It is worth starting with a small side note. It is highly likely that the ‘mass graves series’ on the Channel One was launched with direct involvement of a GRU[1] Officer. October 15, the Security Service of Ukraine informed about the detainment on the Crimea border of a citizen of Ukraine passing information to Mr. P., the head of ‘military police’ of Khartsyzk town who was subordinate to Mr. A., a RF citizen nicknamed Nos (the Nose), staff employee of GRU, General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, head of ‘DPR military police’. The story of Channel One of September 23 has the sync with Viktor Nosov, ‘the head of DPR military police’, who was also the first to announce the evaluation of the deceased: civilians killed by Ukrainian servicemen. So the whole plot grows into the weighted and premeditated psychological and information operation against Ukraine.

Speaking about shaping the views of their fellow citizens, the Russian TV-channels having no other topics decided to use the election campaign in Ukraine to demonstrate the outcomes of ‘coup d'état’ and causes of war in Donbas.

Like in the Maidan period, the actions of radical nationalists become the main object of TV’s attention. The reporters of Channel One, NTV and Russia give a detailed account of real and made-up actions of Pravyi Sektor (Right Sector), Svoboda (Freedom) and sometimes Oleh Liashko concerning the demolition of Lenin monuments and ‘garbage lustration’. The actions against monuments are immediately qualified as vandalism and heritage destruction.

And the ‘garbage lustration’ actually attracted the Russian TV-channels only after the fight of the deputy and Opposition Block candidate Nestor Shufrych with Right Sector representatives on September 30 in Odessa. This person and his courage are must-have almost of every story about lustration. For example, Russia Channel reporter even lied to the viewers that Shufrych had not refused to participate in the election unlike other victims. Viktor Pylypyshyn was chosen to play the role of a ‘coward’ for some reason. Another story of Vesti tells about critical condition of Shufrych though in two days he takes part in political talk-show ‘Black Mirror’ and meets face to face with a Right Sector representative, and manages to hold his own not being afraid of ‘neo-Nazi’s’ violence. If what is said by Russian TV-channels is true, the elderly doctors suffer the most from the spontaneous lustration – reprisal by the radicals. Consequently, one gets the impression that frenzied and wild goons from ‘Maidan’ wheel and deal in Ukraine.

Russia, Vesti9, 01.10.2014

“By Pavel Melnik. Peaceful life in Ukraine: ‘Lenin-Fall’ and Officials in Waste Bins.

Ukraine continues experiencing ‘Lenin-Fall’: Lenin monuments are pulled down one by one. Those who are against such vandalism are beaten or threatened by nationalists. The officials out of favor are rejected to litter bins and forced to write ‘voluntary’ resignations. There have been even assaults on chiefs of enforcement bodies recently.

Every day brings Ukraine new shocks. Svatovo settlement, in Luhansk oblast: having seized the control over the area the Ukrainian Army rushes to rewrite the history. Another Lenin monument is pulled down.

- This is our history, it should have been kept so that they would look into his face and see what has been done?! Is it better now?!

The life in cities controlled by servicemen can be called calm hardly. For example, Slaviansk. The city hall, where local election is to be held, is surrounded by litter bins – for those who support the pro-Russian direction, for candidates and their supporters.

The same situation is in Dnipropetrovsk: masked radicals, loud slogans. Activists are trying to establish their order in the oblast. They take the prosecutor’s office, assault its chief, pressure and force him to resign in 24 hours.

‘How can one break into prosecutor’s working routine and apply physical force? We have the Code, the article concerning the obstruction of prosecution work!’ Roman Fedyk, the Prosecutor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, expresses his indignation.

Channel One, News, 13.10.2014

‘Host unknown. Lviv started celebrating the 72^nd anniversary of UPA (The Ukrainian Insurgent Army) establishment few days in advance. It is nationalist subdivisions that killed civilians and fought against Red Army soldiers during the Great Patriotic War. The radical movement supporters disguised as gunmen and marched past in central streets of the city.

October 14 is considered to be the foundation day of notorious UPA, and it is anticipated that similar processions will be held in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kremenchuk.

And in Odessa, expecting for this so important for Ukrainian nationalists event, the local authorities increased the security of the Catherine the Great monument. There are rumors that the monument to the Empress who has found the city may suffer the same doom as the Lenin monument in Kharkiv – unauthorized demolition. By the way, Kryvyi Rig has already experienced the Kharkiv’s scenario: unknown vandals pulled down and sawed the statue.

