''NewsFront'' (sometimes written ''News Front'') is a website based in Russian occupied Crimea, described by the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current United States federal executive departments, U.S. government departments. ...

as "a Crimea-based

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

and

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

outlet...particularly focused on supporting Russia-backed forces in Ukraine." According to owner Konstantin Knyrik, however, ''NewsFront'' is fighting an "

information war Information warfare (IW) is the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. It is different from ''cyberwarfare'' that attacks computers, software, and ...

" against unfair attacks on Russia. ''NewsFront'' describes itself as "a

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...

that runs news in ten languages including Russian, German, English, Bulgarian, Georgian, French, and Spanish." The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

's anti-disinformation unit

EUvsDisinfo The East StratCom Task Force (ESCTF or ESTF) is a part of the European External Action Service, focused on "effective communication" and promotion of European Union activities in Eastern Europe (including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia (cou ...

described ''NewsFront'' as a disinformation platform focused on

Kremlin The Moscow Kremlin (also the Kremlin) is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, the Moscow Kremlin (fortification), Kremlin comprises five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Mosco ...

priorities. They wrote:

Leadership and origin

''NewsFront'' is published by Mediagroup Newsfront LLC, headquartered in

Bakhchysarai Bakhchysarai is a city in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Bakhchysarai Raion (district), as well as the former capital of the Crimean Khanate. Its main landmark is Hansaray, the only extant ...

in central

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

, registered to the home address of local council member Konstantin Knyrik. In addition to running ''NewsFront'', Knyrik is head of the Crimean branch of the pro-Putin political party Rodina. The co-owner with Knyrik is Mikhail Sinelin, a Russian businessman who was formerly a Kremlin official. Both had an equal 50% share. As of 2022 as the owners of Mediagroup Newsfront LLC are listed Knyrik (50%) and Yulia Lozanova (50%), Lozanova is supposedly the wife of Sinelin. ''NewsFront'' was established in March 2014 when, during the

Russian invasion of Crimea In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it. This took place in the relative power vacuum immediately following the Revolution of Dignity. It marked the beginning of the Russo-Ukrain ...

, Knyrik with a group of masked gunmen broke into the headquarters of the Crimean Center for Investigative Journalism and took over its resources. In April 2015, the Media Group News Front company registered NewsFront.info as a private news agency. In 2018, Knyrik told an interviewer that his goal was "an alternative source of information for people in Europe and the U.S." to counteract "this bullshit published by the

mainstream media In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large Mass media, mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Noam Chomsky, Choms ...

in the West." With ''NewsFront'', he claimed that he was fighting an "

" that had been started by Western nations unfairly attacking Russia. Knyrik has been sanctioned by

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

in 2020, followed by the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

in 2022. Sinelin has been sanctioned by the United States, Ukraine and Australia in 2022. Mediagroup Newsfront LLC has been sanctioned by the United States in 2021, followed by Ukraine, Australia and Japan in 2022.

Allegations of disinformation

In 2017, German newspaper ''

Die Zeit (, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The first edition of was ...

'' alleged that ''NewsFront'' had tried to influence elections in both Germany and France by promoting false claims against

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

and

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...

. According to the

Atlantic Council The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosp ...

, ''NewsFront'' was in 2017 one of the top three sources of Russian propaganda in Germany. Together with official Russian outlets RT and

Sputnik Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space progra ...

, their content had 500,000 followers on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. In 2019, EU vs Disinformation stated that ''NewsFront'' focuses its German-language version on anti-immigration German nationalism in order to attract a discontented German-speaking audience to the pro-Kremlin viewpoints of news from RT and Sputnik. The English language version pursues the same goal, but with "left-leaning" commentary, nothing about immigration. According to EU vs Disinformation, ''NewsFront'' published more than 800 disinformations since 2015 (as of July 2022). In 2020, the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

described ''NewsFront'' as part of a "

and

ecosystem," where Russian state actors teamed with others whose connection to Russia was less clear, in order to get wide attention for their ideas. In 2021, a State Department official speaking on the basis of classified information told ''The Wall Street Journal'' that NewsFront "is guided by the FSB," Russia's successor agency to the Soviet Union's

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

. ''Time'' magazine in 2021 described ''NewsFront'' as "by far the most successful and ambitious" Russia-led website making false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines. For example, ''NewsFront'' published claims that the U.S. government created coronavirus and intentionally exported it to China. In 2021 and again in 2022, the

US Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and ...

announced sanctions against ''NewsFront'', calling it in 2022 "a Crimea-based disinformation and propaganda outlet...particularly focused on supporting Russia-backed forces in Ukraine." In February 2024 they spread news of an upcoming biopic of President Zelensky of Ukraine called “The Price of Victory”. They included videos of the actors Chuck Norris and Dolph Lundgren manipulated to appear to be wishing him success with the film.

Social media

In April 2020, according to

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

, Facebook and

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

deleted many pages and accounts they said were linked to "Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior" by Russian actors, including those linked to ''NewsFront'' and to '' SouthFront''. In May 2020, ''NewsFront'' was blocked on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

due to a violation of YouTube's Terms of Use. In February 2022, Facebook again took action against ''NewsFront'' and ''SouthFront'', for further activity violating their policies. According to the

German Marshall Fund The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is a non-partisan American public policy think tank that seeks to promote cooperation and understanding between North America and the European Union. Founded in 1972, through a gift from the W ...

, the new violations involved fake profiles that helped evade the bans by posting links to

mirror site Mirror sites or mirrors are replicas of other websites. The concept of mirroring applies to network services accessible through any protocol, such as HTTP or FTP. Such sites have different URLs than the original site, but host identical or near-i ...

s, where innocuous

URL A uniform resource locator (URL), colloquially known as an address on the Web, is a reference to a resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identi ...

s showed content identical to that in ''NewsFront''. In addition to mirror sites, they also used

cloaking Cloaking is a search engine optimization (SEO) technique in which the content presented to the search engine spider is different from that presented to the user's browser. This is done by delivering content based on the IP addresses or the ...

sites, that is, URLs that re-directed a browser to URLs at ''NewsFront''.

References

{{reflist Multilingual news services News agencies based in Ukraine Russian propaganda organizations Russian entities subject to U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy Fake news websites Disinformation operations Disinformation in the Russo-Ukrainian War Disinformation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Leadership and origin

Allegations of disinformation

Social media

See also

References