Almost two and a half years have passed since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. During this time, Ukraine has lost tens of thousands of its citizens. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee the Russian-occupied Donbas and Crimea.
In the current situation, the once-heard slogans about strategic partnership and unity with Russia are perceived as a misunderstanding at best.
But we wouldn't be revealing a big secret if we said that, in fact, a well-coordinated information campaign by the Russian Federation has been underway in Ukraine for many years in the geopolitical interests of our aggressive "northern neighbor."
How exactly did the imposition of an ideology favorable to Russia take place in Ukraine? By what means? Who were the people behind it?
This article provides partial answers to these questions through the lens of one Ukrainian citizen recruited by Russian intelligence services. Thanks to his Russian masters, he gained status, fame, possibly a Russian passport, and certainly became a wealthy man. Meet Viktor Alekseevich Pirozhenko, one of the many pocket "residents" of the Russian Empire in Ukraine.
Victor Pirozhenko
In-depth integration processes
As recently as 2013, Russia officially declared that it views Ukraine as a priority partner in the CIS and intends to further strengthen its influence in our country. Specifically, this was stated in the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2013. Part "D" of paragraph 48 of the document is noteworthy, stating the following: Russia will "build relations with Ukraine as a priority partner in the CIS and facilitate its inclusion in deeper integration processes."
Who would have thought then that a year after the appearance of this document, the practical expression of “deep integration processes” would become a treacherous military invasion.
However, long before the attack, Russia had already begun doing everything possible to shape public opinion in Ukraine, shaping it to its advantage. So that later, when the "polite little green men" set foot on Ukrainian soil, a significant percentage of the local population would perceive the Russian intervention as a blessing and liberation from the "Nazis" and "Banderites."
Technically, work with public opinion was carried out (and continues to be carried out) through a vast network of Russian non-governmental organizations, as well as their residents “with Russian roots,” who until recently were widely represented in Ukraine.
Moreover, the main line of shaping public opinion in Ukraine in line with Russia's needs was the coverage in controlled media, as well as through pro-Russian opinion leaders, of the idea that "the Eurasian integration vector is practically the only alternative for Ukraine."
Enormous amounts of money were allocated for all of the above, which, according to one version, were donated by supposedly wealthy, caring people who believed in the “unity of the Slavic peoples.”
However, according to another version—certainly more realistic—the funding of the work of opinion leaders in the media and social networks, experts, journalists, etc., was carried out directly on the instructions and within the framework of approved plans of Russian government agencies and intelligence agencies.
Foundation for a Very Strategic Culture
One striking example of Russian information projects in Ukraine is the non-governmental information and analytical organization "Foundation for Strategic Culture" (FSC). Its official goal, as stated in its charter, is to accumulate the potential of scientific and public opinion in the interests of the energy, economic, demographic, and spiritual security of the Russian Federation, as well as to provide analytical support to government and business entities.
According to sources close to Viktor Pirozhenko, the Strategic Culture Foundation reports directly to the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), which in turn is a subdivision of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).
The official website of RISI states that this major research and analytical center was established by the President of the Russian Federation.
The document also states that RISI's main task is to provide information support to the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, the Federation Council and the State Duma, the Security Council, the Government Office, ministries, and agencies. RISI provides expert assessments, recommendations, and prepares information and analytical materials for the aforementioned bodies.
RISI is an analytical center of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and has the status of a military unit. It was previously known as the Research Institute of Intelligence Problems of the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR. The decree establishing RISI (effectively reorganizing the Research Institute of Intelligence Problems) was signed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin back in February 1992. In 2009, the institute was transferred to the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation.
The director of RISI is career intelligence officer Lieutenant General Leonid Petrovich Reshetnikov.
The official website of this institution states that the institute "deals with issues of national security, studies Russia's relations with other countries, analyzes and forecasts trends in political and socioeconomic processes at the global and regional levels, explores possible ways to maintain strategic stability in new geopolitical conditions, and assesses strategic risk factors." RISI also "considers ways to resolve crises that threaten global and regional stability and devotes considerable attention to the fight against terrorism." And, importantly, this institution "counters the falsification of history in the post-Soviet space"—in the Russian interpretation of that very history, of course.
Officially, RISI reports having official representatives and offices in Poland, Finland, France, Serbia, and Transnistria. One can only guess how extensive this institution's "unofficial" intelligence network is across the globe. And Ukraine, as one of its main military adversaries, is certainly no exception.
SVR agent Viktor Pirozhenko
FSK is registered in Russia, and until recently, its official representative, the aforementioned Viktor Pirozhenko, was active in Ukraine. Previously, during the warming of relations between Ukraine and Russia, he was sometimes referred to in close circles as nothing less than a representative of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies.
