ANNOUNCEMENT: Russian News Site to Pay Expenses of Foreign Journalists, Bloggers, to Visit Donbass
Will
provide video and photo footage for use in reporting, meetings with
top Russian politicians, Ukraine speшialists
Charles
Bausman
Come see for yourself
17
February, 2015
I'm
writing to let people know of an interesting opportunity.
A
private Russian citizens' initiative whose goal is to provide
information about the Ukraine war not covered in the western media,
is organizing a press tour to the Donbass and Moscow in the second
half of March. The invitation is open to all journalists and
bloggers, mainstream and alternative.
They
are offering to cover all expenses in Russia, i.e. - accomodation in
Moscow, transport to and from Donbass, and accomodation in Donbass.
Participants would have to pay for their own transport to Moscow.
I
am acquainted with the company organizing the tour, Europa Objectiv,
and their CEO Andrei Stepanenko, and can confirm that they are a
legitimate group and reliable people. They publish a German
language news site providing news and analysis about what is going on
in the Ukraine. www.europaobjektiv.com.
Andrei asked me to share this information with our readership.
Here is the announcement
on their site in German.
They
stress that they are a completely private initiative not funded by
the Russian government, and from what I know about them, I believe
this to be accurate, however, I should add the disclaimer that I
cannot, obviously, confirm this absolutely.
There
are a lot of these citizen initiatives in Russia, often organized by
Russians frustrated with government policies they see as too
hesitant, and many of them really are what they say they are. In
the end analysis, I don't think this is a critical issue.
Participants should be aware that this group has a point of
view they are trying to share, and factor that in to their reporting.
I
think its a good opportunity for journalists with limited budgets,
both alternative and mainstream, to have a chance to go to these
regions and try to get to the truth.
I'm
actually curious to see what the response will be, and curious to see
what the ratio of mainstream to alternative journalists will be.
Mainstream publications are also hampered by seriously slashed
budgets. Lets see how many of them show an interest in this
opportunity.
For
those of you who sign up, the few of us from Russia
Insider who
are in Moscow would be delighted to meet you. We'll also try to
send someone on the tour.
Charles
Bausman, Editor, Russia
Insider
Full
text of a letter from Europa Objectiv describing the tour follows
below:
=====================================
«Europa
objektiv» (europaobjektiv.com),
being a non-government and non-commercial media project, offers the
opportunity for journalists and bloggers to take part in the press
tour in Donbas (Ukraine) and in Moscow (Russia).
The
5-day program assumes:
Stage
1 – Moscow (2 days)
-
On the first day you will be able to meet with prominent Russian
political scientists, experts on Ukraine, politicians, and hear their
opinions on Ukraine crisis.
-
On the second day you will be able to see the exclusive video
footages, photo and audio recordings captured by Russian journalists
since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, which have never been
broadcasted by the western mass media. Furthermore we’ll organize
the meeting with the authors of these materials. You can freely use
them to create your own materials.
Stage
2 – Donbas – (2 days, by request)
-
we plan to meet with representatives of Donbas militia troops
-
you will be able to talk to local citizens
-
authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic
take over security issues and the possibility of maximum freedom of
movement in Donetsk. As well as in Moscow “Europa Objektiv” will
make video and audio recordings, these footages you can also use to
create your own materials.
The
aim of the press tour:
-
to provide exclusive video and photo materials for alternative mass
media in Europe
-
to enable journalists to witness the truth about the events taking
place in Donbas, to communicate with the victims of the war in the
East Ukraine, to make your own decision about the reasons of the war
in the contemporary Europe, to show the world community the facts,
that are hidden by the mass media controlled by the current U.S.
administration: the bloody revolution on the Maidan in Kiev,
glorification and rebirth of the fascism in Ukraine, the reasons of
the rebellion of the civil population in the East Ukraine.
In
addition the opportunity to make your own journalistic materials, you
will be able to take a part in the shooting of the collective
documentary film (optional)
that
is going to be spread among US and European mass media offices and on
the Internet. The documentary will consist of 1.5-2 minutes
reportages, that will be filmed by the participants of the press
tour.
Costs:
-
Europa Objektiv provides accommodation in Moscow and in Donbas, and
transport to and from Donbas. Participants will travel to
Donbas by flying to Rostov (Russia), and then traveling by bus to
Donetsk.
-
All transport charges to Moscow to be paid by participants of the
press tour.
Time
constraints: approximately 16-22 or 23-29 of March. The dates could
be discussed. Your desires will be taken into account.
Come see for yourself
BBC Reporter Almost Killed by Ukrainian Shell While Accusing Rebels of Shelling
- BBC Propagandist runs from incoming Ukrainian artillery, but calls it "outgoing" rebel shelling.
