Bihus.Info journalists exposed the malign activities of the media holding supervised by the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, which for years has been engaged in promoting anti-Ukrainian propaganda, inciting inter-religious enmity, and delaying the adoption of the law that would essentially strike a blow at ROC’s influence in Ukraine.
A Moscow-based columnist Alena Tyulkina has been publishing pieces on the website of the Union of Orthodox Journalists, affiliated with the MP. She would write about alleged violations of human rights in Ukraine, and on her YouTube channel she would publish interviews with mercenaries from the notorious Wagner Group and raise funds for the Russian invasion army.
Writer Jan Taksyur also used the website as a platform. The Russians exchanged him for Ukrainians after he was convicted and then they demonstratively handed him a Russian passport.
It also turned out that Russian and pro-Russian journalists, such as Mykola Moiseyenko and Katerina Zharkykh, worked on the First Kozatsky TV channel, spreading fake news.
The activities of the Myriany (Laymen – ed.) nonprofit, whose leader Serhii Chertylin is accused of committing five crimes against Ukraine, are considered separately. He was the one who met with People’s Deputy Artem Dekhtyarenko and then reported to his handler on how the group managed to convince lawmakers to go for “legislative spam”, filling with numerous amendments the bill that would ban the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine.
The investigation demonstrates how the Moscow Patriarchate’s columnists and their handlers communicate, also showing fragments of correspondence with Ukrainian lawmakers who oppose the said bill. It also shows how lobbyist Robert Amsterdam, the lawyer for Vadym Novinsky and the Moscow Patriarchate, fits into the scheme of delaying the adoption of the bill.
It is claimed that the Russians use narratives about the alleged pressure from the Ukrainian authorities on the Church to influence U.S. Republicans who then delay U.S. aid to Ukraine.
