{"id":268563,"date":"2025-06-02T12:08:59","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T12:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/bbcs-independent-russian-partner-begged-uk-govt-for-funds-files-show\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T12:08:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T12:08:59","slug":"bbcs-independent-russian-partner-begged-uk-govt-for-funds-files-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=268563","title":{"rendered":"BBC\u2019s \u2018independent\u2019 Russian partner begged UK govt for funds, files show"},"content":{"rendered":" \r\n
\n\n \n\n\n

Leaked documents show the supposedly self-reliant anti-Kremlin outlet Mediazona asked the UK gov\u2019t for\u00a0\u00a3300,000<\/strong>. With foreign funding drying up, the \u201cindependent\u201d news site now faces financial crisis.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Mediazona, the self-styled \u201cindependent\u201d Russian outlet which partners with the BBC to track the deaths of Russian troops, requested hundreds of thousands of pounds directly from the British government, according to a tranche of leaked official documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having mainly targeted Russians since its founding in 2014 by members of the Western-backed troupe of provocateurs known as Pussy Riot, Mediazona has largely remained off the radar of news consumers in the West. But that changed with the outbreak of full-scale war in Ukraine. Since the first day of the conflict, Mediazona\u00a0has collaborated<\/a>\u00a0with the BBC Russian Service on a project tracking the deaths of Russian servicemen through open source methods. Mediazona describes \u201cthe work [as] meticulous and time-consuming,\u201d requiring \u201crelentless efforts of journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who or what was footing the bill was left unmentioned in the description of the initiative, which was clearly designed to foment dissent and opposition to the proxy war among Russian citizens. Now, leaked documents reviewed by The Grayzone indicate that between 2020 and 2023, Mediazona was in line for vast, secret grants for anti-Kremlin agitation from the British Foreign Office, under the official auspices of\u00a0London\u2019s opaque<\/a>\u00a0\u201cGlobal Britain Fund.\u201d<\/p>

<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

From Pussy Riot to Mediazona<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Leaked files related to the information warfare effort show London earmarked a myriad of NGOs, rights groups, and news outlets in Russia to receive hundreds of thousands of pounds in order to undermine the Kremlin with propaganda and supposed civil society initiatives. Among the most prominent proposed repeat recipients was Mediazona.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One prospective grant from the Foreign Office would have transferred a whopping\u00a0\u00a3300,000<\/a>\u00a0between 2020 \u2013 2023 to the outlet, which describes itself in the application as \u201cRussia\u2019s leading independent and socially focused media company.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Boasting that \u201cMediazona contributes to the discussion of many legal and structural problems haunting Russian society and state, and also reports on foreign events (including in the UK) that have implications for Russians,\u201d the proposal laid out the \u201ckey objectives set for Mediazona,\u201d which included \u201c[challenging] the official version of events by providing audiences with high-quality investigative journalism, compelling eye witness accounts and live feeds from the ground.\u201d If approved, Mediazona would also \u201cdevelop critical thinking amongst young Russians through the proactive use of social media networks and interactive content.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The applicants bragged that Mediazona\u2019s \u201cprominent status on the Russian-language internet\u201d meant \u201cissues raised through its publications\u201d would \u201chave measurable resonance, stimulating constructive engagement between multiple stakeholder groups including public officials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mediazona would be expected to produce \u201caround 120 news articles per week, at least 18 investigative reports per month and a series of online feeds delivered from crucial events across Russia.\u201d The Foreign Office pledged, \u201cthis programming will serve to expose corruption and the abuse of power whilst bringing credible and authentic voices into the public domain.\u201d In addition, the editorial team hoped to \u201cforge new partnerships with key players in the Russian and international media landscape, thereby ensuring powerful multiplier effects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere, the British Foreign Office received a petition for\u00a0\u00a3150,000<\/a>\u00a0over two years on behalf of\u00a0Zona Prava<\/a>, an NGO which was also founded by Pussy Riot. The organization would expose alleged human rights abuses in Russian prisons, via \u201cpublic events\u201d such as \u201chot lines, round tables, seminars, information events with the invitation of public figures and government representatives.\u201d Meanwhile, in \u201cclose cooperation\u201d with Mediazona, Zona Prava would produce \u201cat least 800 materials in federal and regional media\u2026 at least 10 videos\u201d and potentially one or two documentaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