- Apparently in the Western media, you should not believe your own eyes or reason—out is in, up is down, and left is right.
17
February, 2015
In
one more incredibly biased TV report from the Donetsk airport, a BBC
journalist started accusing Donetsk self defense forces of breaking
the ceasefire while almost getting killed by a Ukrainian
"peace-loving" sticking-to-ceasefire shell.
First,
Ian Pannell, international BBC corespondent, implicitly accuses
rebels of a "scorched earth policy".
Than
in an almost surreal moment while saying that artillery fire
"appears" to be mostly "outgoing", there's a
clear and visible evidence of incoming Ukrainian fire, resulting in
an dangerous explosion extremely close to and directly behind him.
Fortunately
enough "outgoing fire" hasn't landed on his thick head.
The
shells at 1:03, 1:14 and 1:24 are most definitely incoming shots
since one can hear the "sizzle sound".
It
is even more unbelievable that only moments after surviving Ukrainian
shelling, the BBC reporter, instead of stating the obvious—that
they were almost killed by Ukrainian shelling—has the audacity to
state ludicrous claims that rebels are shelling themselves; thus
implicitly backing up Ukrainian point of view.
So
it seems that "Russian terrorists" are still shelling
themselves? We remember Lugansk and pro-Ukrainian media claims that a
"terrorist missile" hit an air-conditioner in the
administration building, thus killing themselves; or the Odessa
massacre where "Russian terrorists" were throwing Molotov
cocktails from the rooftop and burned themselves alive.
To
certain extent, we feel compassion with BBC employees since they need
to stick to the official Westminster propaganda line ("It's
always Russia's fault") or risk being demoted or losing their
jobs.
If
you want to go up the career ladder, self-imposed censorship is a
must for every journalist working in the Western mainstream media.
German TV Channel in Trouble After Being Caught in Ukraine War Lie
The
German federal television channel ZDF got into a bit of trouble
recently after a citizens' media monitoring group called them out
over false reporting on the presence of Russian tanks in eastern
Ukraine
17
February, 2015
A
German media monitoring organization has filed a complaint against
federal channel ZDF over false reporting on the situation in eastern
Ukraine, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten has reported.
The
complaint, filed by a citizens' group known as the Permanent Open
Committee of Media Monitoring, revolves around a photo accompanying a
recent news segment airing on ZDF about alleged Russian military
presence in eastern Ukraine.
The
segment, which described the alleged movement of Russian tanks and
missile systems into eastern Ukraine, featured a photo with the
caption "Russian armored vehicles moved through Isvarino in the
Lugansk region, February 12, 2015," citing "Ukrainian army
spokesman Andrei Lysenko in Kiev." The only problem is that the
image in question was actually taken several years earlier, in 2009,
and in South Ossetia, not Ukraine.
In
their complaint to ZDF, one of Germany's largest broadcasters, the
Open Committee notes that "it would be interesting to know why
such an image, which has nothing to do with the news in question, is
being repeated, meant as it is to convince a third party of the
truthfulness of assumptions about an "invasion by [Russian]
armor."
Maren
Mueller, one of the founders of the Open Committee and a former media
worker herself, believes that much of German coverage of events in
eastern Ukraine is tainted by distortions, half-truths and outright
lies. Mueller says that "the coverage of events in Ukraine by
the media has reached the height of fantasy, and is not worth taking
seriously." She notes that the tank story is just one example of
the kinds of distortions that regularly occur. Recently, German media
watchers forced an ARD correspondent to retract his words on the
deaths of two civilians in Krasnoarmeysk, after the latter had
erroneously claimed that the deaths were caused by "the bullets
of the new rulers," meaning the anti-Kiev rebels. The channel
has since been forced to issue an apology over the mistake.
Ms.
Mueller believes that among the biggest problems of the German
media's coverage of events is the "dangerous closeness"
between the media's line and that of the description of the conflict
being provided in the government.
Last
week a senior American official faced embarrassment on the Senate
floor after it turned out that photos of Russian tanks he was
presenting as proof of Russian involvement in Ukraine were also from
the war in South Ossetia. After finding out that the photos weren't
from the Ukraine war, Inhofe stated that "the Ukrainian
parliament members who gave us these photos in print form as if it
came directly from a camera really did themselves a disservice. We
felt confident to release these photos because the images match the
reporting of what is going on in the region. I was furious to learn
one of the photos provided now appears to be falsified from an AP
photo taken in 2008."
