The price for Russian propaganda is 4000€

How the cultural figures are bought by Russia for the propaganda war?

The process of Kremlin spies’ elimination in the European Union is still ongoing. It is well known that Russia tries to spread its propaganda narratives not only directly through its media, but also involves the cultural elite representatives of the neighboring countries for this purpose. Such agents of Russia were recently disclosed by one of the largest and the most influential German media, namely by Die Welt.

The editors’ office received the exclusive access to the correspondence between the German documentary filmmaker Wilhelm Domke-Schulz and a person who introduced himself as an employee of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs named Maksym Goncharov. Domke-Schulz willingly responded to Goncharov’s offer to make several commissioned films about the war in Ukraine. At the same time, Goncharov offered the most frequent clichés of Russian propaganda: “the danger of supplying weapons to Ukraine”, “nuclear terrorism by the Kyiv regime” and “war crimes” by the Ukrainian military.

Domke-Schulz frankly agreed to a fictitious offer to make films for the supposed Russian Foreign Ministry. “I would like to make this type of films. It is only necessary to agree on how and in what form they can be implemented. I am happy to express my ideas on this matter”, he replied to his contact.

The director even mentioned the price for his services. “A 90-minute documentary takes four to six months of work. Short films of 20 minutes each could be shot in about a month. Estimated cost: from 4,000 to 5,000 Euros,” he said.

The most interesting thing is that Domke-Schulz did not know that actually it was not the Russian Foreign Ministry behind such a proposal, but a Ukrainian cyber activist, who aimed to prove that German artists, journalists and activists could be involved in the information war of the Russian government. And this is not so expensive.

Earlier, this German director has already received support from Russia for his latest projects: “Live and Die in Donbas” (Leben und Sterben im Donbass) and “Face of Donbas” (Gesichter des Donbass) were financed on this basis by the sponsors from Russia. “These films were financed from Russia, unfortunately there are no other sources”, and the director admitted and added that for such situations he has a bank account in Russia in Russian rubles.

Domke-Schulz also actively gives interviews to pro-Russian media. According to his rhetoric, NATO is the aggressor, the German mass media spreads lies and propaganda about Russia, Germany is a vassal state of the USA, and in 2014 a “fascist regime” got into the saddle in Ukraine.

This story demonstrates that, unfortunately, in Germany there are persons who do not shy away from serving the state that started a war of aggression on the European land.

Moreover, Domke-Schulz even named some of them himself in a correspondence with a Ukrainian cyber activist. “First of all, these are Alina Lipp from “News from Russia” and Thomas Röper from “Antispiegel”, as well as freelance journalist Ulrich Heyden, who lives in Moscow,” the director writes. („Da ist vor allen Alina Lipp von ‚Neues aus Russland‘ zu nennen und Thomas Röper vom ‚Antispiegel‘, aber auch der freie Journalist Ulrich Heyden, der in Moskau lebt“).

All of them will bear responsibility for their actions. European law enforcement agencies are already working on this. Let’s just recall the story of 30-year-old Russian Yulia Prokhorova in Landshut, Germany, whose apartment was recently searched by the German police together with the prosecutor’s office. And all of this was because in her TikTok she used a video of a missile attack on the Dnipro to create a “funny song” that scares Ukraine and glorifies Russian terror. German law enforcement officers now consider the possibility of her deportation back to Russia.

Another example of a Russian woman named Alyona Dirksen, who on October 10, immediately after the terrible rocket attacks on Ukraine (11 killed and at least 87 civilians injured), made a video, where she asked Putin to hit Dresden in Germany (where the Ukrainian rally was at that time). The next day, the German police in Saxony immediately set about checking the video. The investigation is currently ongoing.

Likewise, according to Die Welt, the investigations have already begun against Alina Lipp, and another pro-Russian journalist (Patrik Baab) has lost his teaching position at the University of Media, Communication and Economics, after it was made public that he as an “international observer” took part in the “referendum” that the Russian invaders arranged in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

Here it becomes clear that the mentioned Wilhelm Domke-Schulz will receive the very interesting news in the nearest future. The same applies to everyone who glorifies Russia’s war against Ukraine, regardless of which country he or she lives in and what reasons he or she may have for this.