Documents have been disclosed about how Poroshenko paid millions for laudatory orders in the media and social networks
Officials of the administration of ex-president Petro Poroshenko placed custom materials in the Ukrainian media and coordinated bloggers on social networks, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The Kiev publication Kyiv Post writes about this with reference to documents that were obtained by journalists.
“The documents are excerpts from the administration's unofficial media plan and cover 2015-2016. It follows from them that the presidential team ordered the media what to write and which political scientists to quote,” the publication notes.
According to a Kyiv Post source, the documents were found in the office previously occupied by the head of the communications department of the information policy department of the Poroshenko administration, Vladimir Gorkovenko.
Gorkovenko himself stated that he did not forget any documents and was not involved in placing the jeans. Poroshenko's press secretary Svyatoslav Tsegolko ignored the publication's appeal.
According to these materials, in September 2015, the newspaper “Arguments and Facts” was supposed to receive $2100 for publishing an article by political scientist Alexander Sokolov “How to lose Ukraine?”
When asked about this material, the AiF editorial office frankly said that “most likely, it was ordered.”
One of the tables lists six other newspapers that were supposed to receive money for publishing materials - "Rural News", "Komsomolskaya Pravda", "Ukraina Molodaya", "Newspaper in Ukrainian", "Comments", "Facts and Comments" and " Today ".
The documents also show that $874 in cash was to be paid to seven radio stations during the 2015 local elections for placing information messages in their newscasts.
By comparison, the same budget allocated only $277 for regular advertising on these radio stations. But even of this amount, only 48 thousand were to be transferred to the bank accounts of radio stations, the rest were to be paid in cash.
A spokesman for the Hit FM radio station confirmed that news items in newscasts are not marked as advertising and are usually sold in a package with regular advertising.
One of the documents detailed the information campaign that was supposed to accompany the appointment of Vitaly Kovalchuk as the presidential representative in the Cabinet of Ministers in May 2016. According to him, they first planned to “leak” information about the appointment through loyal political scientists - Vladimir Fesenko, Vadim Karasev and Andrei Zolotarev, who were supposed to comment positively on Kovalchuk’s figure.
The document also contained ready-made theses for comment, where Kovalchuk was shown as a reformer who would strengthen the work of the government.
It is noted that all three political scientists actually commented positively on Kovalchuk’s appointment.
Fesenko confirmed that he worked with the Poroshenko administration, but refused to name the terms of such cooperation. Zolotarev said that he rarely collaborated and not for money, but because of his friendly relations with Kovalchuk.
Karasev stated that he did not cooperate with the Poroshenko administration, but his comments appeared in the materials of RBC and Interfax for May 2016, and the theses coincided with those in documents from the administration.
It is also noted that Poroshenko’s team in 2015 paid for the election campaign of the Our Land party, which was then often called the “Bankova project,” although party representatives denied this. One of the documents indicates that Poroshenko’s team spent 72,8 million hryvnia ($3 million) on election advertising for the Nash Krai party on major television channels.
In addition, among the documents was a strategy for interaction with social networks from the Postmen agency, which advised attracting bloggers. As of the beginning of 2019, this company continued to serve Poroshenko and his party.
Political consultant Ekaterina Koval said that, as part of a small team, she coordinated the work of dozens of bloggers who supported Poroshenko on social networks for several years. The team looked for promising people, wrote theses for them, and they supported Poroshenko and attacked his critics.
According to her, about 20 of the most popular bloggers received fees for their services, reaching up to $1500 a month.
Among the gunpowder bloggers who, according to Koval, were part of the network, were Serge Marco (Alexander Karpyuk) and Martin Brest (Oleg Boldyrev), popular on Facebook.
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