The arrest of the propagandist

Kyiv can exchange the head of RIA Novosti Ukraine Vyshinsky for the arrested Ukrainian journalist Suschenko

When I transmit this note, Kirill Vyshinsky, the head of the RIA Novosti-Ukraine information portal, is transferred to Kherson, where the court will choose a preventive measure. The Ukrainian prosecutor's office of Crimea is now in Kherson, and it is a criminal case. The prosecutor’s office, as the press secretary of the Prosecutor General Larisa Sargan said, will insist on the detention, since Kirill Vyshinsky is suspected of a serious crime-the commission of treason and, respectively, part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Early on the morning of May 15, at the RIA Novosti-Ukraine office-the agency is located in the historical center of Kyiv, on Shota Rustaveli Street-the SBU agents came in in masks. Only two employees were on the spot, Vyshinsky himself had not yet arrived at work. Cyril was detained at home, near the ceremonial and, judging by the comments of the press secretary of the Prosecutor General, the housing of Vyshinsky was also searched. A lawyer was allowed to the office during the procedure. The search lasted more than six hours, after which the Esbanniki without comment, but with black plastic bags in their hands left the room.

The fact that it got into the bags, and not only in them, was told on the same day at a briefing Viktor Kononenko, the deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine.

- We conduct authorized searches for five addresses. Russia attracted citizens of Ukraine for subversive activities, ”said Kononenko. - A citizen of Ukraine Vyshinsky was appointed Russian news agency “Russia Today” by the head of the unit of this structure in Ukraine. He registered a number of legal entities, including Interselect LLC, which operates under the Russian News-Ukraine Information Agency. This form was built consciously to hide both the financing mechanisms and the cooperation itself between RIA Novosti-Ukraine and Russia Today.

According to Kononenko, in the spring of 2014, on the eve and during the annexation of Crimea, Kirill Vyshinsky repeatedly traveled to the peninsula, engaged in "information support of the invasion of the Russian Federation" and "making materials justifying annexation." Then the agency switched to an armed conflict in the Donbass - "made materials how Ukraine is firing."

- Mr. Vyshinsky received a stable reward: 53 thousand euros monthly for such activities. Funds entered Ukraine from the territory of Serbia. These were circumstances for searches, ”Kononenko said. As witnesses in the case, according to the deputy head of the SBU, about two dozen citizens of Ukraine “involved in journalistic activities in RIA Novosti” will be held.

- We got to the point. I have not remember for a long time that an hour after the start of the searches was the reaction of the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Lavrov and the press secretary of Putin Peskov, ”Kononenko summed up.

The connection of the Kyiv unit with the structure, which she heads, immediately confirmed the record on Facebook by Margarita Simonyan: “Kyiv decided to take revenge on us for the Crimean bridge. They broke into our office, employees do not get in touch, the site is not updated, the phones are blocked. ”

An hour later, Simonyan, concerned about the fate of Vyshinsky, made a clarification: “The resource is not legally connected with us, but, like many large publications, is our information partner.”

Meanwhile, in Kyiv, the photographs of the material services that were obtained by the special services were publicly displayed in Kiev: packs of dollars, euro and rubles, “journalistic” awards of Kirill Vyshinsky - the medal “For the Return of the Crimea” and to it, certificate No. 217 of April 15, 2014, signed by the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Shoigu, the Order of Merits to the Fatherland of the 1st degree (No., 1,10717, issued According to the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of April 22, 2014), the ligaments of the St. George ribbons, the wearing and distribution of which in Ukraine is prohibited ...

It was found that in 2015, Kirill Vyshinsky, without leaving Ukrainian citizenship, received, according to the relevant decree of President Putin, Russian citizenship. The second passport is not crime, but this fact, of course, gives the answer to the question about the “merits to the Fatherland” in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Another “information leak” from the cyber police department is aimed at those who had business and other ties with RIA Novosti-Ukraine: it's time to worry. The special services gained access to the database of more than 11 thousand accounts in social networks that were sorted in the agency with the notes “regular”, “colleagues” (media), “cooperating” (periodically, in circumstances) and “potential” (promising for involvement to cooperation.)

