Editorial teams for Internet news portals that pose as Ukrainian actually work out of St. Petersburg offices on Savushkin Street, while media sites supporting activities of the Russian terrorist DNR and LNR “republics” in the east of Ukraine are controlled from Moscow.
This is reported by the Russian media site “Snob,” referring to “Delovoi Peterburg” newspaper.
Despite its name, “Kharkov News Agency” is not located in Kharkov, Ukraine, instead it is located in St. Petersburg, Russia. The publication’s Internet domain is owned by a Russian news agency “Nevsky Novosti”, whose project “Federal News Agency” has official offices on Savushkin Street. A co-owner of “Nevsky Novosti” Evgenii Zubarev confirmed that he bought the domain for the “Kharkov” publication.
The portal’s articles actively support Russian politics and at the same time the US is represented negatively. The editorial address listed on the site is for a retail and office space. The listed phone number is not in service, while the tenants of adjacent offices, deny any existence of a media organization nearby. The email address leads to a hotel in Moscow.
Internet news portals novorus.ru, newsdon.info, newslava.info and rus.kg are controlled from Moscow. All of the sites support activities of of DNR and LNR. The editorial address listed on newslava.info is taken by the Government of Sevastopol representative. Sevastopol officials deny the work of the media in the walls of their building.
The project’s leader Andrei Surkov is engaged in the hotel business in Moscow. According to him, he finances the activities of the above sites to 70%, and the rest is coming through donations.
A Ukrainian blogger Igor Bigdan said that he is aware of several European journalists posing as Ukrainian while writing Russian propaganda.
At the Internet agency located on Savushkin Street in St.Petersburg, several hundred Russian propaganda professionals –bloggers and commentators–manipulate discussions on various internet forums to go in the “needed direction.”
According to correspondence of one of the financiers of Concord Holding Company hacked in May 2014, the agency gets the money from Concord. The newspaper “Nevsky Novosti” and the project “Kharkov News Agency” are also funded by Concord.
