“We are concerned about the increase in violence and racism among law enforcement agencies in France. (…) We are ready to finance a companion [sic] informational on the subject of police violence. “ This is the message, fault included, received in recent weeks by several French media (including The world does not belong) and associations working on the theme of police violence. Signed by a certain Ivan Karamazov, it emanates from a well-known Russian influence office which claims to have “Financial, legal and information resources to help victims”.
Among other associations, the Collectives Disarm them! and Témoins-Caisse de solidarité, in Lyon, confirmed having been approached. Others, such as the National Federation of Friends’ Houses, were contacted by telephone. Each time, the Russians seek to know the ” needs “ that their interlocutors might have. “We are ready to finance your actions”, insists the letter reserved for associations.
The signatories present themselves as belonging to the Foundation to Combat Injustice, launched in the spring by the oligarch Yevgeny Prigojine, whose name appears clearly on the site of this foundation. This businessman is known to be behind the mercenary company Wagner and the first “troll factories” installed in 2013 in St. Petersburg, structures intended to flood the Internet with tailor-made comments.
Mr. Prigojine had announced in March his intention to launch a foundation “Against repression in the West”. The announcement was received as a provocation from a man whose name is cited in cases of violence against journalists and Russian opponents and whose Wagneres are accused of war crimes on different theaters of conflict.
His love of “Trolling” is found in the acronym of its foundation retained in English: FBI. The foundation’s figurehead is one Mira Terada, a Russian “Victim of American arbitrariness”, who spent two and a half years in prison. Oksana Vovk, whose real name is, pleaded guilty to money laundering to avoid conviction for drug trafficking.
Fourteen French “cases”
The United States is the number one target of the foundation, whose main activity consists in posting on its website cases of violence – real – committed against citizens of various Western countries. African Americans make up the majority of cases. “After using Russia and Ukraine as laboratories, Prigojine’s men have nearly ten years of experience in influence operations in the United States., notes Colin Gérard, who is preparing a thesis on Russian informational influence and has observed the intensification of the activities of this foundation at the beginning of the summer. The novelty is that France is targeted, around themes considered to be more left-wing. “
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