Ukraine Special 03 - Tracking Russia's Field "Journalists"
Dear friends, family and colleagues,
I stated in
“Ukraine Blog 25” the following: “Although still unlikely, I think it’s
plausible that we are going to see some action in Moldova, but not against
Ukraine, but against the country of Moldova.” I now come back from this
statement. A couple of hours after I posted Blog 25, the following Tweet appeared.
This rang
all alarm bells inside me and I now know for sure trouble is definitely on the
horizon in Moldova. So why would I be disturbed by the presence of this individual
“Wargonzo?” Well, there is a general rule for all conflicts that Russia is
involved in: As soon as the Youtube channels of Wargonzo and Analytical Network
News Agency (ANNA) appear in a particular place, rest assured that the Kremlin
will start something within one week of their arrival. Truth is: they are not journalists,
they are an integral part of the Kremlin’s playbook for hybrid warfare.
What’s even
more disturbing is that Wargonzo appeared in Moldova while just a week before he
was in Mariupol. This means that he either got there sneaking through enemy
territory or he arrived by plane via Chisinau. Either of which would be a significant
intelligence failure from either the Ukrainian or Moldovan side. By moving
Wargonzo to Moldova, shows that the Kremlin is very eager to start trouble in
Moldova.
So who are
Wargonzo and ANNA. Well, let’s take a look at them. And we will also to a look
at some other “journalists” that are on the Kremlin’s payroll and are part of
Russia’s tools of powerplay.
Wargonzo WarGonzo - YouTube:
His real
name is Semyon Vladimirovich Pegov. He graduated from the philology department
of Smolensk State University (SmolSU) with a degree in journalism. In that very
same city, Smolensk, he managed worked as journalist for the All‑Russia State Television
and Radio Broadcasting (VGTRK).
During the
2008 war in Georgia, he was working for Abaza television in Sukhumi, Abkhazia.
This is where Pegov for the first time started his “journalism.” This means he
was already present during Putin’s first military intervention. Since then he
has made trips to Syria and Libya. In 2017 he founded Wargonzo. “Gonzo” is a
reference to “Gonzo” journalism: “Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism
that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as
part of the story using a first-person narrative” (Wikipedia). This concept
was invented by Hunter S. Thompson.
Since then he
has been present at almost all Kremlin false flag operations in Syria and
Ukraine. In Donetsk, he was conveniently “by coincidence” on the spot of both
false flag attacks:
Feb 18: “Ukrainian (actually a model that they don’t use) APC destroyed ⚡️ВИДЕО⚡️ВСУ нанесли удар по улице Стратонавтов⚡️ - YouTube
Feb 18: Attack on Donetsk square: Wargonzo
was there immediately after the explosion:
And of course
plenty of scripting:
Even more
interesting is that Pegov is likely directly linked to the Wagner group. A lot
of the groups actions are filmed by Wargonzo.
ANNA ANNA-News - фронтовое информационное агентство (formerly also present on youtube,
but banned)
This bunch
of people usually go where Wargonzo goes as well. Originally the first “A” in
the name stood for “Abkhazian.” Like Wargonzo, ANNA was created after the
Georgian war of 2008 and was initially registered in Abkhazia. It was founded
by Abkhazian Marat Musin who passed away in 2018. Musin was a
specialist in financial intelligence who worked at Moscow State University and
at the Russian State University of Trade and Economics. In 2017 its headquarters
were moved from Abkhazia to Moscow and was the abbreviation of the first A
replaced by the word “Analytical.”
ANNA is
really famous in the OSINT community for their video’s from Syria where they
followed Syrian tanks during operations in the Darayya suburb of Damascus and
during the Aleppo operations. Both the suburb and Aleppo were raised to the
ground as a result of it and were a major indication of what the Kremlin had in
store for Ukraine.
Like I
said, the channel has been banned by Youtube, but it’s content can still be
found on other Youtube channels.
I still
check both Wargonzo and ANNA intensely, since it’s useful in geolocating where
the frontlines really are as opposed to messages from the general staffs of
both Ukraine and Russia. Also I studied the Syrian footage intensely. To me it
became clear that T-72 tanks might be effective against lightly armed rebels in
urban areas, but that they would not stand a chance in major theater warfare
like we see in Ukraine.
