Janus Kostia Putkonen (born 16 January 1974 in

Pernå Pernå (, Sweden ; ) is a former municipality of Finland. Pernå is located in the province of Southern Finland and was part of the Eastern Uusimaa region. The municipality had a population of 3,961 (31 December 2009) and covered an area of of ...

) is a Finnish theater director, journalist, eurosceptic and propagandist. Putkonen was the editor-in-chief of the Verkkomedia website, which was active from 2011 to 2013. From 2015 to 2018, he was the director of the Russian-backed Donetsk Separatist Information Center Doni-News. Since 2019, he has been the editor-in-chief of MV-media. Putkonen focused Russian funded Doni-news and MV-media to support pro-Russian propaganda about the

Donetsk People's Republic The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR; , ) is Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, occupied territory in Ukraine that the Russian Federation has claimed to annex and declared as a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia, comprising parts o ...

Life

In 1994 Putkonen participated on 's Tähtimannekiini modeling contest and won. Next year he was the press favorite of the competition, but did not place in the prize positions. In 2009 Putkonen moved to the city of

Nakhon Sawan Nakhon Sawan (, ) is a city (''thesaban nakhon'') in Thailand. The name literally means "Heavenly City". The city is the capital of Nakhon Sawan province, and covers the complete subdistrict (''tambon'') of Pak Nam Pho and parts of Khwae Yai, Nak ...

in Thailand with his family. In 2011 he started to work on his fake news outlet Verkkomedia, which was operated from his home office. The Kilvenmaa collective project was founded by Janus Putkonen in 2013 in the city of

Alajärvi Alajärvi (; ) is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the South Ostrobothnia region. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The town is unilingually Finnish. The mu ...

. It was supposedly an anti-capitalist commune based on conspiracy theories of society. Its story ended when Putkonen escaped his debts to Thailand. Afterwards participants revealed that all they did was smoke marijuana and post disinformation on the Internet on topics decided by Putkonen. Putkonen participated in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 22 and 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties field ...

as a candidate of Independence Party. He got a total of 962 votes and was not elected. In summer of 2015 Putkonen moved from Nakhon Sawan to

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; ; ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capita ...

in Ukraine, while his wife and child stayed in Thailand. Soon Ukrainian

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

Myrotvorets Myrotvorets or Mirotvorets (, ; ) is a Ukrainian Kyiv-based website that publishes a running list, and sometimes personal information, of people who are considered by authors of the website to be "enemies of Ukraine", or, as the website itself ...

added Putkonen to their ‘Peacemaker’ list, on suspicion of cooperating with Russia and propaganda against Ukraine. In September 2016, Putkonen went public on offering Ilja Janitskin political asylum in the

. Putkonen also appeared on leaked mail dump known as Egorova Leaks. Tatiana Egorova was an employee of "DPR Ministry of Information". In 2017, Putkonen appeared on an episode of Viceland's ''Big Night Out Ukraine''. In it, Putkonen explains that he hopes Novorossiya will show an example of insurgence to other countries. He has also been involved in recruiting Finns for the war in eastern Ukraine on the Russian side. Putkonen is the editor-in-chief of the Finnish fake news outlet '' MV-media'' starting April 2019. In October 2022, Putkonen organized a friendship tour from Finland to Russia's

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, with help from Kosti Heiskanen (whose real name is Konstantin Mikhailovich Lebedev). This was branded as a trip organized by Fennomatkat, which is thought to be a subsidiary brand of Fennomaa. According to both Putkonen and Heiskanen they got help with travel documents from Rustravel Oy. These kinds of friendship tours are echoes from the era of

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. In Finland, there was even a company named Ystävyysmatkat ("Friendship Tours"), which was founded in 1977 and went bankrupt in 1991.

Personal life

Putkonen's parents are opera singer

Marko Putkonen Marko Putkonen (born 18 October 1947 in Helsinki) is a Finnish opera singer with a bass background. Life and career Putkonen is known as a singer of Hortto Kaalo Hortto Kaalo is a Finnish gypsy music band performing in both Finnish and Roma ...

and theater director Tuovi Putkonen. He has two sisters, horse farm owner Esma Haddas and actress Krista Putkonen-Örn. He has one child with his wife.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Putkonen, Janus Living people 1974 births People from the Donetsk People's Republic Finnish theatre directors Russophilia Anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Finland Finnish newspaper editors Finland–Russia relations Finnish eurosceptics Finnish expatriates in Russia Finnish expatriates in Thailand Finnish expatriates in Ukraine Finnish journalists People from Pernå Propaganda in the Russo-Ukrainian War Finnish propagandists