It's noteworthy that this man positions himself as a renowned political scientist and expert, although he's virtually unknown in the Ukrainian political science community. However, his obscurity among professionals doesn't stop Viktor Pirozhenko from advocating for rapprochement between Ukraine and Russia as the only possible and necessary path to economic and social prosperity.
This naturally raises a number of rhetorical questions. How did a Ukrainian citizen, unknown in expert circles, suddenly emerge as the sole representative of the authoritative Russian organization FSK in the entire country? How did it happen that a person living in Kyiv received a position of trust in an organization based in Moscow? Is publicly espousing the idea of rapprochement between Ukraine and Russia on behalf of a Russian non-governmental organization a sincere desire on a voluntary basis for Viktor Pirozhenko himself? Or does he have reasons for saying precisely what they want to hear from him in Moscow? Incidentally, Viktor Pirozhenko is officially unemployed.
At the same time, the hero of our article formally supervised more than a few eminent figures, including Dmitry Tabachnik ( read more about him in the article " Dmitry and Mikhail Tabachnik. Brother for Brother ") , Petro Symonenko, and Natalia Vitrenko—these and other equally well-known names were listed as authors of several online resources within the Ukrainian echelon of the Strategic Culture Foundation.
Overall, the number of authors who write analytical materials for just one of the FSK's projects—the biased website "One Homeland" (www.odnarodyna.com.ua)—numbers approximately 300, 95% of whom are Ukrainian citizens. Oleksandr Semenovich Karevin, Andriy Ivanovich Ganzha, Yuriy Vladimirovich Gavrilenko—the list of authors could go on and on. Any intelligence agency in the world would envy such a vast network of professional informants in another country.
Most of these authors were invited by Viktor Pirozhenko (personally or by recommendation): he determined the topics of the publications, set the tone, placed emphasis, and the authors wrote within the framework of the requirements he outlined.
Incidentally, Mr. Pirozhenko is said to have paid handsome fees. Where does an unemployed Ukrainian citizen get the money to pay for articles whose ultimate goal is to facilitate the aforementioned "accumulation of scientific and public opinion in the interests of Russian security, as well as analytical support for government and business structures"? A rhetorical question, as Viktor Pirozhenko is a typical Moscow "agent of influence" in Ukraine.
Just look at his article, published two years ago, at the height of Russia's military intervention against Ukraine, where he stated the following: "The Kyiv regime has not presented a single fact of presence or traces of the presence of mythical Russian special forces on Ukrainian territory... The SBU and its special forces, individual neo-Nazi gangs, as well as the National Guard, which is integrated with national-radical groups, are acting in concert in punitive actions against Donbas."
From messages from the "center" to petty theft
Viktor Pirozhenko's peak activity occurred between 2008 and 2013. It was during these years that his Russian handlers most actively supplied him with straightforward "temniks"—key messages, the essence of which boiled down to the need to sway public opinion toward the need for Ukraine's "deeper integration" into Eurasian geopolitical processes. Most of Viktor Pirozhenko's publications occurred during these same years.
At the same time, Russia is presented as the only alternative to “hopeless” integration into the EU, while Western countries are portrayed as greedy and avaricious enslavers seeking to squeeze the maximum out of the Ukrainian economy and then plunge the country into a debt-ridden pit.
Below are the key messages that are most frequently present in numerous articles from this period (2009-2013) authored by Viktor Pirozhenko:
— the historical lack of independence of Ukraine, its dependence on Russia;
— historical and cultural ties between Ukraine and Russia;
— the need to protect the Russian language in Ukraine;
— industrial ties between Ukraine and Russia (mechanical engineering, metallurgy, aircraft manufacturing, military-industrial complex);
— the inexpediency of integrating Ukraine into the European Union: the EU views Ukraine as a raw materials appendage, and European markets are closed to Ukrainian products;
— Western creditors plunging Ukraine into a debt hole;
— the development of Nazism in Ukraine;
— rewriting the history of Ukraine (manipulation of the themes of World War II, OUN, nationalism).
A source close to Viktor Pirozhenko explains that his work was structured as follows. Pirozhenko received key messages ("temniki") from his Russian handlers, assigned authors to write articles, paid them, and then published these articles in online media. Viktor Pirozhenko himself also actively served as an expert on politics, political science, and history. The goal of Mr. Pirozhenko's "egg cell"—along with other apologists for the "Russian world," like himself—was nothing less than to foster a strong consensus in Ukrainian society that Russia is good, while the West is bad.
This simple and, in fact, brilliant plan was not destined to come to fruition for one simple reason: Viktor Pirozhenko stole the money allocated by his Russian curators for the great cause of integration.
Sources close to Pirozhenko say that almost all aspects of the cooperation were initially agreed upon with his Russian handlers, with the exception of one crucial one: the publication of written articles in national media. On the one hand, it was initially unclear what budget to allocate for this expense item; on the other, Viktor Pirozhenko was initially told to get to work, engage experts to write articles, create several websites to promote the idea of a "Russian world," and then, they said, "we'll see."
