In our research and lectures, we have repeatedly emphasized the rather dubious biography of Yuriy Shvets, a popular YouTube blogger who is sometimes invited to appear on television and quoted in the media as an expert. This person made very harmful injections into the information space, in particular, repeating and reinforcing the theses of Russian propaganda. Moreover, his “expertise” is so impressive that on February 19 and even February 23, 2022, he claimed that there would be no full-scale invasion.
OpsLens, an authoritative website in intelligence circles, whose editorial staff consists of former US intelligence, law enforcement and military officials, published a storyin which it provided evidence that Shvets was using his YouTube channel to promote a toxic KGB-style conspiracy theory.
The author of the article is Bart Marcois, who was the principal deputy assistant secretary of energy for international affairs during the Bush administration. In addition, Marcois served as a career foreign intelligence officer at the State Department.
A little history.
Shvets first came to the attention of the West in 2006 after former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko was murdered in London as a result of poisoning caused by the radioactive chemical polonium. Investigations revealed that Litvinenko was killed for exposing organized criminal activity by Russian intelligence services, including Vladimir Putin’s role in the contract killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
While the world was focused on Putin’s role in both murders, Yuri Shvets emerged. He claimed that the “real reason” for Litvinenko’s murder was a dossier he was working on with Shvets about potential British investment in Russia. In the end, he did everything he could to divert attention from Putin’s role in the two murders.
He claimed that the KGB identified Trump in the 1980s as a potential presidential candidate. He claimed that the KGB saw Trump as a statesman even when he was a notorious international playboy.
In fact, according to Shvets, the KGB pushed Trump to run for president, sowing the seeds that eventually blossomed to produce the so-called “Manchurian candidate” (a person, especially a politician, who is used by an enemy as a puppet to advance their own interests).
Shvets and the war in Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine gave the Swede another opportunity to get involved in the information space. An ethnic Ukrainian and former Soviet intelligence officer, he used every opportunity to criticize the Ukrainian security services rather than criticize Russian aggression.
Oksana Moroz, a well-known researcher of the information space, and the How Not to Become a Vegetable initiative highlighted the role of Yuriy Shvets in an attempt to disrupt the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine.
The VoxUkraine initiative has repeatedly emphasized that the topic of humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine being massively stolen is an element of information warfare aimed at making Ukraine lose the trust of its partners and receive less support in the fight against Russian aggression.
This narrative has been spreading since at least April 2022.
For example, Yuriy Shvets, a former KGB intelligence officer and blogger, claimed that a CNN article reported on the theft of aid in Ukraine.
VoxUkraine’ s article says.
It is worth noting that Shvets’ YouTube channel was launched in June 2021. That was when it was widely reported that Russia was planning a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At first, Shvets recorded a few videos a month, but when the war broke out, he started posting videos literally every day or every other day.
Commenting on the murder of Denis Kireev, Shvets contrasts The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the story with a Washington Post article about Bill Burns’ trip to Ukraine for consultations. The article states that Ukrainians trust Burns because he warned them of the danger to the Kyiv airport before the invasion. Shvets takes this case of two intelligence sources confirming a report and calls it a contradiction.
Did Burns tell Ukraine about the airport or did Kireev?
– he asks, hinting at the incompatibility of these options.
Shvets uses his YouTube channel to promote a toxic KGB-style conspiracy theory, claiming that there is a contradiction between the Washington Post and the Wall St. Journal. His outrageous statements against GUR chief Budanov and against Burns turn into an incoherent thesis about Budanov, the role of Kireev, and Burns.
He deliberately distorts the truth, distracting from the overall picture, which is that the GUR played an important role in winning the battle for Kyiv. In addition, he misses an important quote from a US official in the Washington Post, which confirms the active cooperation between the intelligence agencies of Ukraine and the United States “Director Burns visited Kyiv, where he met with his Ukrainian intelligence counterparts, President Zelensky, and reaffirmed our continued support for Ukraine in deterring Russian aggression.”
His goal seems to have been to create a split between the GUR and the CIA, which is a classic KGB tactic of combining two narratives that have no real connection to each other.
OpsLens analysts believe
Ukraine’s military intelligence and Western intelligence organizations are working closely together to counter Russian aggression. Ukrainian military intelligence, which was apparently briefed by both the CIA and Mr. Kireev, successfully repelled a Russian attack on the Kyiv airport. The GUR has also had great success in carrying out subversive activities at targets in Russia. Intelligence sharing certainly plays a key role in some of these operations. While there is certainly an element of chaos in any war, there is no evidence that there is a breakdown in relations between Ukraine and its Western allies.
If Mr. Shoemaker were not a professional spy trained by the KGB, it would be much easier to dismiss his inconsistent narratives as baseless conspiracy theories aimed at attracting the largest possible audience.
But his approach reeks of KGB tactics developed over the past century to drive a wedge between allies.
Why is this so important to him, especially now?
In whose interests are all these efforts?
In whose interests is Yuriy Shvets acting?
It’s time for someone to investigate and answer these questions.
OpsLens summarizes.
The InfoLight.UA team has repeatedly drawn attention to the dubious role of Yuriy Shvets and does not recommend using his words, videos or other information as a reliable source of any information.