The press secretary of the Prosecutor General Larisa Sargan officially announced: the investigation established that the Federal State Enterprise “International Information Agency“ Russia Today ”back in 2014, bypassing the Law of Ukraine“ On Information Agencies ”of State Registration, created“ RIA Novosti-Ukraine ”to fill the media space, harmful sovereignty, integrity and integrity, integrity and integrity and integrity and integrity and integrity inviolability of Ukraine, state and information security. Why the special services for four years have not noticed bypassing the law and harm, repaired by the fighters of the misinformation front, is not yet clear.

But the jurists expressed their considerations: the Vyshinsky case will cause a resonance outside the country with a minus sign. It will be interpreted as a fight against dissent.

“The Ukrainian parliament, the one that was elected after the deaths on the Maidan and the war, did not bother to adopt the relevant legislation, according to which it would be possible to introduce an extraordinary information situation during the duration of the fighting,” said the forensic lawyer Anna Maryar. And he explains why the article “Behind the Stateismman” will not “stretch” on Vyshinsky, which provides for a severe punishment for the transition to the side of the enemy in the event of an introduction of martial law, for espionage and for the provision of assistance to a foreign state in conducting subversive activities.

“The first two points fall away immediately,” Anna argues on her Facebook page, “the third remains.” The SBU website indicates: "Organization of subversive information actions in the framework of a hybrid war against our state." But there is no responsibility for the “hybrid war” in the Criminal Code of Ukraine ... And in the fourth year of the war, the legislation still does not explain what “subversive activities” are. The definition still remains evaluative and subjective. And this is a loophole for the Russian Federation to save their agents from criminal liability with the hands of our corrupt officials. Since formally, if the judge does not recognize the content of RIA Novosti-Ukraine with subversive activities, he will not violate the law.

An equally definite point of view of Victoria Syumar, the head of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech and information policy:

- These are very strict measures. I think that the SBU has enough evidence if you have already gone to measures such as detention. I think this is not due to journalistic activities, but with the agent, agent influence of the aggressor country ... If the evidence is not sufficient, then, of course, we can talk about freedom of speech, and this is a completely different story.

The representative of the OSCE for media freedom Arlel Dezir, who recently visited Kyiv, is in alarm: "The fight against propaganda should not lag behind international standards!" Heather Neurt, a representative of the US State Department, recalled: the detention of journalists and searches in the media should be carried out in compliance with the law, although she added that Washington understands the concern of Kyiv due to active propaganda from Russia. Tatyana Moskalkova turned to the office of the Ukrainian Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova: a Russian citizen Kirill Vyshinsky needs protection!

Cyril, a native of the city of Dnieper, once worked on the ICTV television channel. At that time, the channel invited the young man, with the democratic views of the host - Dmitry Kiselev ... Then Vyshinsky became the Rossiya TV channel in Ukraine. But the RIA Novosti-Ukraine site appeared in Kyiv not his efforts, but immediately after the first Maidan, under President Viktor Yushchenko. Then he arrived from Moscow to Kyiv and dispersed to the offices of the losing election of the Party of Regions of the Tender Support landing: political technologists, advisers, consultants. One of them, the journalist of RIA Novosti Zakhar Vinogradov, oversaw the information area. The Kremlin put on Yanukovych, on the pro -Russian geopolitical course of Ukraine in the future. Over time, Vinogradova replaced Vyshinsky at the post. He turned out to be the most capable student.

It seems that the case does not seem to have no judicial prospects. But for the “state traitor”, whose capitalization thanks to resonance has grown strongly, Kyiv can request Roman Suschenko, journalist Ukrinform from the Kremlin, detained by the FSB in Moscow in the fall of 2016 and accused of espionage. This option was written on Facebook by the director of the Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Artem Shevchenko, the "Voice" of Minister Avakov. Perhaps for the sake of such an operation everyone started?