Russia activates pocket pacifists in Europe. Part 3
Previously, I published two parts of the material about how Russia is now activating various international “pacifist” organizations with the aim of instilling in public opinion the need for peace negotiations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
In the first part, I described the preparation in Vienna, the capital of Austria, from June 10 to 11 for the event “International Summit for Peace in Ukraine”, organized by the “International Peace Bureau”, which for decades cooperated with the intelligence of the USSR and continued this activity for the benefit of Russian special services.
In the second part, I described the organizations involved in the implementation and financing of this event. Today we will talk about the speakers of this summit.
I’ll probably start with Leo Gabriel. A citizen of Austria, who positions himself as a social anthropologist, journalist and documentary filmmaker, “researcher” of Latin America. He “researched” Latin America from 1979 to 1996, living in Nicaragua, where, by sheer coincidence, the Sandinistas, who actively supported the USSR, arrived during this period.
In 2004, he ran for the elections to the European Parliament from the German pro-Russian party “Left”, which now actively opposes the provision of aid to Ukraine.
In May 2022, at the height of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Andriy Kochetov, a war criminal from the so-called “LNR”, was the moderator of the World Social Forum.
Actually, this is the character who will fight for “peace” for Ukraine. But, this is only the beginning. The following ones are no better.
Asya Hagiyeva (Gagiyeva Eset Zyaudinivna), a citizen of Russia, is the daughter of an active figure of “United Russia”. A lover of the epistolary genre, she writes notes and articles not only under her real name, but also under the pseudonym “Maruket”.
Since 2012, she began a typical career for a daughter of a Russian national, but in 2022 she sharply changed her views, starting to speak out against the war in Ukraine, although in the same 2022 she actively published on the “islam.ru” resource, which is located under the control of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Dagestan, which supports “its”.
It is actively integrated into the “pacifist” environment precisely through the “International Peace Bureau”.
Shelyazhenko Yury Vadimovych. I think many people know very well, because this, unfortunately, citizen of Ukraine, managed to leave many traces.
In 2007-2014, working as an assistant to Pechersk District Council deputy from BYU Hryhoriy Kostynskyi and assistant to People’s Deputy from BYU Andriy Pavlovskyi, he played the role of a media killer. From 2009 to 2022, he regularly wrote for the Russian publication Ekho Moskvy, known as a pseudo-liberal mass media controlled by the Russian regime. In 2015, he spoke out against mobilization, and in 2017, he prevented the blocking of Russian social networks. Recently, he positions himself as the executive secretary of the Pacifist Movement of Ukraine.
He held the United States responsible for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and actively lobbied the Russian IPSO “Christmas truce”. In 2022, he received the award named after McBride (the same one who worked for the special services of the USSR) from the International Peace Bureau.
By the way, Asya Hagiyeva also became a laureate of this award in 2022.
Brown Reiner, Executive Director of the International Peace Bureau. Positions himself as one of the ideologues of the “Krefelder Petition”, which was created in 1980 by the “pacifists” of West Germany with the aim of not deploying NATO Pershing-II missiles. The German scientist Gerhard Kade, who was a KGB agent with the pseudonym “Robust”, also participated in the organization of this petition. Rainer Braun tried his best to hide his connection with Kade, but the manuscripts don’t burn.
Since 2014, Brown has been participating in the organization against the sanctions policy of the German government towards Russia, created a petition demanding that Russia’s “secure interests” be taken into account. Over the past 8 years, he has integrated fringe neo-Nazi forces into the pacifist movement, causing conflict between him and left-wing groups. During this period, he organized the “Stop Ramstein” action, the goal of which was to close the US air base “Ramstein” in Germany. He called the Revolution of Dignity a putsch, and the occupation of Crimea a reaction to NATO provocations.
Radchenko Karina Viktorivna. A native of Kramatorsk, who graduated from the Institute of International Relations of Kyiv National University, is currently studying at the University of Salzburg and is clearly aiming for a job at the UN. She is interesting in that she was not noticed in clear contacts with agents of Russian influence, but there is a nuance.