Here's Another Example of Crude Propaganda Fed to German TV Audiences
German
TV journalist reviled for her
misrepresentation of the Malaysian airliner tragedy acts
like she gets her paycheck from NATO
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tr7UUhydwwpTCb4dil_C5tnGsTX85Ag6h_DOdnUmMO6za6oCm1f03WTtzKKzuNXyPPs00qf7XHOddFhLLDb3EBVRIgkhraynF7GNWv8AmB1k9bg1ydVpAm1UV8X81LUWTtE4pQ7Xp1CmE8shmt0HHjppYVRAv1fHdAG62YAtWlRkf-tpuH=s0-d ""It is quite clear that ... the Russian military did this..."")
"It is quite clear that ... the Russian military did this..."
17
February, 2015
Here's
another report
from The Propaganda Show,
a German blog which details the hard-core bias of the German media,
which often sounds more like Nazi-era propaganda rather than real
news.
Translated
by Anita Zalaldinova, with help from Google Translate.
PROFESSIONAL
LIAR KATRIN EIGENDORF CONCEALS JOURNALIST'S QUESTION TO POROSHENKO
This
is probably one of the key questions that is most emphatically held
back by the Western liars-media:
"Mr.
Poroshenko, why are your troops shelling civilians?’
The
question was heard loud and clear when Poroshenko greeted the
Belarusian dictator Lukashenko. Exactly
the same scene was shown in the evening at 19.00 in the daily news.
The sound was turned down but the question from the journalist can be
heard distinctly. However it was not translated by Katrin Eigendorf.
And the viewers will probably know nothing about it.
Instead
of reporting on the real matters, which are undoubtedly referred to
by the question, Eigendorf keeps fantasizing about another story from
her own propaganda projects named ‘lonely Putin’ and rightly so –
only in Belarus!
Eigendordf’s
propaganda tricks are only too well-known. These include creative
interpretations of images or intentionally selected scenes which are
loaded with political messages.
Eigendorf: ‘There
are gestures that count. Charm
offensive by the Chancellor and the President of Ukraine. By
contrast Vladimir Putin went alone to the table with a frigid
face’.
Eigendorf: ‘This
pompous building in the centre of the city is actually a perfect
stage for the Russian president, and yet Vladimir Putin seems to be
isolated, almost alone on the red carpet where the Belarusian
president hosts him’.
This
has certainly nothing to do with journalism. Eigendorf does not
report on real events, but takes pictures and covers them with her
propaganda. Brainwashing for German media ninnies. It looks
extra grotesque, when
the other transatlantic media try to communicate a completely
different message using the same methods and different pictures.
ARD's
reporting was no better than ZDF. (The two main German TV news
channels) Although they show the greeting of Merkel and
Hollande, as well as Putin, they have knowingly removed the scene
with Poroshenko.
Perhaps
the ARD agitators start to realize that the viewers can no longer be
fooled so easily.
A Study purports to have come up with evidence that the Russians are shelling the Guardian's democratic fascist friends from inside Russian territory.
I await the response
Russia
shelled Ukrainians from within its own territory, says study
Satellite
images, digital detective work and social media provide strongest
evidence yet of Russian crossborder shelling, according to
investigation
17
February, 2015
When
Ukrainian forces came under withering attack in the east of the
country last summer, soldiers were surprised as much as scared by the
ferocity of the attack. The separatists they were up against had
proven fierce and organised. But this was something else.
Now
a group of British investigative journalists using digital detection
techniques, satellite imagery and social media has provided near
conclusive proof that
the shelling came from across the border in Russia.
The
work by the Bellingcat
investigative journalism group highlights
a murky aspect of the war in Ukraine, which continues to sputter
despite last week’s attempt in Minsk to draw up a ceasefire, with
reports of heavy fighting around the railway hub of Debaltseve on
Tuesday.
Russia
has long been accused of funnelling soldiers, munitions and military
vehicles into eastern Ukraine to help separatists take on the
Ukrainian army. But until now, little has been written about Russian
military units shelling across the border into Ukraine.
The
Bellingcat team analysed crater patterns from satellite photos of
three battlefields where the Ukrainian army came under particularly
savage attack last summer and traced the estimated trajectories back
to likely firing positions, where it identified scorch marks and tyre
tracks on satellite images consistent with Russian rocket-launchers.
With
a single exception, the identified firing positions were on Russian
soil. Furthermore, the tracks to and from the firing positions led
further inside Russia,
further evidence that they were Russian units, not separatist
fighters who had strayed across the border. Images of the same
terrain just before the attacks show no track marks or scorched
earth.
An
independent military forensics expert warned that the accuracy of
crater analysis in determining direction of fire on the basis of
satellite photography was scientifically unproven, but said that the
images of firing positions on the Russian side of the border were
compelling and raised questions of what they were doing there.
