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On January 16, 2024, the Narodna Pravda published a video on its YouTube channel with fragments of telephone conversations of representatives of the Bihus.Info journalistic team discussing the possibility of purchasing narcotic substances, as well as showing the moment of substance use during the New Year's corporate party. Footage of the use was captured on a hidden camera. Head of Bihus.Info Denys Bihus confirmed that at the "recent New Year's corporate, editorial meeting, several individuals (not journalists) smoked weed" and reported that those employees who used prohibited substances during this meeting had already been fired. In his statement, he emphasized illegal eavesdropping and covert filming and noted that the Bihus.Info team has been "observed" for several months. "It does not look like a spontaneous act of revenge for a particular journalistic material. It is systematic, long-term surveillance and harassment to discredit the work the team has done over the years."
On the eve of these events, unknown people came to the apartment of investigative journalist, co-founder, and editor of Nashi Hroshi (Наші Гроші) Yuriy Nikolov. They tried to break into the apartment, scared the journalist's mother and neighbors, and also left messages on the door calling the journalist a "traitor", "provocateur", and "evader". According to him, the attack happened on the evening of January 14, when the journalist himself was not at home. Fifteen minutes after the attack on the journalist's apartment, the Telegram channel Card Office (Карточний офіс) published a post that claimed that the unknown was allegedly military personnel who "arrived straight from the frontline during their military rotation to deliver a summons to the journalist." Provocative posts about Nikolov were published almost simultaneously by two more Telegram channels — Vertical (Вертикаль) and Joker (Джокер). Nikolov did not rule out that the incident could be related to the Ukrainian Pravda’s video, where the journalist called President Zelenskyy a dodger, saying that as the Supreme Commander, he "evaded his duty to lead a country at war".
Russian agitational propaganda picked up on these cases with great passion, characterizing them as a confrontation between sorosyata and the Office of the President. In this analysis, DM aims to understand why enemy propaganda lists the government’s critics as "Soros’ minions" and why it unexpectedly takes their side.
"The rift between sorosyata and the President's Office (OP) is growing. Bankova gathered all her resources to discredit these groups and individuals and also started direct actions aimed at intimidating all sorosyata. Sorosyata even complained about OP to the American consulate," stated one of the Telegram channels that spread hostile rhetoric." The Security Service of Ukraine was finally able to please Andriy Borysovych [Yermak] with the result. Three camera people of the Bihus.info project were caught smoking weed and using pills/acid/other psychoactive substances". Everyone immediately understood that the country is terrorized and that it was done at Bankova’s behest," the propagandists claimed.
Bankova is afraid that sorosyata will start the Maidan this year at the behest of the Western lobby, so they are being attacked. In addition to everything, sorosyata reveal the corruption of Yermak's people, which Borysovych does not like. Such and similar messages were instantly picked up from anonymous Telegram channels and spread on propagandists’ websites writing about the "quarrel" between OP and "agents of Western influence, initiators of color revolutions and former friends in the President's Office in the parliamentary factions of the Holos and Servants of the people parties". Yet again, Russian propagandists continued mentioning the topic of the "third Maidan". If, in the autumn, Russians discussed the confrontation between the government and the military, then after the scandals with journalists, the civil society itself was called the driver of possible mass protests against the current Ukrainian government.
The term "sorosyata" comes from the surname of the American financier and philanthropist of Hungarian-Jewish origin, George Soros, to denote those who allegedly lobby for his interests. George Soros, according to propagandists, is a mythical embodiment of the "world’s backstage" and Western elites, the American establishment, the "global Jewish conspiracy", etc. The image is constantly supplemented and attached to new qualities. Sorosyata, in the eyes of Russian agitational propaganda, does not necessarily have a direct relationship with Soros or his international Renaissance Foundation. Such a label can be attached to anyone who received grants from Western structures or charitable organizations (funds, embassies), or simply received a Western education abroad, or works in specific organizations that reform Ukraine.
After the appearance of "hidden video recordings leak" pituring journalists from the investigative team of Bihus.Info, some anonymous Telegram channels started posting messages about "suitable" and "unfitting" investigative journalists, as if the cases of Nikolov and Bihus cannot be compared with each other because Denys Bihus is in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and is currently fighting [Russian invaders], but Yuriy Nikolov is not. Other channels picked up this topic by starting a "why aren't you at the front" flash mob, accusing the journalists, who were called "sorosyata", that they have already "once in 2014 convinced Ukrainians to carry out a coup d'état, and now they are dancing in clubs, and not fighting."
