Shariy acquired was paid for via a New Zealand-based offshore firm, which he, too, owns. It is worth noting that transactions of this kind always balance on the verge of legality. Unbelievably, though, Russian assets all over the globe has been widely using this very scheme for more than a dozen years already, to legalize, or, more precisely, launder the money to cover clandestine expenses.

That is, not only does Anatoly Shariy pursue systemic work in media space promoting the narratives of Russian psyops, he also serves as a laundromat for the Russian intelligence, ultimately ensuring money inflow for special operations targeting the Bloc and implemented on its own soil.

As for the current situation, it isn’t surprising that, as soon as Anatoly Shariy, the undisputed Kremlin asset who has settled in the EU, at the same time contributing to Russian intelligence efforts at multiple levels, spoke on the Catalan separatist TV channel TV-3, which also plays an important role in the information projects tailored by the GRU, was then widely cited by platforms earlier exposed for their ties with the Russian military intel.

Recently, the SBU security agency in Ukraine revealed that a number of Telegram channels had been destabilizing the country, circulating fake news and misinformation, calling for the toppling of the existing constitutional system, and threatening the country’s integrity. These channels are supervised and administered by the Russian GRU. And, again, almost all of these platforms span Shariy’s gig on Catalan TV-3.

By the way, it is worth noting that the ultra-right groups in Catalonia actually oppose separatist sentiments and in 2017 it was the ultra-right Spanish organizations that even raided the TV-3 channel protesting their deceitful and destructive broadcasting.

This is precisely the moment where the radical groups, which Russian military intelligence usually tries to subjugate, went against the Russian-backed project. And it is not surprising that the topic so painful for the Catalan separatists was echoed by a wannabe “expert” Anatoly Shariy.

So let’s take stock. A Kremlin asset, Anatoly Shariy, enjoying his life in the EU while pursuing systematic subversive efforts in media domain, as well as money laundering for Russian intelligence plotting to destabilize the European community, as well as to physically eliminate certain European citizens or persons who have fled from Russian persecution, stars on a Catalan separatist TV channel, spitting accusations against Ukraine.

Of course, Catalonia could imagine itself an independent state within Spain for all it matters, but Spanish laws do apply on its territory so any subversive activity against the country and the EU in general must be suppressed. And in this case, I believe, Anatoly Shariy’s stunt on TV-3 with false accusations TARGETING Ukraine should receive at least see the reaction of Ukrainian diplomacy. The best option though would be Spanish or international law enforcement taking firm action.

After all, Anatoly Shariy who has “found refuge” on Europe’s body is by no means a blogger but a malign tumor of the “Russian world”, whose only aim is to sow chaos and destroy stability.

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zloyodessit · 3 years

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Russia trying to buy up praise for Sputnik-V vaccine

Russia has dove into colossal spending to get corrupt journalists and experts, who have lost their credibility, to spread a good word about their corona drug.

It is fundamentally important for Russian propaganda to make an impression that their Sputnik V outplays international rivals and enjoys mad global demand.

In fact, the campaign promoting the drug that hasn't even completed clinical trials, at the same time raising concerns over dangerous side effects and ambiguous stability and efficacy, chose to snub any scientific data or fantastic results (there are none), opting for bribery of media pundits and aggressive spins. In some cases, however, zealous efforts of Russian propaganda managers lead to embarrassing confusion, as was the case with The New York Times.

In early January, the newspaper's Moscow-based correspondent, Andrew Kramer, got himself a Russian jab, claiming he intends to dispel mistrust of the Russian vaccine, at the same time praising Moscow's unique experience in vaccine development that stems from Soviet times. Naturally, Russian media overwhelmingly applauded the move: "Hey, look, here's an American guy, who's not afraid to get inoculated with the Russian drug. Breaking news!"

Meanwhile, less than a month into the release of Kramer's report, the same newspaper, The New York Times, publishes a piece entitled "Russian campaign promotes home-grown vaccine and cuts competitors", exposing Russia's efforts to compromise foreign-made vaccines, spreading fake news and manipulating data. The campaigns mainly target audiences in Latin America, especially in Mexico and Argentina.

So much for the integrity of the Moscow-based reporter… After all, after such a critical piece, the earlier material by Comrade Kramer looks ridiculous. Who knows, perhaps someone in Russia somehow convinced the journo that the Russian vaccine was a blast…

As for the Spanish-speaking target audiences, I came upon a rather interesting case involving a fake story which Russian media circulated referring to an acclaimed Le Monde, which Russians claimed stated that it's only Sputnik-V that can save Europe from corona.

In fact, it turned out that the laudatory column was penned by some guy Federico Cuxo for an Argentine-based mirror site Eldiplo.org, which mostly duplicates in Spanish the content authored by Le Monde Diplomatique. Over half of the site's content is pretty much about praising Russia's foreign policy, Vladimir Putin personally, and more recently, the Russian vaccine.