But the most profitable expense item, always the subject of intense battles among political PR professionals, never materialized. Viktor Pirozhenko became so absorbed in building a team of authors and "experts" that he neglected approving publication budgets. Furthermore, deadlines for websites (www.odnarodyna.com.ua and others) were constantly being pushed back: either clients didn't like the design, or there were delays in writing articles.
What also came as a surprise to both his Russian handlers and Mr. Pirozhenko himself was the Ukrainian media's reluctance to publish or reprint his exclusive "expert" opuses free of charge. Sources in Komsomolskaya Pravda, Argumenty i Fakty, Segodnya, and others confirmed that negotiations had been underway for publication of some of Viktor Pirozhenko's articles. However, when the author's representatives learned the price at which the publications were willing to publish these pseudo-political opuses (prices ranged from 2 to 3 US dollars or more per article), the negotiations were quickly terminated.
Our hero, who had never worked with central Ukrainian media outlets on publishing, was completely unprepared for this turn of events.
Ultimately, the Russians allocated some budget for publishing publications, but it was so small that Viktor Pirozhenko simply stole it. He reported on the few publications he managed to publish for free, or almost for free.
Of all Viktor Pirozhenko's articles in serious media, monitoring results show only a few publications in "Zerkalo Nedeli," "Golos.UA," and "First Business Channel." His Russian comrades also helped with placements in Kremlin-controlled media outlets such as "Ukraina.RU," "Utro.RU," "Novy Region," and "Moskovsky Komsomolets." The majority of Viktor Pirozhenko's work ended up on his own website www.odnarodyna.com.ua, on the party websites of Viktor Medvedchuk (www.vybor.ua) (Read more: Viktor Medvedchuk. Putin's Godfather Guarding Russia's Interests in Ukraine ), Natalia Vitrenko (www.vitrenko.org), and some regional websites of the Communist Party of Ukraine (www.kremenchug-kpu.org.ua).
Incidentally, shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Pirozhenko even went so far as to plagiarize the fees initially allocated by Moscow handlers to authors of pro-Russian "analytical" articles. Reports suggest he negotiated one fee with the authors, but paid them significantly less. Rumors of Viktor Pirozhenko's thieving and penchant for pilfering immediately spread—after all, the journalistic community in Ukraine is quite close-knit, and everyone knows each other. As a result, one of Moscow's most ambitious information operations practically came to naught due to the banal theft of a "representative" of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS).
It's ironic that despite such serious expert preparation, budgets for website creation and writing original texts, the Russian agent didn't reach the final stage (namely, the desired grand theft), but nevertheless managed to get such a bad press, and even earned a reputation as a petty embezzler of a PR budget that was, by the standards of geopolitical games, modest.
Everything went wrong from the very beginning
Here, we would like to recall a curious document from seven years ago. It is a decision of the National Expert Commission of Ukraine on the Protection of Public Morals, dated October 29, 2009, and dated by its head, V.V. Kostytskyi. The document, previously published in the media, states that the national expert commission reviewed publications authored by Viktor Pirozhenko, provided to the Main Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kyiv and the Kyiv region (more than 20 articles in total). Scholars from the I.F. Kuras Institute for Political and Ethno-National Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the National Institute for International Security Problems under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine were also involved in the review process.
Experts concluded that Viktor Pirozhenko's articles constitute "an outrage upon the memory of millions of victims of the Holodomor, a humiliation of the dignity of the Ukrainian people, and contradict established historical facts," "humiliate or insult the nation," and contain "political information that is presented in a biased manner."
This expert assessment was sent to the SBU immediately after it was signed by the head of the national expert commission.
Even more amusing is the "professional growth" of Moscow agent Viktor Pirozhenko, who found himself under the surveillance of Ukrainian intelligence services at the very start of his career.
Viktor Pirozhenko's Quotations
Here we present some excerpts from articles authored by Viktor Pirozhenko, so that the reader can form an objective opinion about his "expert" work.
The civilizational identity of the Ukrainian people has long been established, and therefore any geopolitical decisions must take it into account. In terms of its civilizational identity, Ukraine (with the exception of an absolute minority in Galicia) belongs to the Byzantine Orthodox (or Russian Orthodox) branch of European civilization, is part of the Russian World, and precisely because of its civilizational identity, it should be included in all organizations created by Russia.
The survival of the Ukrainian economy for 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union demonstrates one obvious thing: the restoration and development of production and inter-industry ties between the Ukrainian economy and enterprises and industries in the Customs Union countries is a categorically necessary (albeit insufficient) condition for fulfilling the Program's objectives.