You can, of course, not shake hands with Naryshkin or Bortnikov and drink with them at the same table, but if you participate in an event that is held with the money of the Russian special services, is this not already a contact?
Karina Radchenko is from just such a category. She cannot be directly accused of working for the enemy, but in February 2023, she already participated in an event of the “International Peace Bureau” together with Yury Shelyazhenko, at which she made statements about the need for a truce.
That is, systematic participation in the activities of a structure controlled by the Russian special services, in the campaign of agents of Russian influence – does this not make you an agent of influence yourself, or is it something else? And how do you think?
Oleg Viktorovych Bodrov. The 28-year-old Russian physicist, from 1988 to 2016, was a member and head of the Green World environmental organization in St. Petersburg, which opposed nuclear energy. Currently, she is the head of the “Public Council of the Southern Shore of the Gulf of Finland”, which does not prevent her from continuing to oppose nuclear energy. He calls the war in Ukraine “conflict, political turbulence.”
Werner Wintersteiner. Austrian teacher, head of the public organization “Alpen-Adria-Alternativ”, which aims to unite pacifist movements in the area between the Alps and the Adriatic Sea.
In the period from 2020 to 2022, he worked at the Austrian Peace Institute, and this moment should be given special attention. The fact is that at the institute, Wintersteiner was responsible for the Heimatland Erde project, which involved the Russian scientist Elena Knyazeva. This person works at the University of the Higher School of Economics, which was considered oppositional. In 2022, when a full-scale war began, a large part of the HSE teachers resigned, but Knyazeva remained. After some time, all information about the Heimatland project was removed from the website of the Austrian Peace Institute.
Potarska Nina Nikolaevna. Coordinator of the “International League of Women for Peace and Freedom” in Ukraine.
Has been in contact with Leo Gabriel since 2011. In 2015, she conducted some research in the temporarily occupied territories. On the eve of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she participated in the “Stop NATO Expansion” event. Then she placed responsibility for the war in Ukraine, including on the USA.
Michael Von Der Schulenburg. A German diplomat of count blood. He worked in the UN and OSCE institutes. Through his personal website, he actively promotes narratives about the guilt of the USA and NATO in the war in Ukraine, calls the Revolution of Dignity a “coup” organized by the USA, and also opposes the supply of weapons to Ukraine.
Zaira Zafarana. An Italian woman who worked in the International Society for Reconciliation, including in the representative office at the UN institutions in Geneva. But she should be interesting to us as a defender, unfortunately, of a citizen of Ukraine, Ruslan Kotsaba, who was the leader of the aforementioned Shelyazhenko in the Pacifist Movement of Ukraine.
Since 2015, Kotsaba has regularly made statements denying the Russian invasion of Ukraine, obstructed mobilization, and fled to the United States in 2022, saying that he could be killed in Ukraine.
Zafarana demanded the termination of criminal proceedings against Kotsaba, who is suspected of high treason, and also demanded the release of Vitaly Aleksienko, who was convicted for refusing to mobilize. This case was actively promoted by Russian propaganda, and Zafarana gave an interview to the Austrian researcher Josef Muelbaur, who wrote a book together with Leo Gabriel.
In fact, these are the “pacifists” who will defend “peace” for Ukraine in Vienna in June. Of course, there is nowhere to put a stamp on all of them, but still, it is obvious that Russia is starting a large-scale campaign to promote the ideas of a truce and its goal is to unite all pocket and not yet bought organizations to create a corresponding wave.
Previously, Russia did not manage to hold such events with such a large number of involved organizations and speakers. And this is alarming. After all, in this way, the Kremlin is trying to bring the topic of reconciliation into the trends and change the agenda from a military one – military aid to Ukraine, to a pacifist one.
Although, on the other hand, thanks to such measures, it is easier to systematize and keep track of sales figures bought by Russia.
Military and political columnist Oleksandr Kovalenko