Russia, Vesti, 01.10.2014

‘National patriots declare the peace-supporters the enemies of Ukraine. The radicals do their best to impede their participation in the election campaign. And they manage sometimes. The deputy Pylypyshyn left the election campaign after having been rejected to the litter bin. However, the deputy Shufrych beaten by gunmen intends to go all the way.’

Russia, Vesti, 01.10.2014

“The country is overwhelmed with the wave of so called people’s lustration. The role of the people is played by radical nationalists: they not only beat up the officials and deputies but also threaten with murders. EU Ambassador to Ukraine has made a statement today that such a conduct is beyond the European traditions.

He is still in a hospital and asks to keep its name and location in secret. Brain concussion, multiple hematomas, the right eye is covered with an eye-bandage. According to doctors, ‘Regional’ Nestor Shufrych battered by Right Sector gunmen the day before in Odessa has to stay in a ward for a week.

The reprisal against the sitting member of Verkhovna Rada standing for election to the new Parliament on a list of Opposition Block as called a gift for Yarosh’s birthday by the very Right Sector radicals is the main topic of every local talk-show.’

Channel One, Vesti, 02.10.2014

‘Host Timur Siraziyev. This is the struggle against everyone related to the former regime or those who are just out of favor. Every day brings news that someone was huddled into a litter bin. And the list of radical’s victims is getting more diverse.

And some of the Ukrainian politicians pour oil on flames: instead of trying to stop this outrage, they urge the nationalists to go on.

Yaroslav Styranka, Chief Medical Officer of hospital in Ternopil city, is at his workplace. The camera shoots his face only, the visitors’ faces are out of vision. Having accused the medical officer of corruption, the intruders pass on to the punishment. The people’s reprisal or lustration, called so by the nationalists, does not need any advocates: the sword-law is applied here.”

Channel One, Vesti, 02.10.2014

‘The trend of political season: huddle a political opponent into a litter bin. The power purification as called by radicals is rather a manic mop-up. The Chief Medical Officer of hospital in Chernivtsi city was thrown to the garbage being accompanied by shouting ‘Glory to Ukraine!’ Then he was carried in the container around the whole city.

The militia did not even dare to leave the patrol car and watched the aggressive procession pass-by. In Ternopil oblast a civil servant of health was discharged to the same place – symbolic dump, despite his age.

All these people are just guilty of having supported the already former regime. But as the leaders of ultra-right ‘parties of war’ openly say the radicals must take vengeance.”

The third important theme following the ‘Lenin-fall’ and lustration is the demonstration of former Maidan fellow-fighters, their corruption, populism and stupidity. Reproaching Russian TV-people in this very case is difficult: they cite specific examples and facts. Unfortunately, all such stories are biased. Ex-members of Party of Regions and ex-communists are out of range. And the Opposition Block of Boiko-Shufrych-Levochkin is even well in with Russians unlike Tihipko who is merely not mentioned.

Channel One, News, 25.09.2014

“The Batkivschyna group demands the convocation of extraordinary meeting of Verkhovna Rada. Split in political elites in Ukraine. Ex-PM Yuliia Tymoshenko wages an attack on the positions of Defense Minister Valerii Heletei. The parliamentary group of her Batkivschyna party demands to have an extraordinary meeting of Verkhovna Rada and to dismiss the Defense Ministry head.

The deputies wrote a letter to the President Poroshenko. They claim that errors of command authority caused the deaths of hundreds of soldiers. The words of Heletei about the alleged nuclear attack of Russia on Ukraine were not left out in the cold. The Batkivschyna deputies are positive that such tales by a high-ranking official as the Defense Minister jeopardize the Ukrainian command authority and undermine the trust of international partners.”

Channel One, News, 01.10.2014

“Loud statements by European politicians at the round-table in Vienna.

Host Ivan Blagoi. And in Vienna the Ukraine-Europe relations and the necessity to take into account the Russian interests were discussed by round-table participants. There are many important statements.

The round-table was initiated by the German party. There were also German politicians having weight in Germany. The Austrian Parliament representative and the representatives of Ukrainian business and authorities. Vienna was chosen as a neutral territory for critical issues discussion. The memorandum summarizing the meeting results has 15 points of Ukrainian crisis solution. The first one is that the conflict on the East of Ukraine cannot be settled by the arms…

One of the points of joint memorandum has several important issues. For example, the recommendation for Ukraine to create a trilateral consortium to operate the gas pipeline with Russia and EU. Actually, these joint efforts of EU and Russia were discussed a lot. As well as the unifying and not separating matters. This issue was also raised by well-known Ukrainian businessman Dmitriy Firtash. He had been arrested in Vienna at request of American authorities. Now he is released in his own custody. Nevertheless, Firtash is a head of Employers’ Association of Ukraine. He also participated to the round-table.