The
incidents happened last summer, during an intensive period of
fighting in which the Ukrainian army began to gain the upper hand
against separatists and Russia began to supply more overt aid to
ensure the rebels were not defeated. In mid-August the
Guardian saw a column of Russian armour cross the border,
and Kiev claims that thousands of regular Russian troops effectively
invaded. A ceasefire was signed in Minsk in September, though it
broke down almost immediately.
cl
In
early February, the governor of Luhansk, Gennady Moskal, made new
allegations that Russian forces were shelling Ukrainian territory
from inside Russia, as part of the battles that raged before the
signing of the new Minsk accords last week.
The
families of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine have been put under
pressure not to talk publicly about it, and have reportedly been
threatened with a withdrawal of state death benefits if they do,
but some
have begun to speak out.
In
an earlier investigation, Bellingcat – a group of investigative
journalists specialising in image analysis – tracked the movement
of the Buk, which was photographed by members of the public near the
crash site on the day MH17 was shot down, and the photographs
were posted
online.
Bellingcat showed that the same launcher was part of a Russian unit.
It
has also published research on the use of munitions, including
chemical weapons, in the Syrian civil war.
In
its new investigation of artillery use in Ukraine, Bellingcat
focused on three battles in July as
pro-Moscow separatists pushed back a Ukrainian government offensive
that had regained a large section of the Russian-Ukrainian border.
The separatist counter-offensive was supported by heavy artillery,
which proved decisive in driving the Ukrainian army out of the
Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Bellingcat
used publicly available satellite imagery of the battlegrounds and
adapted established procedures for analysing craters on the ground
for determining the trajectory of artillery fire, applying them to
the photographs. It looked at two main types of crater: low angle,
which produce a distinctive diagonal spray of soil from the central
crater, and high angle, which make a triangular shaped crater. Both
can show the direction of fire.
The
first battle studied was near the town of Amvrosiivka, where there
was a crater field showing 330 separate impacts from an artillery
attack on Ukrainian army positions on 14 July. From the shape of the
craters, an average trajectory was worked out. The Bellingcat team
traced that line back through satellite photographs of the area until
they found a potential firing position, identified by burn marks on
the agricultural land, of the sort caused by multiple rocket launcher
systems (MLRS). This was nine miles away, across the border and near
the Russian village of Seleznev. Scrutiny of the imagery showed a
pattern of tyre tracks at the suspected firing position, suggesting a
number of vehicles parked in a line at the site.
The
report said: “The visible tracks that lead to the site come from
further inside Russian territory. This leads us to believe that there
was no crossborder (Ukraine to Russia) movement of military equipment
for this particular location.”
A
second site analysed in the report was in the region of
Chervonopartyzansk, where Ukrainian units came under heavy artillery
barrages between 14 July and 8 August, forcing a Ukrainian retreat.
Looking at a field of 813 craters, it appeared there were six
separate attacks from five different directions. Using the same
methods, the Bellingcat team found five separate firing positions,
four of which were in Russia. In each of those cases, “all the
observable tracks near the firing sites were exclusively within the
territory of Russia”.
One
of the identified firing positions was near the Russian town of
Gukovo. Six videos uploaded by local residents to YouTube, and
another social media video site, VK, showed MLRS (multiple launch
rocket system) salvos being fired on 16 July, throwing up large
plumes of smoke. By working out the direction from which the videos
were shot using visible geographical features, the team estimated two
firing positions near Gukovo – where satellite photos showed
telltale burn marks and tyre tracks.
The
video footage taken by members of the public in Gukovo showed rockets
leaving the launchers, so the investigative team could measure the
angle of elevation at which they were fired. In each case, that was
found to be 20 degrees. Using a firing table for a 122mm rocket fired
from a BM-21 Grad launcher, the most likely system used, that
suggested a range of between 15 and 16 km. The actual distance
between the estimated firing positions and the crater fields over the
border in Ukraine was 9.5 miles.
The
investigation made similar findings on a third artillery barrage, on
25 July, south of Sverdlovsk, where Ukrainian forces came under heavy
fire – an attack Russian media attributed to the separatist Luhansk
People’s Militia. Trajectories calculated from a crater field,
however, led to two firing positions in Russia, one at a military
base near Pavlovka, just across the border.
Stephen
Johnson, a weapons expert at the Cranfield Forensic Institute, part
of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, said that the
application of crater analysis techniques to satellite imagery was
“highly experimental and prone to inaccuracy”.
“This
does not mean there is no value to the method, but that any results
must be considered with caution and require corroboration,” Johnson
said in an email after reviewing the Bellingcat report. He added that
“the most significant part of the report” was the discovery of
the apparent firing positions on the border.
The
ground markings do not seem to be consistent with agricultural
machinery, Johnson said. “They indicate an orientation of vehicles
that would not be unusual for artillery vehicles, and there does
appear to be some ‘scorch’ damage that is not a wheel or track.”
Read
the full Bellingcat
report in English, German or
Finally
for your amusement, some propaganda from Ukraine Today
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