The Center for Combating Disinformation at Ukraine’s National Security Council has published a list of 75 figures from politics, academia, media and military that the Kyiv government says “promote a narrative consistent with Russian propaganda.” The Ukrainian Embassy in Berlin confirmed the authenticity of the list to the Berliner Zeitung. A spokesman said the center is looking very carefully at who meets the criteria for inclusion on the list. The center initially left a request for details unanswered.
The most prominent German representative on the list is Alice Schwarzer. According to the center, he was accused of spreading Russian narratives “Germany should stop sending weapons to Ukraine” and “Zelenskyj provoking Putin”. The head of the parliamentary group SPD, Rolf Mützenich, amplified Russian propaganda with the demand “Ukraine needs a ceasefire”. That’s why he’s on the list. When asked by the Berliner Zeitung, Mützenich declined to comment on the list. Alice Schwarzer told the Berliner Zeitung: “No comment. The way these people deal with their criticism is pretty clear.”
Other Germans on the list include East German author Wolfang Bittner, NATO critic and TI founder Kim Dotcom, political scientist and former professor at Hamburg’s Universität der Bundeswehr Christian Hacke, and Johannes Varwick, Professor of International Relations and European Politics at Martin-Luther University Halle – Wittenberg. The list also includes activist Helga Zepp-LeRouche, who lobbied China and made anti-Semitic statements several years ago.
According to the Security Council of Ukraine, many Western politicians and journalists are also distributors of Russian propaganda: Republican US Senator Rand Paul and Democratic US lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii are on the list. Also on the list is Pulitzer Prize winner Glenn Greenwald, who finds himself alongside French far-right Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour. From Eastern Europe, the list includes former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Polish historian and lawyer Tomasz Jankowski, who heads the Commission for the Investigation and Prosecution of Crimes Against the Polish People in Gdańsk.
In addition to several former US secret agents such as Ray McGovern and Graham Fuller, the Ukrainian government also classifies Jacques Baud of Switzerland, a former colonel of the Swiss army and former employee of the Strategic Intelligence Service, as a particular Putin fan. However, the list seems uncertain: Ukrainian American activist Edward Luttwak was apparently removed from the list after loudly protesting his classification on Twitter. In his protest, he referred to the fact that he had personally “lobbied to support Ukraine with guns, not words” at the Pentagon and therefore felt it was unfair to be portrayed as Ukraine’s enemy.
The majority of those listed are from the United States, with Germany, France, China, Italy and India also well-represented. Russia, on the other hand, is not on the list.