‘I am citizen of Ukraine. And this is not just a wind to me. I do not want Ukraine to be a springboard. But today after the Maidan Ukraine turned out to be a springboard with battles, confrontations of different parties. I think we have to become a bridge,’ Dmitriy Firtash says.

Vienna was also visited by Yurii Boiko, leader of Opposition Block political party. He told European parliamentarians that it is really difficult to be engaged in politics in a country enjoying the victory of European choice.

‘We made it clear for European colleagues that the present authorities have almost liquidated the state institutions in our country. For example, the case when our people’s deputy was beaten, this is an outrageous instance having taken place in the premises of Odessa Oblast Administration. At the presence of militia the armed crowd beat up the Parliament members. When you tell this to Europeans, they do not understand how it can be possible in a country wishing to be a partner of European Union and to have democratic principles,’ says the ex-PM of Ukraine Yurii Boiko.”

Russia, Vesti, 01.10.2014

“Civil activists came to the President Administration today demanding to remove the candidates having long-standing conflicts with law from the election. Having analyzed the candidate lists, the civic movement Chesno (Fairly) detected at least 78 surnames of those involved in corruption scandals. The majority of them are from Batkivschyna lists. And even the PM Yatsenyuk, the ‘number one’ of Narodny Front (People’s Front).”

Russia, Vesti, 08.10.2014

“Valerii Heletei, Defense Minister of Ukraine, calls Yuliia Tymoshenko, the Batkivschyna party leader, to apologize to Ukrainian servicemen. He thinks that she has to apologize after the statements that his ministry keeps selling weapon and equipment abroad during the military actions in the east.

‘I turned to the court officially. As well as Mrs. Tymoshenko with her party-fellows claimed the crime of Defense Minister and Defense Ministry near the Security Service of Ukraine premises, I am requiring her to apologize. Not to me: I have got no ambitions. To every fighter, especially in the ATO zone, so that they would hear that the Ministry of Defense did not sell any weapon,’ Heletei said at the press-conference in Kyiv.

The Minister reminded that the Prosecutor-General’s Office had performed check-ups and had not found any infringements. As it had been already communicated, September 26, Tymoshenko and Batkivschyna deputies gave the Security Service of Ukraine an appeal with facts that they believe prove that the Ministry of Defense and subordinate enterprises were selling the armory during the military operation in the east.”

Channel One, News, 12.10.2014

“October 2, during the closed meeting of Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk with significant investors, Tomas Fiala, the president of European Business Association, asked why the positions on the party lists were sold for USD 3-4 million again.

The Maidan was against the nepotism in the politics as well. Son of former president Viktor Yanukovych, also Viktor, was the deputy of 5^th and 6^th sessions of Parliament on the list of Party of Regions. Oleksiy Poroshenko, the elder son of the current President, is candidate from Petro Poroshenko Block. One may say he is already the deputy. The polls show that the new ‘pro-authority party’ passes to the Rada.”

It is worth mentioning that one of the most favorite personages of Russian TV is Oleh Liashko: he is third the most mentioned after the President Petro Poroshenko and the PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Liashko leaves behind Yarosh and Tiagnybok together and is as popular as Igor Kolomoiskyi. And the reporters inform not only about his shocking tricks and statements but also about the deep inconsistency of what he says and what he does. Generally speaking, deriding of Liashko is a method to abase the Maidan and revolution. Though none of the politicians, except for member of Svoboda Iryna Farion, gives such good occasions as Liashko to play up to the Kremlin propaganda.

Russia, Vesti, 01.10.2014

“The psychological tension is high in all spheres of life, and the Verkhovna Rada election makes the society more extreme. The Ukrainians accuse the leader of radical party Oleh Liashko of lies: he promised to create a so called voluntary battalion (actually, the punitive one) but in fact he turned out to be a windbag. The detachment exists in paper only.”

Channel One, News, 06.10.2014

“There is another method of TV political race. Well-known Oleh Liashko unluckily rated the election campaign jolly was derided by the whole studio when he told in live that he was on the front line in Donbas and neutralized personally a ‘gunnery spotter’ trying to direct the fire of “Grads” and “Uragans” on the very leader of radical party. This time Liashko’s so loved genre ‘questioning shot by camera’ involved all visitors of the studio. Many people were laughing in utter disbelief.

Right Sector representatives laughed the most. By the way, their leaders fight tooth and nail to get to the Parliament insisting that the revolution in Ukraine is yet young.”

