Trolls on tour: how Kremlin money buys Western journalists

In the summer of 2014, a photographic exhibition on the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria appeared in Berlin and Brussels.

Its advertising promised to present a “balanced, truthful picture.” The organizers meticulously disguised their identities.

At the same time, they offered huge amounts of money to Western journalists without mentioning the conditions.

The Kentrails research collective, an antifascist watchgroup, has researched the exhibition’s background and uncovered a propaganda network in which Russian right-wing extremists collaborate with the Kremlin-associated St. Petersburg “troll factory” in an attempt to impact the Western public.

* * * * *

Trolls on tour: how Kremlin money buys Western journalists

Vladislav Shurygin at the opening of 'Material Evidence' in Moscow 

2015/08/20 • Analysis & Opinion, Featured, Political News, Politics

Article by: Kentrails Research collective
Russian ultranationalists are trying to buy Western journalists: who is behind all of this?

On 23 December 2013 a photographic exhibition called Material evidence. Syria (“ВеЩдоки. Сирия”) opened in Moscow. It was organized by the periodical Zhurnalistskaya Pravda (ZhP, Eng. “Journalistic Truth”) – this was announced by the ultranationalist magazine Zavtra [1] (Eng. „Tomorrow“) on the same day. A slideshow in the article shows a number of photos of the event, including one showing one of the lecturers in front of a poster with both the logo of ZhP and the logo of the exhibition[2].

The man can clearly be identified as Vladislav Shurygin, a Zavtra editor[3] and editor-in-chief of ZhP[4]. One day later, Shurygin himself in his blog boasted[5]: „We have opened a great exhibition!“ He continues by explicitly naming ZhP as the initiator of the project and by explaining that it was one of the exhibition’s purposes to show that the Syrian government with Russia’s support conducts a fight against „thugs and mercenaries.“ These would be financed by „Islamist extremist sects“ from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The exhibition Material evidence. Syria should also be shown in the North Caucasus as soon as possible. One photo shows the photographer Aybulat Akbutin, another one shows Shurygin in person in front of a notable exhibit: a wrecked white minibus. On 10 January 2014, Zhurnalistskaya Pravda covers the exhibition again[6]. The photos shown there would have been created on a research trip, in which the photographers Aybulat Akbutin[7] and Halit Safin[8] would have participated as well as the „military correspondent“ Ilja Kramnik[9] and another, unnamed man who was in charge of security. They would also have brought exhibits home from the trip. According to Aybulat Akbutin, it was especially difficult to transport the minibus destroyed in a bomb attack from Syria to Moscow.

On tour in Russia

On 15-25 February, Material evidence. Syria was shown in the Russian town of Ufa, capital of the constituent republic of Bashkortostan in the Volga region. In one of the pictures of the exhibition the white minibus can be clearly spotted again [10].

Apart from the photographers Akbutin and Safin, also the deputy chief editor of Zhurnalistskaya Pravda, Denis Tukmakov, was present, who, on this occasion, gave an interview to his own magazine [11]. In it, he stated that Russian citizens would have to understand that from the USSR’s dissolution onward, war was coming closer and closer. Russia was on the radar screen of international terrorism, which aimed at establishing a „New World Order.“ The biggest threat, according to him, was lurking in the Volga region and Northern Caucasus.

On February 28, Denis Tukmakov posted a picture in Facebook showing him guiding Rustem Chamitow, President of Bashkortostan, through the exhibition room [12]. At the beginning of March, the exhibition reached Grozny, the capital of the North Caucasian constituent republic of Chechnya, and it was also shown there for ten days. At the vernissage on March 7, Syria’s ambassador Riad Haddad voiced his appreciation for Chechnya’s tyrant Ramzan Kadyrov in front of journalists and clerics as well as the parliament’s speaker, Dukuvakha Abdurakhmanov. Haddad called for concerted actions against Islamism [13]. Once more, the visitors were especially impressed by the white minibus [14].

A new topic

On 7 April 2014, the official facebook page of Zhurnalistskaya Pravda [15] had a new announcement up for its fans. The sequel of the successful Material evidence. Syria exhibition was to be opened the next day. Unlike its predecessor, this project would get its own Facebook page [16].

„There is a lot to see!“ Vladislav Shurygin wrote, as he called to visit on April 16 [17]. The new exhibition displaying pictures of Maidan street battles was to be seen in Russia’s capital during April 8-22[18].

This time, according to ZhP’s website, photographers Vasiliy Prokhanov, Dmitriy Mikhailov  „and others“ spent two weeks in Kyiv. The announcement promised to provide explanations of what was going on in Ukraine at the time. Media representatives were requested to contact the given telephone number, the owner of which was only referred to as „Aleksandr“ [19]. In an interview with the newspaper Sobesednik, a man with this name was introduced as the “director” of the exhibition [20].

Russian media outlet TVC announced that the exhibition had been classified for adults only, due to its graphic content. Vladislav Shurygin told journalists that he had seen the horrors of Maidan with his own eyes while being in Ukraine with a team of journalists. Another person, who had seemingly participated in the trip, Nikita Jurchenko of ZhP depicted his impressions as well [21].

News agency RIA Novosti named Shurygin as organisator of Material evidence. Ukraine [22].

The backers: Zavtra, Zhurnalistskaya Pravda, and the Izborsk Club

Vladislav Shurygin as well as ZhP’s deputy editor-in-chief, Denis Tukmakov are very active authors for Zavtra[23].

This magazine was founded in 1990 under the title Den’ (День, Engl. „day“) by war-correspondent and novelist Aleksandr Prokhanov and renamed to Zavtra because of a ban in 1993[24].

Zavtra provides a platform to militaristic and ultra-nationalist as well as Stalinist and conservative positions, as long as they fit into the general anti-western and anti-liberal orientation. They offer a podium to various, very different Russian right figures, for example Aleksandr Dugin, Sergei Kurginyan, Aleksandr Borodai, and Igor “Strelkov” Girkin [25].

(...)