British intel circumvents \u2018foreign agent\u2019 law<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The leaked documents make clear that the British were aware that their activities were illegal under Moscow\u2019s Foreign Agent law. A funding application for\u00a0Equal Rights Trust<\/a>, a Global Britain Fund recipient charged with lawfare operations referred to cryptically as \u201ctargeted strategic litigation\u201d explicitly describes a British government-funded effort to evade the new law. \u201cAs part of our current project\u201d being financed by the UK Foreign Office, ERT wrote that it \u201chas undertaken an extensive risk assessment of the Russian context, including commissioning an independent consultant to produce a report on the Foreign Agent Law.\u201d As a result, \u201cERT is now well-versed\u201d in various \u201cprocedures to mitigate the risks of transferring funds to Russia,\u201d which \u201callowed for the ongoing successful implementation of activities despite the Foreign Agent law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These procedures included \u201cdiversifying means of transferring of funds, on-going assessment on methods of transfer, clear lines of communication with the recipient on when and how transfers are made, neutral codes and payment reference for bank records, and maximum amounts per transfer and numbers of transfers using the same method.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ERT concluded that \u201cit is simpler and safer for all concerned to work without a formal partner to distribute funds to project beneficiaries,\u201d and instead \u201cwork with a series of informal partners through consultancy agreements.\u201d ERT was said to have \u201cutilised this approach to great success in similar environments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unknown if the Global Britain projects involving Mediazona went ahead, and, if so, whether they used such \u201cprocedures\u201d to launder the money. But the outlet\u2019s long standing public alliance with the British state, via the project mapping Russian war casualties with the BBC\u2019s Russian Service, highlights the outlet\u2019s perceived utility as a conduit for anti-Kremlin agitprop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mediazona lashes out at damaging leaks with libelous allegations<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If financing did flow to Mediazona under \u201cGlobal Britain,\u201d it would not have been the first time London covertly supported the group\u2019s activities. In\u00a0February 2021<\/a>, leaks reported by The Grayzone revealed how Mediazona had, alongside Meduza, received covert backing from British intelligence in the form of \u201caudience segmentation and targeting support\u201d some years prior. The assistance formed part of a wider clandestine effort to \u201cweaken the Russian state\u2019s influence.\u201d While Mediazona\u2019s top brass issued no official statement or response to the disclosures, a retort of sorts was promptly forthcoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Days after this outlet\u2019s reporting appeared, Mediazona published a\u00a0sensational exclusive<\/a>, claiming Amnesty International\u2019s decision to\u00a0rescind<\/a>\u00a0Western-backed, imprisoned Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny\u2019s \u201cprisoner of conscience\u201d status resulted from a sinister Kremlin-orchestrated \u201ccampaign,\u201d led by \u201cindividuals tied\u201d to Russian state broadcaster RT. The supposed culprits were The Grayzone\u2019s Aaron Mat\u00e9, and a freelance writer and translator known as Katya Kazbek \u2013 neither of whom were tied to RT in any way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mat\u00e9\u2019s apparent sin\u00a0was revealing<\/a>\u00a0how Amnesty had revoked Navalny\u2019s status \u201cgiven the fact that he advocated violence and discrimination and he has not retracted such statements.\u201d For her part, Kazbek stood accused of posting a viral\u00a0Twitter thread<\/a>\u00a0documenting Navalny\u2019s lengthy history of racism, xenophobia, and association with and promotion of Neo-Nazi figures and groups, which he\u00a0consistently refused<\/a>\u00a0to repudiate. She was\u00a0subsequently doxxed<\/a>\u00a0by Bellingcat editor Natalia Antonova, who revealed sensitive private details, including her home address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amnesty International issued a statement\u00a0explicitly denying<\/a>\u00a0\u201cexternal pressure\u201d from any source influenced its decision to remove Navalny from its list of \u201cprisoners of conscience.\u201d Nevertheless, Mediazona\u2019s hatchet job was promptly translated into English by Meduza, where its charges were seized upon by mainstream Navalny endorsers and Western news outlets, including\u00a0the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meduza\u2019s then-investigative editor, Alexey Kovalev,\u00a0appeared to acknowledge<\/a>\u00a0the bogus story was revenge for articles exposing Britain\u2019s clandestine support of both Mediazona and Kovalev\u2019s employer, Meduza.\u00a0In a 2021 tweet, Kovalev accused the author of this article of having \u201cunleashed a careless conspiracy theory,\u201d insisting that the leaked documents exposing those ties were \u201cfake.\u201d In closing, he sneered: \u201cconsider us square.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But the documents, and recent announcement by both Mediazona and Meduza, indicate that claims of secret Western sponsorship for the supposedly-independent outlets were anything but \u201cfake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a lengthy plea posted across their social media accounts entitled \u201cMediazona on the brink,\u201d the group groaned that they were \u201crunning out of money\u201d and urgently needed 5,000 monthly subscribers just \u201cto stay afloat.\u201d After Western sanctions forced Visa and Mastercard out of Russia, \u201cfunding from our readers\u201d dried up, they wrote, explaining that the Ukraine proxy war\u2019s outbreak \u201ccollapsed\u201d the outlet\u2019s business model \u201covernight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mediazona claimed they\u2019d already begun laying off staff as a result of budget cuts, warning if their subscriber target was not reached, layoffs \u201cwill have to continue.