Russia, Vesti, 16.10.2014

“One of the election struggle examples was demonstrated by Oleh Liashko’s party. There is a meeting of several dozens of pensioners near the Administration of the President building. When asked why they had come here the ladies turned their backs modestly. As it turns out, a representative of Liashko’s party (I do not remember his name but it is written on a poster) cannot surpass his competitor. And to draw attention to the situation he gathers the supporters near the Administration of the President building. Of course, one may doubt that poor pensioners have come here answering the call of heart.”

Speaking of the Dnipropetrovsk oligarch, the Russian media keep presenting him as an evil genius – a puppeteer of ‘punitive detachments’. And they attribute the influence to Kolomoiskiy where it is just impossible. Like for Liashko, the intentional discrediting of Kolomoiskiy is to anchor the image of Maidan and Donbas war as instruments for personal enrichment and power of oligarchs. Like those that Russia was ‘saved’ from by Putin at the time.

Zvezda (Star), 01.10.2014

“Kolomoiskiy and Yarosh are suspected of preparation of coup d’état in Russia. Mikhail Degtiarev, State Duma deputy, offered the RF Investigating Committee to check the involvement of Privatbank owner Kolomoiskiy and Right Sector leader Yarosh in creation of warcamps and recruitment of Russian youth on the territory of Ukraine to have a coup d’état in Russia.

“Elate with victory of so called revolution and as a matter of fact of bloody coup in Ukraine some persons are actually financing the punitive detachments in Ukraine, creating camps. This is primarily about oligarch Kolomoiskiy and his protégé a nationalist and actually a Nazi Dmytro Yarosh,’ Degtiarev commented.

He explained that he has information about creation of special camps in Ukraine with young Russians recruited via the Internet.

‘The Internet has instructions for Russian nationalists, first of all, young people non-believers mainly who go there for money, they go to Ukraine to kill the Russians – that is to say the militants – in Novorossia. And they will come back here with pockets full of Kolomoiskiy’s dollars. And when zero hour comes these people would go out and destroy the cities,’ the deputy added.”

Russia, Vesti, 03.10.2014

“Who killed Red Cross Officer in Donetsk: investigation by Vesti.

… Who could have done that? There could have been shooting from Peski settlement that is close to the Donetsk airport. Before the launch of so called anti-terrorist operation, the 93^rd brigade of Ukrainian Army was based in Cherkasskoye settlement.

‘For a long period of time the 93^rd brigade reported directly to Mr. Kolomoiskiy,’ tells Konstantin Knyryk, head of information center “South-Eastern Front”. ‘Multiple hits of Red Cross building signify that it is entirely possible that this was a meaningful provocation, and they were trying to neutralize the Red Cross officers since it is becoming evident that they help humanitarian supplies distribution and the punitive detachments shooting the locals are not interested in this at all.’

Russia, Vesti, 13.10.2014

“Right Sector gunmen and ultra-radical groups are coming to Odessa. The torch-light procession ‘I’m coming after you’ is to be attended even by the fighters of “Azov” punitive detachment of Igor Kolomoiskiy.”

Channel One, News, 14.10.2014

“Ukrainian serviceman Sergei Litvinov was brought to Moscow. Two weeks ago he admitted mass murders in Luhansk oblast. According to the information of RF Investigating Committee, Litvinov was a member of so called “Dnepr” battalion and was paid for crimes.

The detachment is funded by Dnipropetrovsk Governor Igor Kolomoiskiy who is, like Litvinov, accused by RF IC of using prohibited means and methods of waging war. The serviceman was detained in Rostov oblast where he slept across the border disguised as a local to have medical help.”

All in all, Russian TV-viewer was convinced, notwithstanding the election results, the power in Ukraine is controlled by ‘Nazi’ though with ‘a human face’. It is ironic that the initial meaning of the term so flippantly distorted by Ekaterina Kibalchich describes an attempt of a country to get beyond control of USSR, the predecessor of Putin’s Russia, ‘in a friendly way’. The history proves that no one can do that unless pays the ultimate price.

Channel One, News, 05.10.2014

“Host: Ekaterina Kibalchich

… Recent polls show that neither Svoboda nor Right Sector get to Verknovna Rada, the electorate jumps and shouts out their cadences but does not need the parties. This paradox is easily explained. Their ideas are very attractive but the parties are not. All Ukrainian politicians have become national patriots without any exception. And almost every party invited ‘a hero of revolution’ on its list as a sign of respect. In three weeks Ukraine is choosing between the ultra-Nazism and the mere Nazism. The majority will be cautious to elect the ‘mere’ one with ‘a human face’ as the saying goes.”

 The monitoring is carried out by NGO “Тelekrytyka” supported by the USAID funding provided through the ‘Internews Network’ in the framework of U-Media Program.