Revealed, Putin’s propaganda girls working here to ‘destabilise’ UK
THESE are the glamorous women fronting a new Russian news agency in Britain that experts say is tasked with spreading conspiracy theories.
Oxana Brazhnik and Johanna Ross work for Sputnik, which critics claim is a propaganda machine set up by the Kremlin to destabilise the UK.
Among the controversial stories the service generated was the suggestion that the murder of MP Jo Cox was linked to EU remain supporters.
The broadcaster, which opened a base in Edinburgh this year, was created by Vladimir Putin and is the international branch of a state-controlled news agency. Miss Brazhnik, who heads the bureau, has close ties to the Russian president’s inner circle.
She is a former political adviser to Vyacheslav Volodin, a hard-line politician who has been credited with masterminding Putin’s election victories.
Miss Brazhnik makes no secret of her pro-Russia leanings. Among her Twitter posts, she tried to downplay the Russian athletics doping scandal and suggested Hillary Clinton’s running in the US presidential election is a conspiracy. She wrote: ‘Wife of ex-president becomes presidential nominee of major political party. Let’s imagine how the West would react if this happened in Russia.’
The team’s executive producer is Johanna Ross, a former hotel supervisor in Dundee, who describes herself as a ‘ Russophile’ and only became a journalist two years ago. She describes her objective as ‘overcoming bias and ignorance in the media’. Former House of Lords researcher Ana Lyon, educated at Moscow’s Lomonosov University, is Sputnik’s online editor. She previously worked for Voice of Russia, a state- controlled radio broadcaster.
Although Sputnik is a relatively minor force in broadcasting, its stories are often used by other media outlets.
It is fronted by Dmitry Kise- lyov, who has been branded Mr Putin’s ‘ propagandist in chief’ and recently claimed that Brexit opinion polls were ‘rigged’ in favour of remain.
Paul Saunders, from thinktank the Centre for the National Interest, said Moscow is ‘seeking whatever levers it can find to undermine its opponents’.
A Nato source told The Times: ‘The Russian information effort is to muddy the waters, to create uncertainty.’ Sputnik did not respond to a request for comment last night.
Russian officials have also sought to gain a foothold in British universities. The University of Edinburgh received £221,000 from a foundation set up by Putin to open a cultural centre. Oxford’s St Antony’s College and Durham University have agreed to work with a Moscow-backed body headed by an academic whose grandfather was a deputy to Stalin.