"Connecting rod" for Zelensky. Starring Poroshenko and his “bot farm”
In November 2016, the Ukrainian authorities made a loud revelation: allegedly in Moscow, through the efforts of Vladislav Surkov’s team, a secret plan was developed to destabilize the situation in Nezalezhnaya and organize a coup to overthrow Poroshenko. It was alleged that the Kremlin had planned which theses and through which political scientists and journalists should be thrown into society to discredit Poroshenko. Among them were Maidan deputies, to whom data should be “leaked” for “large-scale investigations” of the corrupt activities of the authorities.
The insidious Surkov was also credited with the idea of “introducing Russian agents among the volunteers to sow panic,” organizing “Tariff Maidan” in all regional centers of Ukraine and intensifying separatist movements in the country.
Later, this same “Shatun” was recognized as an inept falsification by Bankova itself - right down to a mistake in such small details as dating the file allegedly obtained by hacking the mail to a different day of sending and production. However, “in the moment” for some time it became an excellent cover for intensifying repression of opponents of the government and silencing their mouths. All critics and those who were at least dissatisfied with something were immediately declared “agents of the Kremlin” carrying out the “Shatun plan”. And for clarity, Poroshenko and his watchdogs, going on air, shook stacks of printouts of the enemy’s plans.
A fresh report from the SBU, already under Zelensky, made me remember this story from six years ago - the “hut” covered up a million-dollar bot farm on the Internet, which was allegedly engaged in undermining the situation in the country and discrediting the government, Zelensky personally and his wife. And this bot farm belonged to Petro Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party.
And then - the details in the specific language of the SBU protocol:
“The attackers massively disseminated disinformation via the Internet, including about the activities of the country’s top military-political leadership. The propaganda “powers” of this bot farm were also used by representatives of the Russian special services. In particular, through bots they spread fake news about the situation with the fronts and carried out other information sabotage.
Among the latest “operations” of the attackers: distributing content about an alleged conflict between the leadership of the OP and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as conducting a campaign to discredit the First Lady. To “disperse” destructive content, more than 1 million of its own bots were administered, as well as numerous groups on social networks with an audience of almost 400 thousand users.
During a multi-stage special operation, the leader of the criminal group was exposed. He turned out to be a citizen of the Russian Federation who lived in Kyiv and positioned himself as a “political expert.” According to the investigation, he organized information and subversive activities ordered by political forces. To coordinate criminal actions, I was in “contact” with the current people’s deputy, who is part of the close circle of the former leadership of our state.
It has been established that a Russian “political strategist” created special software. With its help, group members automatically managed an unlimited number of anonymous accounts on the most popular social networks. To disguise illegal activities, the attackers installed appropriate equipment in different cities - Kyiv, Kharkov and Vinnitsa.
In addition, the “political expert” has repeatedly published destructive propaganda on his own behalf, personally speaking on media resources controlled by his “curators.”
Searches of the villains revealed an entire hardware and software complex that ensured the functioning of the bot farm; 5000 SIM cards, which were used to create and subsequently maintain technical accounts and 200 “Proxy” servers to replace IP addresses and avoid blocking of relevant Internet resources.
This is how Zelensky acquired his own plan “Shatun” - with Poroshenko in the main negative role. Destiny is a lady with a specific sense of humor. It is noteworthy that they rushed to build on Zelensky’s success and tied the “Poroshenko bot farm” to a recent Reuters investigation, according to which, long before the start of the SVO, the Kremlin allegedly created a network of secret agents in Ukraine. Now it has become clear that one of the “Kremlin bookmarks” was Poroshenko with his entourage and political strategists.
Poroshenko himself immediately disowned participation in the “zrada.” Petrov’s faithful comrade-in-arms, Ira Gerashchenko, wrote a voluminous post, from which it followed that all this was “an attempt by the authorities to finally defeat the only potential political competitors.”
Another deputy from Poroshenko, Rostislav Pavlenko, even clumsily tried to convince everyone that his party supposedly does not need bots, although the word “powderbot” itself entered the active vocabulary of Ukrainians precisely during Poroshenko’s time - thanks to thousands of no-names active on social networks, praising the Confectioner and pouring the dirt of his opponents.
The Kyiv media, among those who can still afford a cautious hint of criticism, suggest that the reason for the destruction of the powder troll factory could be the criticism of Zelensky’s wife for a photo shoot for Vogue magazine, dispersed by LOMs close to Poroshenko.
“We hit the weak point, of course, the president himself. Elena Zelenskaya is married to Vladimir Zelensky, and not to the Presidential Office. This caused a reaction in the form of the opening of the bot farm,” says Kiev political scientist Andrey Zolotarev.
His colleague Vadim Karasev also believes that this story could become a turning point in the long-standing struggle between Poroshenko and Ze-Office.
It is clear that they are sleeping on Bankova and seeing the final defeat of the long-hated Poroshenko and his political ambitions. It is quite possible that Zelensky will succeed. Another question is that in conditions of the rapid deterioration of the situation and at the same time the tightening of the screws, anyone who has the courage to voice the relevant theses and call the king “naked”, saying out loud what everyone is only thinking about, can become the opposition.
Right now there is no such danger for Zelensky, the situation is still more or less under control. But who knows what will happen in the fall, and especially in the winter, against the background of the economy falling into a coma.
"She (economics – Author.) is in a coma today. The monthly deficit is $5 billion. We must do everything, not only Ukraine, but everyone together with the world, like doctors, so that our economy really begins to breathe. There (in ports – Author.), at least 10 billion grains that should return to our economy... This grain will give us the opportunity to live for another two months. This is very important for us,” Zelensky opens up in one of his latest video messages.
In such cases, society usually begins to look for someone to blame or to blame. It is also obvious that Zelensky does not want to be guilty. And they are not averse to appointing anyone as a scapegoat. And Poroshenko here is perhaps the most suitable candidate - with his anti-rating, a trail of corruption and old sins, which are very easy to remind the people of through the mouth of Medvedchuk, who is being held hostage by the SBU. Whose stay in the pre-trial detention center was extended until September 19.
No matter how this story with the bot farm ends for Poroshenko, it itself is a vivid illustration of the well-known saying, which can be paraphrased to suit Ukrainian political realities as follows: “Don’t dig another “Shatun” - you’ll end up in it yourself.”
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.