09.06.2024 Investigations PSYOP

How independent journalists work for the government and security forces. Psychological Operations (PSYOP) or cheap advertising?

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Independent journalists are not so independent after all. How do paid-for wars work and how much does it cost to “drown” the undesirables in the media?

Fake independence Censor.NET

Yuriy Butusov is the editor-in-chief of Censor.net and a person who has learned to adapt to the dominant political force over the years. Butusov’s list of supporters at one time included: Oleksandr Turchynov, Arsen Avakov, and the Batkivshchyna party in general.

According to one of the materials: “In 2019, members of the press accused Butusov of calling on the military to disobey the commander-in-chief, as well as killing Russian officers and representatives of the ‘DPR’ during their inspection of Ukrainian positions near Shumy. Yuriy was called one of the representatives and ideologues of the “party of war”.

The editor-in-chief of Censor.net himself stated that his statement was aimed at protecting Ukraine from the aggressor country.

Yuriy Butusov is the editor-in-chief of Censor.net and a person who has learned to adapt to the dominant political force over the years. Butusov’s list of supporters at one time included: Oleksandr Turchynov, Arsen Avakov, and the Batkivshchyna party in general.

According to one of the materials: “In 2019, members of the press accused Butusov of calling on the military to disobey the commander-in-chief, as well as killing Russian officers and representatives of the ‘DPR’ during their inspection of Ukrainian positions near Shumy. Yuriy was called one of the representatives and ideologues of the “party of war”.

The editor-in-chief of Censor.net himself stated that his statement was aimed at protecting Ukraine from the aggressor country.”

Moreover, Butusov also had a conflict with the current President Zelensky, after which the journalist announced his intention to sue for defamation. At the time, the President said that Butusov had worked for oligarch Kolomoisky, and that he was offended by the failure to offer him a position in the Defense Ministry. But, as we can see, the Censor editor never went to court, and the words remained words.

There are also reports online about Butusov’s involvement in the criminal world. The reliability of the information has not been confirmed, as well as most of the data contained in Censor’s articles.

Thus, with Butusov’s commitment, the vector of both his personal publications and Censor.NET materials changed.  Now, the said publication has focused on publishing exclusively commissioned articles.

For example, on October 26, 2023, the first publication was published about the NGO “Non-Stop”, in which the head of the NGO Yakovets was accused of evasion. At the same time, using eloquent language techniques such as: “the military is outraged!” to strengthen public condemnation. In addition, the personal data of Yakovets’ family was published.

In November, a second article was published. Our song is beautiful and new… Moreover, the author of the “work” was military journalist Serhiy Drozd, who conducted an “independent” investigation by contacting Non-Stop and asking to publish a fictionalized material. And again, we received a batch of accusations of being venal, even though no one paid us. So, what was the “venality” in this case?

The third article was published by Kirill Sazonov. Interestingly, Sazonov’s last article on Censor is dated 12/20/2021. Did he get so worked up that he decided to return to the publication with a mega expose? Or is it just a coincidence?

In addition, a note appeared on the Censor website: “Censor.NET editorial board may not share the position of the authors. The authors of the texts are responsible for the materials in the Blogs section.” Just in case, we protected ourselves from liability

Sorry to be alive (Vybachte, shcho zhyvi)

NGO Vybachte, shcho zhyviis a “public organization founded by volunteers from the occupied territories who are tired of the arbitrariness of the authorities” (original text taken from the official Facebook page of the NGO). The said association also spoke out on the topic of the activities of Non-Stop. They published a post accusing them of obstructing the legitimate activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations during a special period and showed an extract from the URPI on the criminal proceedings in this regard.

Interestingly, Sorry to Be Alive has not appeared in the public space since December 2023.

In addition, the open data shows that the NGO “Sorry to be Alive” was founded on January 18, 2017, by Danylo Turchyn. Among the owners are I.V. Goiko and S.V. Ulyanov.

In addition to being the head of the NGO, Turchyn is also the owner of OLK LLC, which specializes in computer programming. Date of foundation – 10.07.2014, authorized capital – UAH 8,249,065. And the most interesting thing is that the registration address is 92801, Ukraine, Bilovodsk district, Luhansk region, urban-type settlement of Bilovodsk, 10 Berehovoi Tupyk Street. The latter is located on the border with Russia and has been under occupation for over 2 years. So why hasn’t the legal entity been re-registered on the territory of independent Ukraine?

It is also interesting that initially OLK LLC was registered in Kyiv, but later, in 2018, it was changed to Bilovodsk.

Relations with the Luhansk people’s republic and Donetsk people’s republic

A few days before the publication of the mega-material, the deputy mayor of Kharkiv, Serhiy Kuzmin, threatened in personal conversations with a new investigation that would “expose the real truth about the NGO.” At the same time, all previous publications were supposed to look like flowers compared to the new one. But as we can see, Kuzmin’s budget was too small. He was stingy, so the exposé failed. The same narratives and information. And unknown publications with minimal coverage. So, next time, please choose more well-known web resources.

Let us recall some of the personal biography of Terekhov’s deputy. According to Kuzmin himself, his father is a former Soviet secret service officer who fled to Russia at the beginning of the invasion and then moved to Germany for personal reasons. The elder Kuzmin has no intention of returning to Ukraine.

Terekhov’s deputy also mentioned his wife’s family ties, who comes from occupied Luhansk. According to Serhii, his relatives live in the LPR and DPR, where they hold important positions. Is this where the roots come from?

But the fact remains that the mega-investigation ordered by Kuzmin and his “overlords” Abramovich, Stolar and ex-law enforcement officer Vyazmikin failed. The budget is too small, the articles are watery.

We advise you to turn to professionals who will present the material in a more interesting way and investigate the information more deeply.

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