After a wave of protests under the European Union and Ukrainian flags erupted on Kyiv’s Independence Square in November 2013, disinformation ran rampant about the motives and values of people who participated in demonstrations.
But in late December 2013, one piece of fake news particularly stood out.
A video filmed on a mobile phone on Kyiv’s central Khreschatyk Street, right next to the protesters’ camp, showed several women who presented themselves as sex workers and said they came to the Independence Square to service clients among protesters.
“Everyone is on Maidan for money,” says one “sex worker” on the video alluding to the false claim that protesters were paid.
The story became memorable and was followed by a news article about thriving prostitution on Maidan and a report of the police “busting a brothel catering to Maidan protesters.”
The latest report by Bihus.Info, a Ukrainian investigative journalist outlet, published on Oct. 2, reveals the identity of the alleged mastermind behind that fake story.
A trove of emails obtained by journalists shows that a sitting lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky appears to have been directly involved in creating the video with sex workers as part of a larger effort to discredit the pro-European protests that ousted corrupt President Viktor Yanukovych out of power.
Correspondence dated between December 2013 and February 2014 also indicates that the campaign allegedly was paid by associates of Oleksandr Klymenko, former minister of income and taxes, who reportedly fled to Russia after the revolution.
Dubinsky is a former editor and host of the 1+1 TV channel of oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. He was elected to the parliament last year with President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party, Servant of the People. He is known for his anti-Western stance, and conducting conspiracy theory-laded smear campaigns against pro-Western politicians and officials, as well as independent journalists. Previous journalistic and anti-corruption watchdog investigations have exposed his vast wealth, application for a Romanian citizenship and undeclared businesses in Slovakia.
Dubinsky confirmed to Bihus.Info that the email address seen in the correspondence is his. However, he denied he had used it for discussing an anti-EuroMaidan campaign in the interests of Klymenko.
In a Facebook post, Dubinsky called Bihus.Info’s report “nonsense” and wrote that screenshots were fake.
Kyiv Post reached out to the deputy leader of Servant of the People’s parliamentary faction, Yevheniya Kravchuk, for comment.
The emails show the discussion of a plan titled “The Maidan of the minority” between a person whose email and name matches those of Oleksandr Dubinsky, and one who appears to be, from the context of the emails, Vesti news holding head Olga Semchenko, and her employees. Vesti is owned by Klymenko.
The tactics included spreading fake stories and videos about the opposition protests and its leaders.
For instance, in an exchange between emails attributed to Dubinsky and Semchenko on Dec. 25 and 25, 2016, Dubinsky writes that he has “a scandalous journalist who can film the prostitutes on Maidan and post the video on social media with relevant commentary.” One of the emails outlines the plan that matches the final video and contains the text to accompany a journalist’s post on Facebook.
Then, on Dec. 26, another message from Dubinsky’s email contains a link to the video on YouTube, which is still available for viewing, with a text “I like it. If it’s okay, send me an sms please. <…> I will promote it on Facebook and start the process with TSN (a news program on 1+1).”
On Dec. 27, 2013, Vesti ran a story containing the same false claims.
Another idea that Dubinsky allegedly proposed was to fabricate an investigation about “flights to Moscow” of one of the EuroMaidan leaders, Vitali Klitschko, who is Kyiv’s current mayor.
The emails also reveal that the total cost of the proposed anti-EuroMaidan smear campaign was estimated at nearly $500,000, with additional $100,000 set aside for unforeseen expenditures.
Editor’s Note: This report is part of the Investigative Hub project, within which the Kyiv Post team monitors investigative reports in the Ukrainian media and brings them to the English-speaking audience. The project is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy.
