I wrote not so long ago that one of the conditions for a successful psyop is its successful launch, or the so-called “initial spin.”
For example, in 2020 a rather successful psyop was recorded which disseminated a fake news story about the alleged U.S. military bacteriological labs in Ukraine, while the initial spin was made by Olena Bondarenko through the Nash TV channel. Then the fake story was widely picked up by Vladimir Putin crony Viktor Medvedchuk’s outlets.
The achievements within this psyop seemed quite promising, but the coronavirus pandemic kicked in so the priority task set before Viktor Medvedchuk by his Russian handlers was to promote the Sputnik V vaccine in Ukraine, which his media empire was doing pretty much 24/7.
However, from that moment on, Olena Bondarenko has been used regularly for initial spins as well as for channeling Russian propaganda inside Ukraine. And now it is for this purpose that her interview with Metropolitan Agafangel has been recorded. In fact, the effort can hardly be called an “interview” as it was ultimately a conversation of the two Kremlin agents who were speaking by a certain script, uttering narratives beneficial to Russian propaganda.
Metropolitan Agafangel, sporting a pair of posh Cazal LEGENDS 955 glasses, worth EUR 500, quite frivolously argued that any manifestation of nationalism should be branded as “fascism.” Not only did the cleric expose his own ignorance, once again confusing fascism with Nazism, he also openly echoed a Russian propaganda myth about “neo-Nazism thriving in Ukraine.”
Another very important point in Agafangel’s interview was the coverage of the Odesa events of May 2, 2014, exclusively from the standpoint of Kremlin propaganda, demanding repentance from pro-Ukrainian activists, who that day became the first victims of armed “anti-Maidan activists” based on the Kulikovo Field.
In this context, I’d like to recall one particularly interesting detail. The thing is that the temples, at that time run by what was then called the UOC-MP, housed fringe protesters coming in from other cities and even countries. In the same way, weapons were stored in UOC-MP churches, later set to be used in larger-scale anti-government rallies, plotted by the patterns worked out in Donetsk and Luhansk.
All this was done with the knowledge, as well as with the full consent of the same metropolitan, who in the latest interview with Bondarenko reflected on the idea that it’s nationalists who are the main problem of Ukraine, not Russian invaders and their mignons.
In fact, it was through Olena Bondarenko’s interview with Metropolitan Agafangel that the psyop was launched, which, on the one hand, is a continuation of what we already know of the “May 2” and “Ukrainian neo-Nazis” narratives, and on the other – a theme acquiring a religious touch. That is, the ROCinU is arming itself with the said narratives that are soon to become the main leitmotif of the sermons in this pro-Russian church and its information policy in general.
Kremlin’s agents in Ukraine, Olena Bondarenko and Metropolitan Agafangel, continue their destructive efforts, which could also be of significant efficiency on the eve of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s visit to Kyiv on the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence. First of all, this is about the ongoing campaign to disrupt the visit and try to compromise him through this trip.
So, in fact, a seemingly simple interview is a multi-level and multi-purpose psyop. And it is not surprising that these two characters were involved.
