The Russian Federation has set up a network of organizations and agents of influence in Europe to discredit the findings of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on MH-17 Boeing Malaysian Airlines plane crash flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in June 2014.
The JIT investigation found out that the plane was shot down by Buk anti-aircraft missile system delivered from Russia’s 53rd Anti-aircraft missile brigade to the territory controlled by pro-Russian forces in the Donbas area. The trial of MN17 case is scheduled for March 2020, when defendants and witnesses will be released. The Kremlin is trying to fabricate evidence, discredit the findings of an international investigation to avoid responsibility for the crash of a civilian plane.
The Kremlin’s main tactics is to question the evidence collected by the JIT and to fabricate alternative investigative leads shifting responsibility, in particular, onto Ukraine.
To do this, “MH-17, Call for Justice” documentary is scheduled to be screened in the Netherlands for the last part of October.
It was produced by Russian citizen Yana Yerlashova, an ex-correspondent for Russia Today, a propaganda TV channel, repeatedly accused of participating in smear and influence campaigns in the US, Europe and the Middle East. For the last several years, Yerlashova has been working for RT Documentary, an RT unit producing propaganda documentaries.
In 2019, she created Bonanza Media online platform. The main purpose of the platform is to disseminate information that refutes the official lead of MH-17 Malaysian Airlines flight crash investigation and to spread the Russian version of this disaster. The whole scope of information disseminated through the platform’s web resources is devoted to covering this issue.
Yerlashova produced the film in cooperation with a Dutch citizen, journalist Max van der Werff, born January 31, 1963 in Arnhem, The Netherlands. Following MH-17 flight crash, he made considerable efforts to spread the version that Russia was not involved in the crash of the Malaysian aircraft. In 2016, Van der Werff, along with other pro-Russian European journalists and experts, signed a letter to US President D. Trump demanding to review the results of MH-17 crash formal investigation.
Van der Werff authored “MH-17, A Call for Justice,” documentary, produced by Yerlashova. The film features 1983 Soviet propaganda style, when a Soviet fighter crashed a Korean civil aircraft.
The documentary was produced in close cooperation with the command of the so-called DPR. The filmmakers, along with the RT channel operator, were given free access to the crash site. At the same time, according to Russia’s Novaya Gazeta, even OSCE representatives were not immediately given free access to the venue in 2014. The BBC Russian service also reported the firing in the air at OSCE mission’s attempt to reach the scene. To ensure the access to Ukraine’s occupied territory, foreign journalists need to obtain a permission of the so-called Ministry of State Security of the DPR, controlled by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. The resolution depends on the loyalty of the journalist and the media towards the pseudo-republics. The letters of Tatiana Yegorova, an employee of the so-called Ministry of Information of the DPR, confirm this fact.
They point out that the DPR has filtered the journalists wishing to work there by a Moscow-led system functioning since August 2015. Max van der Werff received such permission on a regular basis. The numerous photos posted on his Facebook account prove it.
GrahamPhillips, a famous pro-Russian propagandist is one of his contacts. Citizens of Russia and Ukraine from Donbas are among his contacts too.
Thus, van der Werff’s free stay in the occupied territory served official Moscow’s interests. An email leak from the Donetsk News Agency (Doni) took place in 2016. The released emails showed that Max van der Werff had taken the initiative and offered to discredit the investigation blaming the Kremlin on involvement in the flight crash. The documentary is tasked to show that the JIT investigation was not done properly.
On October 4, the Global Rights of Peaceful People (GRPP) sent out a press release inviting to a press conference called “The MH-17 Tragedy – We Are Waiting for a Thorough Investigation” (Pics. 5,6). This event is a presentation of a film by Yana Yerlashova and Max van der Werff.
As early as October 8 (4 days after the mailing), the MPs of the Netherlands voted for a request to the state leadership to investigate Ukraine’s actions in connection with the crash of a Malaysian Boeing plane flying on the Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur route. Dutch lawmakers demand an answer to why Kyiv has not closed the airspace over the conflict zone in the east.
GRPP seems to be pivotal in the dissemination of Yerlashova and Van der Werff’s work.
By all accounts, GRPP is registered to discredit the JIT investigation. GRPP, according to the registers of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, was registered on April 18, 2019. However, the GRPP’s first mention is dated 2015 and is related to the events of May 2 in Odesa. On May 15, 2015, the Dutch newspaper Dutch Metro published an article in the column of readers authored by Sonja van den Ende, accusing Ukrainian authorities and “fascists” of fire during these events that fully complies with the Kremlin’s propaganda narratives. The author claimed that her visit to Odesa was funded by GRPP, that is, four years before the date of the registration of this organization (Pic.9).
Sonja herself has an account on the Russian-speaking VKontakte network and was in Syria in mid-October, advocating for Bashar al-Assad regime and working for the Freesuriyah.eu project.
The organization was mentioned for the second time in 2016. Prior to the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement referendum held in the Netherlands, the Volkskrant,leading Dutch newspaper wrote about Sergii Markhel, who had allegedly come from Ukraine. He attended debates in 23 cities of the Netherlands, using the GRPP business card. At every event, he delivered a speech stating that Ukraine is a Nazi country and that the population does not support the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union.
