By Andrew Fink
While Ukraine is in COVID-19 lockdown, the Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk is spreading fear that there are dangerous American military biolabs in Ukraine. Medvedchuk is not a marginal figure. He is the chairman of Ukraine’s largest opposition party (Za Zhittya) and his daughter’s godfather is Vladimir Putin – really. For years Medvedchuk and his comrades have been spreading the conspiracy theory that America conducts dangerous secret bioweapons research in Ukraine, and they blame America for several other disease outbreaks. Worries about the COVID-19 epidemic have just provided Medvedchuk and Za Zhittya with an opportunity to spread this message further. This canard is a story also occasionally pushed by Russian propaganda.
In addition to repeating Russian anti-American slander about secret biological warfare, the party is against the reform of Ukraine’s Soviet-vintage medical system, interferes with the passage of laws on banking and land reform, and promotes “re-integrating” the Russian-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine on terms favorable to Russia. The whole tenor of their platform is pro-Russian, pro-reconciliation and re-integration – and this while Russia is at war with Ukraine. Za Zhittya should be recognized as an extension of Russian policy in Ukraine and an important tool in Russia’s info-war. Medvedchuk often travels to Russia, openly meets with Putin, and his party tries to bend Ukrainian politics and public opinion in a pro-Russian direction.
This party placed second Ukraine’s parliamentary election last year with 13% of the vote.
How does a party so overtly supporting Russia get so much support in Ukraine – a country at war with Russia and partially under Russian occupation? There are many possible explanations: Soviet nostalgia, Russian nationalism, reflexive anti-Kyiv sentiment, industrial decay in areas with economic links to Russia before the war, etc. but certainly much of its support should be chalked up to the positive TV coverage that Za Zhittya receives. Russian TV gives positive coverage about Za Zhittya and Medvedchuk, and in the unoccupied portions of Ukraine’s South East 20% of the population has access to Russian TV channels. Those out of range of Russian broadcasts can stream them online or read Russian online news.
In 2015 the Russian Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and Chief of Political-Military Affairs General Andrey Kartapolov asserted that new-type warfare consists of 80-90% propaganda and only 10-20% violence: Russia’s support for this hyper-anti-American, pro-Moscow, anti-reform, conspiracy-theory spreading party should be seen as part of its attack on Ukraine – no less than Russian artillery strikes in Donbas.
However, Za Zhittya’s coverage in Russia’s state-controlled media is only a minor part of the story. One of Ukraine’s most popular TV channels, Inter, also gives fawning coverage to Za Zhittya and its chairman Medvedchuk. According to the Ukrainian media-monitoring NGO Detektor, the TV channel Inter gave the party Za Zhittya 35 positive news stories in March 2020, it only ran one other positive story about another political party. In April when Za Zhittya figures were making a special effort to spread the slander about secret US bioweapons research in Ukraine, Za Zhittya got 40 positive news stories on Inter, with the closest runner-up only getting 3. Inter is a daily commercial for Za Zhittya: entertainment programming attracts viewers, who are then fed positive promotion about the pro-Russian, anti-American Za Zhittya party.
Inter is owned by two oligarchs. One is a member of parliament and part of Medvedchuk’s Za Zhittya party. The other is Dmytro Firtash, a pro-Russian oligarch currently living in Vienna while avoiding extradition to the United States to face charges of bribery and racketeering and likely prosecution if he returns to Ukraine. Firtash made billions under the old Ukrainian government, arranging shady gas deals with Russia. US Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss) has called him a “direct agent of the Kremlin.” Firtash is married to a Russian, and his family lives in Moscow. American readers might also recognize his name because Lev Parnas and Igor Furman both worked for him, and he is a likely source of funds for their illegal campaign donations.
So, a major Ukrainian TV channel linked to Russian interests supports an anti-American, pro-Russian political party – but who finances Inter?
Like commercial television worldwide: advertising.
According to industry monitoring and TV rate prices, in the first four months of 2020 Ohio-based Procter & Gamble bought $4 million worth of advertising on Inter, and the Virginia-based Mars corporation and New-York based PepsiCo each bought around $3 million in ad time, to say nothing of other Western companies like Nestle, L’Oréal, GSK, and Coca-Cola. Disturbingly, many of these companies’ regional advertising budgets are controlled from offices in Moscow: Russians are deciding how to allocate US corporate money in support of Russian information operations in Ukraine. Ironically, when General Andrey Kartapolov stated that modern warfare is 80-90% propaganda, he was accusing America of waging a ruthless propaganda war of this type against Russia. In fact, corporate America is subsidizing Russia’s info-war in Ukraine, and probably elsewhere.