\u201d Before the war, they claimed, the outlet was funded \u201calmost<\/em>\u00a0[emphasis added] entirely\u201d by reader donations. This glaring caveat strongly suggests they had been at least partially backed by government funding \u2013 a notion seemingly confirmed in a February 28\u00a0Euractiv interview<\/a>\u00a0with Nikita Dulnev, director of Mediazona\u2019s Central Asia branch, who directly linked his outlet\u2019s financial woes to the Trump administration\u2019s\u00a0shutdown<\/a>\u00a0of USAID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dulnev was described by Euractiv as\u00a0one of many \u201cmedia professionals in Eastern European countries\u201d who fear Washington\u2019s \u201cabrupt funding cut\u201d to local propaganda projects \u201ccould inflict lasting damage on the region\u2019s media infrastructure.\u201d\u00a0In the article,\u00a0Dulnev lamented, \u201cfor years, we had some support and didn\u2019t diversify much. That\u2019s why we had to pause our work.\u201d Dulnev\u2019s LinkedIn profile\u00a0lists him<\/a>\u00a0as formerly employed by the \u201cKhodorkovsky network.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That international anti-Kremlin propaganda group was formed by\u00a0London-residing<\/a>\u00a0exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was\u00a0released with<\/a>\u00a0members of Pussy Riot in December 2013 as a \u201cmagnanimous gesture\u201d by Moscow towards the Russian opposition. Since then, Khodorkovsky has\u00a0openly plotted<\/a>\u00a0Vladimir Putin\u2019s downfall, though the full extent of this agitation is unknown.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pussy Riot cofounders Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova launched Mediazona almost immediately after their release alongside Khodorkovsky. A 2014\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0announcing their outlet\u2019s founding explicitly linked Mediazona\u2019s creation to the lack of \u201cspace for anything in [Russian] media that criticizes Putin\u2019s policies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was thus evident from day one that Mediazona was intended to serve as an extension of Pussy Riot\u2019s political activism in Russia, which\u00a0previously included<\/a>\u00a0Tolokonnikova\u2019s participation in a public orgy at a Moscow museum in 2008, and other incendiary,\u00a0criminal acts<\/a>\u00a0that would get perpetrators jailed almost anywhere in the world. The outlet quickly became a\u00a0dependable megaphone<\/a>\u00a0for Western-sponsored opposition figure Alexei Navalny until his February 2024 death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A February 2025 New York Times\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0confirmed Meduza had been in receipt of unacknowledged funds from USAID, a traditional US intelligence cutout, amounting to 15% of its annual income. This budgetary shortfall, they claimed, was sufficient to put the outlet\u2019s entire future in jeopardy, and inflict more damage on its operations than previous alleged \u201ccyberattacks, legal threats and even poisonings of its reporters.\u201d The New York Times noted that financing for opposition media outlets from other foreign governments was \u201ctiny in comparison with American funding\u201d cut by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, \u201ctraditional media supporters\u201d\u00a0 such as the\u00a0CIA-connected<\/a>\u00a0Ford Foundation and George Soros\u2019 Open Society Foundations have \u201cabandoned much of [their] media funding\u201d outright. This abrupt lack of overseas bankrolling for anti-Kremlin propaganda operations was parenthetically acknowledged in Mediazona\u2019s desperate March 31 plea for reader donations, which lamented that \u201cgrants from various foundations\u201d are no longer forthcoming \u201cin the current situation.\u201d It appears Mediazona is also a victim of the US-led cessation of foreign funding for \u2018independent\u2019 media projects targeting enemy states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As funding from Western governments dries up, Pussy Riot has launched a page on\u00a0OnlyFans<\/a>. The group\u2019s \u201cfetish\/kink friendly\u201d\u00a0official profile<\/a>\u00a0on the website,\u00a0widely used<\/a>\u00a0by sex workers, promises paying subscribers \u201cdaily exclusive photos and videos,\u201d \u201cone on one chatting,\u201d \u201ccustom content and items,\u201d and \u201cexceptional service for all your personal requests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of publication, promotional offers on three and six-month subscriptions are offered. It is unknown how many NATO member states, if any, have availed themselves of the opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n \n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leaked documents show the supposedly self-reliant anti-Kremlin outlet Mediazona asked the UK gov\u2019t for\u00a0\u00a3300,000. With foreign funding drying up, the \u201cindependent\u201d news site now faces financial crisis. Mediazona, the self-styled \u201cindependent\u201d Russian outlet which partners with the BBC to track the deaths of Russian troops, requested hundreds of thousands of pounds directly from the British […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":268564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[69232,95854,8277,11257,31560,15175,4327,3078,2443],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-268563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-bbcs","tag-begged","tag-files","tag-funds","tag-govt","tag-independent","tag-partner","tag-russian","tag-show"],"yoast_head":"\nBBC\u2019s \u2018independent\u2019 Russian partner begged UK govt for funds, files show - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=268563\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BBC\u2019s \u2018independent\u2019 Russian partner begged UK govt for funds, files show - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Leaked documents show the supposedly self-reliant anti-Kremlin outlet Mediazona asked the UK gov\u2019t for\u00a0\u00a3300,000. 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With foreign funding drying up, the \u201cindependent\u201d news site now faces financial crisis. 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