Fakes by the Kremlin and the developers. How this threatens the public sector and the political system
During the war, a massive fake news attack is being launched against the public sector by both the Kremlin and unscrupulous developers who are lobbying for favorable rules for reconstruction. Both actions aim to undermine not only the strength of our statehood but also the cohesion of communities. And, of course, pro-Russian politicians and unscrupulous developers are likely to try to enter the political system after the election and bring in their people.
Recently, the telegram channel of MP Oleksandr Dubinsky, who is suspected of high treason, spread another fake. Allegedly, the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, is behind the Holka civic initiative. He wrote in one post that he had succeeded in opening proceedings against MP Oleksandra Ustinova (Holos) under the article “high treason” through the court.
Screenshot from the Telegram channel of MP Oleksandr Dubinsky
Dubinsky’s Telegram channel belongs to the Kremlin network, and this is confirmed by the quantitative analysis of reposts and analysis of the content shared by Holka this year. This network, in particular, is working to slow judicial reform and discredit honest judges and the public sector, such as the Anti-Corruption Action Center and the Dejure Foundation.
Together with Dubinsky, the same network includes the telegram channels of lawyer Rostyslav Kravets and “Notes of a Defamer”, run by Volodymyr Boyko. That was the same Boyko who crossed the border with Tetyana Montyan. Let me remind you that she promised our border guards that when the Russians came, their enemy would hang them on poles.
Kravets writes that there is a trace of the Kremlin behind the Holka civic initiative, and in the same post, he writes about funding from G7 ambassadors. He is particularly concerned about the fact that the civic initiative is promoting the reform of the Bar, in which Viktor Medvedchuk’s associates have had a monopoly for more than a decade.
Besides, the aforementioned Boyko claims that Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov are behind Holka. And Shabunin was allegedly given a million dollars for the NGO.
Screenshot of the “Notes of a Defamer” Telegram channel
So these two Telegram channels, like Dubinsky’s Telegram channel, systematically spread fakes about the public sector. And now fake news is being spread by both those who harm national security and those who lobby for the interests of developers.
It should be recalled here that during the 2020 elections, Dubinsky was the curator of the Kyiv region for the Servant of the People party. He headed the list for the regional council and put his people on it, who supported decisions in the interests of the carvers of the capital’s Bilychansky forest. The decision of the regional council, which took away part of the Sviatoshynskyi district of Kyiv, had to be challenged by the prosecutor’s office in the Supreme Court. One of those who wanted to build in the Bilychanskyi forest was the former mayor of Irpin, Volodymyr Karpliuk (New Faces). It was he who did everything in the 2020 local elections to reach an agreement with the Servants of the People, and in fact, his New Faces party formed an unspoken coalition with the ruling party in Irpin.
UNIAN: Karpliuk, a person involved in corruption investigations, supports draft law 5655
It should be noted here that Dubinsky’s fake story about Holka was published almost simultaneously with the fake story by Dmytro Perov, an assistant to Kyiv City Council member Ksenia Semenova (Servant of the People). He wrote that Holka, which systematically writes materials about the protection of green areas and cultural heritage, cooperates with… developers.
The head of the Servant of the People party, Olena Shulyak, immediately appears in the comments under the post, lobbying for urban planning “reform” in the form of draft law 5655.
Screenshot of comments under the post by Dmytro Perov, an assistant to the Kyiv City Council deputy from the Servant of the People party
Shuliak responds to another fake about the cooperation of the NGO with developers as follows: “It’s good that everything is starting to come to light.”
This information field of fakes is being formed immediately after civil society organizations and the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy reported pressure from Shulyak and former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov.
It is not the first time Perov has spread fake news against those who oppose the actions of the head of the ruling Servant of the People party, which lobbies for rules of the game favorable to large developers. When illegal inspections were conducted at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy at Shuliak’s request and the media reported on it, the assistant to the Servant of the People MP accused the president of Mohyla of having ordered the media to publish a paid-for piece.
A screenshot from the Facebook page of Dmytro Perov, an assistant to a Kyiv City Council member from the Servant of the People party.
At that time, Espresso TV channel reported that they had received a proposal to remove the Holka’s material about the pressure on the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy from the channel’s website for money. On his page, Perov commented on this episode of censorship as follows: he said that he “sent this story to news editors he knew… said that these were the notes of a Ukrainian lunatic, asked them to pass it on to others and not to replicate this slag throughout the country. The next day, the editors of Espresso decided to quietly remove this nonsense…”.
Screenshot from the Facebook page of Dmytro Perov, an assistant to a Kyiv City Council member from the Servant of the People party
In fact, no one decided to remove anything, and the Espresso channel immediately issued a joint statement with the Holka. However, consider this: an assistant to a Kyiv City Council member from the Servant of the People party thinks that it is normal for him to tell the media what to do…
The most dangerous thing is that a number of media outlets often forget that Perov is an assistant to a Kyiv City Council member from the Servant of the People party. He is often titled as a monument guardian or activist.
Screenshot from the website “Your City”
It should be noted here that the Servant of the People is a ruling party that receives money from the budget. A quite logical question arises: if the ruling party has a budget from our taxes, there are deputies and their assistants in the cities, and the head of the Servant of the People party is concerned with monument protection and supports Perov, where are the party’s lawyers who can provide legal assistance in such cases? Why did the Ministry of Culture, where the head is appointed by a mono-majority, not act in the story of the Zelensky estate, which was eventually destroyed? What kind of monument protection activity is this and where is the real support from the head of the Servant of the People party, who has the authority not only to like and comment on posts?
Why does Shuliak, who heads the ruling party, not put the legislation in order, and tries instead to introduce norms that threaten cultural heritage, as the analysis of draft law 5655 confirms?
Here we can say that Perov is being shaped as an activist, his connection to the party is being deliberately concealed, and this can be used in the next election. And now, with regard to those who oppose the lobbyists of the urban planning code, Perov plays an intermediate role – he misinforms society about the work of activists who oppose the lobbyists of developers in parliament, and makes absolutely unsubstantiated allegations that the president of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy is a crook.
Such activities and fakes are aimed at splitting the communities that protect green areas and cultural heritage in the capital and prevent them from uniting for better interaction. Who benefits from this? Developers and lobbyists for their interests.
Similarly, the “vatnik” telegram channels of Kravets, Dubinsky, and others spreading Kremlin narratives will be used in the elections. And we can already predict which candidates they will support.
That is why it is important to record these fakes, systematize them, and analyze them, because the pre-election period will be quite short.
Specially for “Detector Media”