There are several branches of GRPP in Europe: in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. In Berlin, it is actually run by Oleg Muzyka, a well-known propagandist who proclaimed Russian narratives as for the events in Odessa. He is also the GRPP page administrator in Poland and is positioned as a political analyst on NewsFront (DPR). Oleg Muzyka also took part in the promotion of Yerlashova-van der Werff’s documentary.
The organization page was created on September 5, 2019. As of October 2019, the contact information of the GRPP page is +7 915 024-34-51, bearing the code of the Russian Federation, Moscow. It is referred to as a political organization in the profile. The page is moderated by Anastasia Markhel (Sergii Markhel’s daughter, Pic.11). Her social network contacts include many supporters of the so-called Odesa People’s Republic – Russia’s separatist project. Her Facebook page tells that she lives in Odesa and studies at Odesa Maritime University. She is pictured with Sergii Markhel who dies in May, 2019.
Sergii Markhel is connected (in social nerwork) to Mykhailo Tiasko – deputy chairman of the Carpathian Ruthenians’ World Council Board – another Russia’s separatist project.
Sergii Markhel’s contacts include mainly supporters of Russia and the Russian world. Sonja van den Ende is among them. His contacts also comprise the coordinator of the All-Ukrainian Movement of Mothers of Ukraine, who in the past was in the National Council of Officers of Ukraine, Vasyl Polishchuk – a deputy of the Odesa City Council, Sándor Csikós, a Hungarian citizen who took part in the fighting in the Donbas, Vitalii Chugin, an authorized representative of the Assault-landing Force-members International Union, Gennady Trukhanov (Mayor of Odesa) and many others, thus allowing us to form an idea of the geographical branching of the structure and the interrelation between most pro-Russian activists.
The discredit group is represented by Olena Plotnikova, born June 17, 1966, in Donetsk. She has regularly visited the Netherlands since 1999 and has constantly lived there from 2018. She was a neighbor-resident of the former President Viktor Yanukovych before he was elected the President of Ukraine and had a business relationship with him. Nowadays she lives in Etten-Leur, Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands. Actively supports the socialists.
.Van der Werff’s tags on «MH-17: Call for Justice» post illustrate information interaction with a certain core of pro-Russian forces in the Netherlands.
Next picture shows Sergii Marhel, born in 1956 (died in May 9th), a native of Omsk, in the same room with Ruben Dolstra and Nikita Ananiev.Ruben Dolstra is a pro-Russian Dutch citizen who allegedly lives in occupied Crimea. Ananiev was born in Moscow, probably in 1993. Now he is a student in the Dutch city of Twente, and in 2013, he attended the school for young leaders funded by «Rossotrudnichestvo», the Russian organization, which in its turn, according to the former FBI Director James Comey’s report at the Senate (as for Russia’s interference in US elections), has connections to Russian intelligence and the FSS. Like Markhel, Ananiev took an active part in influencing public opinion while preparing the referendum in the Netherlands.
Harry van Bommel – the Socialist member of the Dutch parliament, who, according to the New York Times, coordinated the work of pro-Russian influencers from among Russian and Ukrainian citizens in an attempt to achieve the required results in 2016 referendum. In 2017, Bommel appealed to the Dutch Parliament to urge Ukraine to sign an additional EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The pro-Russian Proponents of the Dutch Socialist Party are also found to support the Einheit Party of Germany. The party members comprise a lot of Russians with German citizenship, including particularly Nikita Ananiev and Natalia Vorontsova.
Another political figure coordinating the work of pro-Russian influence groups is Thierry Baudet (Pic.16), the leader of the right-wing populist Eurosceptic party, the Forum for Democracy. According to the New York Times, his group is engaged in the development of alternative theories of MH-17 flight plane crash.
The activity of these groups, according to the intelligence agency of the Netherlands, AIVD, borders on diplomacy and intelligence.
The Hague (The Netherlands) also housed pro-Russian propagandist Vladimir Kornilov, a native of Eastern Ukraine. He is the head of the Center for Eurasian Studies organization. Before the 2016 referendum, Kornilov actively campaigned against Ukraine. Associated with Baudet and Bommel. Since the end of 2017 he has been a political observer of Russia Today (Moscow).
The facts indicate that careful training and development of previously createdpositions have been used to discredit the results of MH-17 flight crash investigation in the Netherlands. The Russian network unites Dutch politicians and pro-Russian subjects, ethnic Russians who emigrated to the Netherlands, Russian citizens, and ethnic Ukrainians who left Ukraine after the Revolution of Dignity because of frankly pro-Russian views.
As the trial date approaches, the activity of pro-Russian groups is going to increase. The level of Russian influence on the internal affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands allows us to conclude that there are significant threats to the sovereignty of the state and channels of influence both over public opinion and over political decisions. Participation of some members of such groups in the protests demonstrates the possibility of using them as a multitasking tool for hybrid operations.
