Alexander Usovsky was active in the Visegrad region, set up foundations, looked for EU grants, finally received money from Russia in cash, without leaving any paper trail. That’s how he started to organize a network of dutiful and useful people. And indeed, everything went just the way his sponsor wanted. The case of Alexander Usovsky,...
Perhaps he was a fool, a liar and a fraud, the Baron von Munchausen of Russian influence in Europe. But the case of Alexander Usovsky – even though it may seem like a farce – is actually very serious. It’s the first so thoroughly documented example of Moscow’s foreign policy. It shows sources of its financing...
For several months, a group of investigative journalists from the VSquare project was researching the problem of Russian propaganda in V4 countries. Our findings prove that Russians are exceptionally effective when it comes to informational warfare. They use propaganda to gain certain advantages and frame the situation in the most favorable way. The way that...
Denis Katsyv’s companies are closely connected to the business empire of Lev Avnerovich Leviev, the billionaire Israeli-Russian businessman whose empire stretches across the world. According to company records, Katsyv’s company, Prevezon Holdings Limited Cyprus, owns 30 percent of four companies that are part of Leviev’s Africa Israel group of companies. Africa Israel Ltd. The Prevezon-AFI connections can...
An Instagram photo showing a Bentley Continental GT V8 doing 250 kilometers an hour reads “We take off. #IAmRocket #Gagarin.” Elina Cobaleva, a Russian celebrity stylist, sits behind the wheel. She is the ex-wife of Veaceslav Platon, a Moldovan businessman, and one of the country’s richest men. The two were married in 2001 and divorced...
Behind the superstructure of banks, courts, and businesses real and fake that comprised the Laundromat are three Russian businessmen whose firms took in enormous sums – Alexey Krapivin, Georgy Gens, and Sergy Girdin. Last year’s Panama Papers leak of secret financial documents revealed the three to be the real owners of a number of offshore...