At the same time, the Telegram channels of particular propagandists share messages that if the authorities are now only continuing the systematic "persecution" of journalists, the freedom of speech in Ukraine has disappeared and turned into a "hate trade". It is noteworthy that some ex-employees of the long-closed TV channels of Viktor Medvedchuk (who was exchanged in Russia), on which they openly mocked sorosyata at one time, now compare themselves to them, putting these "unpleasant" fighters for freedom of speech in the same line with themselves [as journalists].
Despite comparing themselves to sorosyata, other propagandists who comment on information attacks on journalists did not refrain from predatory generalizations about "prostitutes and drug addicts", describing the outrage and public statements about the need to investigate cases of illegal surveillance from representatives of civil society and monitoring organizations.
The reaction of law enforcement officers, authorities, and Ukrainian society
Journalists and media, who are members of the Media movement, declared systemic pressure on independent journalists and investigators and called on President Zelenskyy to strongly condemn this pressure and take control of the investigation of crimes against media workers. In their statement, it is noted that recently, there have been attacks on the Nashi Hroshi project, on Bihus.Info, and also on Detector Media, Ukrainian Pravda, NV, Censor, Babel, Liga.net, and Espresso. Media workers also called on Ukraine's international partners to defend persecuted journalists because only public control guarantees unwavering adherence to the principles of democracy, the rule of law, and effective fight against corruption, which are professed by Western countries and which Ukraine strives to embody.
Read also: Ukrainian Media movement announced systemic pressure on independent journalists and called on the authorities and society to react
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with law enforcement officers, particularly with the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Malyuk, at which they discussed hidden surveillance of the Bihus.Info journalists. President Zelenskyy announced this in one of his evening addresses. "Moreover, regarding the situation with our journalists, in particular, the fact of journalists being monitored. The Security Service of Ukraine has started an investigation and will find out all the circumstances. Any pressure on journalists is unacceptable," the president said.
Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, head of Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Freedom of Speech, announced in a post on Facebook that he had submitted parliamentary appeals to law enforcement agencies regarding wiretapping and covert filming of Bihus.Info employees and threats to the Nashi Hroshi journalist, Yuriy Nikolov. "There should be active actions by law enforcement agencies to establish who ordered, who performed this task, and for what purpose. There are signs of a violation of the law, which means that criminal proceedings should launched."
"This is unprecedented and hasn't happened in the country for a long time. It has not happened since the Yanukovych rule. I don't remember anything like that since Yanukovych. I think there should be a reaction. I believe there should be an investigation," said Nikita Poturaev, a Verkhovna Rada deputy from the ruling faction of the "Servant of the People" party and a head of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy.
The Security Service of Ukraine press room reported that criminal proceedings have been opened under Art. 359 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal acquisition, sale or use of special technical means of obtaining information), and the circumstances of wiretapping and video recording of journalists of the Bihus.Info project are being investigated: "Transparent and unhindered work of independent and professional mass media is an essential condition for the development of Ukraine as a democratic state. Such surveillance facts should be given a legal assessment, regardless of whether or not the facts of a possible violation of the law related to the circulation of narcotic substances were made public in the materials of the covert filming.
Bihus.Info journalists also reported that the SBU seized discs with recordings of cameras in the complex where their team was secretly filmed. They also note that the SBU opened the proceedings on its initiative, and the team's representatives are not considered victims. Journalists of Bihus.Info have already applied to the National Police with statements about the opening of criminal proceedings under other articles, and the police have opened criminal proceedings under the article about violation of privacy.
According to the propaganda version, before the full-scale invasion, sorosyata were one of the greatest evils of Ukrainian society or the most realistic threats to its existence. Allegedly, they posed quite an existential threat [to Ukraine’s existence]. For example, they destroyed the Orthodox-Slavic ties of Ukrainians with the "Russian people". They promoted the decadent values of the "decaying West" (gender equality and the legalization of medical marijuana). Moreover, their efforts to promote political changes aimed to create competition for the old political elites to become ministers and put pressure on the corrupt or plagiarists were characterized as promoting US interests in Ukraine. Economy-wise, they promoted "harmful" reforms, such as opening the land market, coverage of the mythical "American biolaboratories", calls to reform education policy, health care, etc.
- Read also: Guerrillas of the Great Soros
With a full-scale invasion, the "threats" coming from sorosyata seem less critical to Russian agitational propaganda. Situationally, anonymous networks are ironically ready to take their side in the confrontation between the sorosyata and the Office of the President. After all, all their efforts are aimed at destroying consolidation and sowing discord in Ukrainian society, increasing distrust not only in the state institutions, which are the direct enemy of the Kremlin but also in the "fourth authority" — journalists and civil society. The quick reaction of society, monitoring organizations, and concerned citizens should contribute to the fact that the pressure and persecution of journalists, which are taking place in the conditions of a great war with Russia and reminiscent of the Party of Regions and Yanukovych times, will be investigated appropriately in modern Ukraine.