The directors of PepsiCo, Mars, Procter & Gamble and other major US and European corporations that buy advertising in Ukraine evidently don’t pay attention to the kind of content they are sponsoring. At what point do Western companies take social responsibility for the content their advertising budgets finance? The problem of US corporations subsidizing Russia’s info-war slips between the cracks of federal government responsibilities – is this a matter for state, commerce, even defense? – but it is a problem the government will need to address if it is serious about countering Russian propaganda. Finally, at what point do citizens (‘consumers’ as viewed by corporations) – both Ukrainian and American – recognize that Russia is waging a war – and they are paying for it with their daily product purchases?
Andrew Fink is an entrepreneur and politics/media analyst from Philadelphia who has lived in Ukraine for several years. He received his Ph.D. from the Law School at Leiden University in 2020 on the history of propaganda, conspiracy theories, and violent extremist ideologies.
(c) KyivPost
“The problem of US corporations subsidizing Russia’s info-war slips between the cracks of federal government responsibilities – is this a matter for state, commerce, even defense? – but it is a problem the government will need to address if it is serious about countering Russian propaganda.”
Morals and big business are strangers, they don’t give a fuck about Ukraine being destroyed by Russian terrorism, that they are supporting. It’s time Congress got to grips with this shit, US companies sponsoring Russian terrorism is a joke too far.
It appears that Ukraine is not going to get any help from their president too. He’s a media guy and he knows what has happened to Ukrainian media under his watch. Companies can wryly claim business or ignorance to content but the president of Ukraine cannot.
These are great points that the writer raises. Absolutely shocking and terrible that blue chip fmcg companies like Mars, P&G, Nestle etc are subsidizing the activities of a malignant fascist power. There is nothing that Ukraine can do about these pitiless fucks because they all trade in Ukraine.
Therefore they must once and for all shut down all quisling media outlets, put all putlerite oligarchs and ‘politicians’ into internment for the duration of the war and seize all their assets. Just as Britain did when we were alone against hitler for the first two years of WW2.
Mars really hurts, they produce good stuff. Why? Shocking. 😐
Money maybe? Coca Cola has a large factory in Kyiv, I hope they shut it down.
Mars purchase cocoa from farms using slave labour in Africa, so they certainly won’t worry about sponsoring terrorism.
“In 2019, Mars announced that they couldn’t guarantee that their chocolate products were free from child slave labour, as they could trace only 24% of their purchasing back to the farm level. The Washington Post noted that the commitment taken in 2001 to eradicate such practices within 4 years had not been kept, neither at the due deadline of 2005, nor within the revised deadlines of 2008 and 2010, and that the result was not likely to be achieved for 2020 either.”
I am, or was a big fan of Mars; one of the greatest family-run businesses in the world. Before I became interested in the putler regime, I provided professional services for them at their confectionery factory in Slough. One of the many things I admired about them was the egalitarian aspect: the directors; even the MD, all sat in the same open plan offices and everyone ‘clocked in’. If they took no sick days, they got a fat bonus. Salaries were higher than other comparable fmcg companies and they believed in ethical principles.
Of course this turns out to be total bollocks. Only recently, Victoria Mars; CEO, visited a new pet foods factory in Russia to celebrate its opening. Since Russia went fascist, Mars (and others) have actually stepped up investment there.
What does interest me with all these protests going on in the US, how many black people purchase Mars products?
I should imagine a lot! They have a very sweet tooth! Plus Uncle Ben’s Rice is of course a staple in urban black communities.
Yeah, but would they still buy it if they knew that Mars was using black slave labour to collect cocoa? This seems more to protest about than a black criminal being killed.
Most blacks don’t have the IQ to go that far. Food is food and it matters not how it was made.
Jee! I had no idea. Still i can’t boycott them completely, but i may reduce consumption. Seems to be productive one needs to use slave labor and swear loyalty to Putin. 😬
“Finally, at what point do citizens (‘consumers’ as viewed by corporations) – both Ukrainian and American – recognize that Russia is waging a war – and they are paying for it with their daily product purchases?”
The vast majority of US citizens can’t even find Ukraine on a map, let alone the Donbass or know or care about a war there or generally about foreign affairs.
That said, how many POLITICIANS ignore the fact that mafia land is waging a war in Ukraine? And, what are they doing about what the article covers?