But even
with light weapons, the Syrian rebels took out many Syrian army tanks, check
this catastrophic cook-off of a T-72. In the end you see survivors coming out.
I’m amazed by that
T72 tank destroyed by anti tank fire - YouTube
Besides Wargonzo
and ANNA there are a couple of other dubious individuals operating as “journalists.”
I will discuss the two most famous of them: Graham Philips and Patrick
Lancaster.
Graham Philips: Graham Phillips - YouTube
By far the
most notorious of the two. During the events in Crimea and Donbass in 2014 Phillips
gained a modest superstar reputation among Russian and Russophile audiences. Phillips
started his career in 2005 at the Central Office of Information. This office is
now defunct. His main job was scanning government websites and prepare reports
for parliament. (actually someone who scans the web for news and news threats).
Phillips got his first taste of Ukraine in 2009 during a soccer match in Dnipro
(Dnipropetrovsk at the time). He then actually moved to Kyiv where he worked as
an English teacher. Later he worked for a television network and later
reviewing nightlife on an online blog. Later he started his blog “Brit in
Ukraine,” (Graham Phillips – Step Into The Graham phillips. (grahamwphillips.com)) where he seems to enjoy everything
in Ukraine what Russia currently tries to destroy. Of particular interests were
his reviews of night clubs, Western guys on bride hunts, prostitutes and brothels.
By the time
the revolution of dignity kicked off in 2014 he was essentially without a job
and in need of money. When the events kicked of in Crimea and Donbass he posted
short videos on his YouTube channel apparently moving in the lines of fire and
doing short interviews with DNR/LNR soldiers and locals. This led to such a
success that he was invited on Russian state television for regular commenting.
Since then
Phillips has been involved in a number of dubious incidents. A couple of the
highlights (or lowlights)
-
He
was detained in Riga, Latvia for disrupting the Remembrance Day of the Latvian
Legionnaires events, after which he was deported to Russia and blacklisted for
three years.
-
During
an investigation of the MH-17 shootdown, he shouted “lying press” to the
investigative journalists in Berlin.
-
During
an exhibition in the Georgian embassy in London, commemorating the 2008 Georgian
war, he shouted “NATO Zombies” to the audience.
-
More
recently he aggressively “interviewed” British POW Aidin Aslin in Mariupol,
reaching a new low in his “career.” Telegram: Contact @AschConformity (for Telegram users)
Patrick Lancaster: Patrick Lancaster - YouTube
Meet the
guy who continuously throughout his videos emphasizes that he’s an “independent,
crowd-funded journalist,” who happens to be by coincidence always on the flashpoints
of Russian action, where no other journalist can go, together, with Wargonzo
and the ANNA guys.
He studied
at St Louis Community College in St. Louis, Missouri, and did service at in the
navy, which gives him a legit military background. After the military he became
a video journalist, working as a set designer and a photographer for an
independent German art studio, Berlin Inside-Out.
He did a report
from the famous catacombs under Paris and excavation works of ruins in Bosnia. In
2013, he covered the anti-government riots in Greece. His star particularly rose
when he covered the Armenian side during the 2020 Armenia-Azerbaijan war. I
have to admit his footage was actually quite useful in determining points of
control and geolocating active battlefields.
The fact
that he doesn’t seem to have a controversial history like Phillips, doesn’t
mean he’s not a source of active disinformation on the battlefield. Lancaster
clearly states in his videos what side he’s on and as opposed to Phillips he
tries to present his footage in a more professional way giving the impression
that he’s some kind of legit news outlet.
Now you
know what to do when seeing footage of these channels: “Still watch it, but
with a huge grain of salt.” Besides Phillips and Lancaster there are a two
other individuals doing the same, Anne-Laure Bonnel and Sonja van den Ende (Dutch
and linked to the Socialist Party). I don’t think it should be illegal to
perform journalism and frame the opposite side more in case you have genuine
sympathy for them. That’s called freedom of speech. But in case it can be
proven that all these individuals are indeed on the Kremlin payroll (I highly
suspect that, but there’s no concrete evidence), they should all be stripped of
their Western citizenships and banned entry to the Western world, because this
means that they were actively employed and put into action by a state that we
should all consider “the enemy” right now.
Best regards and "Slava
Ukraini!"
Niels
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