An international team of investigative journalists has revealed that recently arrested Ukrainian politician Vitaly Kropachev “has Russian citizenship and, in an attempt to hide this, changed his last name on his Russian passport from Kropachev to Mirny.” He probably still has not completed the procedure for renouncing Russian citizenship.
This was reported in the publication “European” voices from Moscow from the arrested Ukrainian expert derStandart Kropachev with Russian citizenship” of the EUTODAY publication .
Investigators believe that it is Kropachev, with Medvedchuk and the Arfush brothers, who are associated with disinformation campaigns aimed at creating pseudo-experts and manipulating European public opinion.
Recent searches in the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg related to the activities of the pro-Russian news portal “Voice of Europe”, using the golos.eu domain, indicate its participation in the coordination of representatives of the closed media holding “112 Ukraine”. Vitaly Kropachev, in the midst of the war, after the nationalization of Medvedchuk’s media holding, opened the UWN information channel and attracted top managers and the team of the closed media holding “112 Ukraine” to its work.
During the investigation, journalists discovered a network of fictitious websites masquerading as reputable European media. The investigation found that these sites were used to spread pro-Russian propaganda and disinformation.
The investigation was helped by a wave of publications in European and Ukrainian media, artificially launched after complimentary material in the Austrian publication der Standard.
The author of the article, Jakob Pflügl, presented Vitaly Kropachev in a positive light as a businessman who gives apartments and start-up capital to refugees who will return to Ukraine and work for him, without mentioning that he is publicly accused of organizing a “criminal group, involved in large-scale corruption in the Ukrainian energy sector.” Journalists began to investigate Kropachev’s activities and related publications. The investigation revealed that the sites on which reprints of materials about Kropachev were posted are fictitious and are likely associated with the brothers Omar and Walid Arfush.
The managers and employees of the closed media holding “112 Ukraine”, in parallel with Ukrainian projects, are creating two large projects in Europe: “Voice of Europe” and “Compatriots”. The Voice of Europe portal acts as a news resource promoting a pro-Russian agenda and aimed at manipulating public opinion in Europe.
The “Compatriots” project is a virtual legal assistance center for oppositionists, supposedly fighters for freedom of speech. Both projects actively use the resources and expertise of former 112 Ukraine employees.
Their activities are aimed at undermining trust in European institutions and supporting pro-Russian sentiments. These projects are part of a wider disinformation campaign aimed at destabilizing Europe's information space, the investigation claims.