Incidentally, literally the other day, a popular health outlet Lancet tried to hop on the hype train, once again publishing an overly praising piece on the Russian vaccine. The international medical community, however, just as last year, raised a question about the reliability of data published, although Lancet's editors, who had earlier been caught on other manipulative stunts, never delivered a more detailed report to back their initial article.

One can only guess how humongous Russia's budgets are for promotion campaigns employing greedy journalists and editors, including of what can already be called compromised media platforms...

At the same time, it should be clear that Russia receives no financial benefit from the said campaigns whatsoever. The thing is, the country lacks sufficient production capacities even to cover domestic demand, let alone stable exports. So it appears that these massive PR efforts boil down to tickling someone's ego rather than doing a job they're supposed to do, which is help the government sell their product.

And now a cherry on the cake. Immediately following a military coup organized by friends of the Russian defense chief Sergei Shoigu, exactly after he visited the country, Sputnik-V was greenlighted for use. What a coincidence, right? While some might think it was a win for the Russian campaign, I believe this is a major embarrassment.

Fortunately, in Ukraine, lobbyists for Sputnik V, including Putin's crony Viktor Medvedchuk and a pro-Russian political force OPZZh have badly failed their mission – that's despite wasting plenty of money, including that of Russian taxpayers, for the past six months, trying in vain to lobby the Russian drug, even in the format of local production.

On the other hand, it is really encouraging that pretty much no one endorses the Russian vaccine, trying to avoid it. At the same time, those willing to approve it are either directly subordinate to Russia (Belarus and Serbia) or get hefty kickbacks to this end (Hungary).

Another embarrassment…

https://medium.com/@zloyodessit2.0/russia-trying-to-buy-up-praise-for-sputnik-v-vaccine-6d06491819ad

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zloyodessit · 3 years

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Hackers attacking European medical outlets to promote Sputnik-V, try to legalize "DPR"

Russian hackers have targeted European medical online platforms to create the appearance of international recognition of the Sputnik-V vaccine and at the same time try to "legalize" Moscow's proxy forces in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

The other day came another proof that Russia never abandoned attempts to popularize and exaggerate the importance of their Sputnik-V corona jab, which in reality has been confronted with a huge number of critical reviews and remains largely snubbed by international healthcare community. Along the way, the Russians tried to complete a task from a different domain – to try and legalize in the Western media space the unrecognized "DPR' (the self-styled "Donetsk People's Republic).

Platforms affiliated with Russia's military intelligence, ranging from Telegram channels such as Zrada Chy Peremoga (Treason or Win), which poses as a Ukrainian one, to puppet propaganda media such as Russkaya Vesna (Russian Spring), Vesti.UA, and others, started circulating reports claiming that a popular outlet Nature.com told their readers about the efficacy of the Russian vaccine, while illustrating their stories with a photo of Denis Pushilin, a puppet leader of the so-called "DPR"!

So the story is attempting to deliver a win-win for Russia – rooting for the vaccine and praising a rogue leader. This is actually a classic and well-thought out psy-op effort aimed to kill two birds with one shot.

In fact, though, if you check out the Nature.com site, you won't find there any mention of Denis Pushilin there. The outlet never posted the warlord's photo showing him taking a Sputnik-V shot in the occupied Donetsk.

But if you take a snapshot allegedly taken from the said site and put the name of the article into a Google search bar: "COVID research updates: Russia's Sputnik V vaccine shows high effectiveness" search results will definitely surprise you. The only clickable link will take you to the PubMed medical database, which aggregates articles on medical biological topics. But, here's a twist. The link posted on PubMed, in turn, takes you to Nature.com's piece "COVID research updates: What makes a person with COVID more contagious? Hint: not a cough" from the site's section which regularly posts articles on the spread of COVID-19 and the efforts to tackle it – including through vaccines.

So what was that all about anyway?

This is actually what's being observed on many other information platforms, even Wikipedia, where absolutely unfounded claims pursuing Russian propaganda goals appear from time to time. Media tend to sensationalize such material before moderators and admins spot the error and fix it. This way the "breaking news" makes its way unhindered to the plate of information fast food consumers.

So, what we have here is that malicious actors briefly put up a piece on Nature.com on Sputnik-V vaccination, with a photograph of Denis Pushilin. The article was immediately picked up by news dumpsters from Russia, as well as automatically made it to the PubMed aggregator.

At both platforms in question, moderators were too slow with the response to take the flawed piece down so the article was deleted only after it had already been circulated by Russia's fringe media.

Of course, there was never any recognition of the Russian drug or "legalization" of a Donetsk gangster. It was simply a cyberattack, which aimed at posting a fake news piece channeling a Russian psy-op's narratives.

Unfortunately, the not-so-picky audiences tend to easily swallow and digest such info junk food, without thinking twice about the source or credibility of what they consume.

https://medium.com/@zloyodessit2.0/hackers-attacking-european-medical-outlets-to-promote-sputnik-v-try-to-legalize-dpr-7d75b8a1d636

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