It should be taken into account that, despite the activity of circles that understand the need for Eurasian integration of Ukraine, Russian leadership in this process is the main and determining condition.
Only the restoration of the centuries-old status quo in Eurasia, in the form of a space structured under Russian leadership, can ensure the preservation of the peoples of the former USSR's cultural and historical identity and economic growth in the face of intensifying economic and cultural-civilizational competition from other centers of power.
Ukraine's transition to consistent allied relations with Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, and its entry into the Eurasian collective security and defense system, is the only means of resolving emerging problems and neutralizing external risks and threats.
Ukraine, as a state, has only one line of succession—with the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR. And the people of Ukraine have only one line of succession—with their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, whom many of their children and grandchildren still remember as living, whose orders and medals with the colors of the St. George (Guards) ribbon are kept at home. These were our ancestors, who, at the cost of their lives and health, through superhuman efforts of will and with unprecedented selflessness, saved their Fatherland—the USSR.
Which sectors of the Russian and Ukrainian economies are most ready for integration and most in need of it, from the perspective of mutual benefit for both countries? First and foremost, these are the most developed high-tech industries in Ukraine (and Russia as well), producing high-added-value products: aircraft manufacturing, rocket and space production, shipbuilding, and nuclear energy. The effectiveness of bilateral military-technical cooperation deserves special mention. A high degree of cooperation between related enterprises in Ukraine and Russia in the production of these products developed within the framework of the unified union economy, and this determines the logic of close bilateral cooperation, transcending any complexes and phobias of those concerned with Euro- and nationalism in Ukraine.
Ukrainian high-tech industries producing high-value-added products (aircraft manufacturing, shipbuilding, and the rocket and space industry) are merely a component of unified production and technological chains with Russia and Belarus. Their development since the collapse of the Union has been entirely dependent on maintaining production and technological ties with enterprises in the Customs Union countries and the availability of a stable sales market in these same Customs Union countries, both for finished Ukrainian products and for components for finished Russian products.
The conclusion regarding Ukraine's strategy and tactics in gas cooperation with Russia is: there's no need to artificially create risks where they objectively don't exist. The idea of so-called diversification of gas supplies is not an objective requirement of the Ukrainian economy or a national interest. This objective stems from the selfish ambitions of some segments of Ukrainian political and business circles, or from the clinical Russophobia of prominent political forces.
If Ukraine joins the EU, it will suffer irreparable losses, becoming a raw materials appendage of the more developed European economy, and its competitive sectors will be completely destroyed. Participation in the Customs Union will allow Ukraine to participate equally in the Eurasian division of labor, integrating with high-tech industries in Russia and other countries, supporting similar domestic economic sectors. This will strengthen its science and engineering and technological position in the region and globally, create a significant number of new jobs, and increase labor productivity.
Given the European Union's poorly concealed interest in the rapid introduction of a free trade zone with Ukraine and the current EU crisis, it is clear that the primary goal of the emerging European empire is to prevent the loss of the strategically important Ukrainian market for a wide range of products and the ability to finance Ukrainian purchases of these products after the bankruptcy of key sectors of the Ukrainian economy.
The West and the United States, through the hands of the Ukrainian “elite” they have bribed, are solving three problems simultaneously:
1) completely eliminate, in the person of Ukrainian industry, one of the competitors in the world market of high-tech products in the aircraft, rocket, shipbuilding, mechanical engineering, and chemical industries;
2) integrate Ukraine into the European and transatlantic division of labor in the position of a supplier of cheap agricultural raw materials and a producer of genetically modified products with a predominance of primitive production in the economy;
3) they consolidate Ukraine's debt dependence on the West, because in the conditions of a degraded industry based on the export of cheap agricultural raw materials (and they cannot be expensive by definition), Ukraine's astronomical debts cannot be repaid.
It remains to be hoped that persistent attempts to implement a generally competent and realistic program will force the Ukrainian political leadership to abandon its Euro-illusions.
Only the dissolution of parliament, the annulment of the neo-Nazi Svoboda party's registration by the Ministry of Justice through a court order, its forced dissolution with the simultaneous criminal punishment of its most "notorious" leaders, as well as those opposition figures who directly collaborated with neo-Nazis in criminal activities (parliamentary and street riots, supporting calls for the violent overthrow of legitimate authority, etc.) – this is, apparently, the only way to prevent the slide of Ukrainian society and the country as a whole into a neo-Nazi-Banderite dictatorship.
The Kyiv regime has not presented a single fact of the presence or traces of the presence of mythical Russian special forces on Ukrainian territory... The SBU and its special forces, individual neo-Nazi gangs, as well as the "National Guard," which is integrated with national-radical groups, are acting in concert in punitive actions against Donbas.
On the topic: Viktor Medvedchuk: Putin's godfather guarding Russia's interests in Ukraine
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