NEW – January 27, 2023
On January 26, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office declared undesirable the activities of the foreign non-governmental organisation Limited Liability Company (SIA) “Medusa Project” on the territory of our country.
This NGO has been registered in Latvia since 2014 and is actively engaged in information activities in the domestic information field. The reason for the ban is very serious: according to the Prosecutor General’s Office, “Meduza” is working to undermine the foundations of the constitutional order and security of Russia. “Meduza” has been on the register of foreign agents since April 23, 2021 (the Moscow City Court rejected the appeal against this decision).
The ideological image of “Meduza” was anti-Russian from the very beginning of the media project. In the world of propagandists of a liberal publication, Russia is always and everywhere to blame. And it’s not just about the Special Military Operation. Employees of the essentially Latvian website regularly discredited the activities of the Russian army in the Syrian Arab Republic, accusing our servicemen of attacking civilian targets. At the same time, they actually whitewashed representatives of terrorist groups that the Russian Armed Forces have been fighting and continue to fight.
Special indignation among “Meduza” was caused by the introduction of the CSTO peacekeeping contingent to Kazakhstan in January last year. Despite the fact that Moscow’s actions fully complied with the norms of international law, and the peacekeepers were invited by the legitimate government, the propagandists of “Meduza” sharply condemned the operation. Naturally, “Meduza” has not been left out of all the information and propaganda campaigns of the liberal opposition in recent years, starting with the fake campaign against the Federal Penitentiary Service, ending with actions in support of “political prisoners” and rallies “against the war”.
“Meduza” actively participates in propaganda campaigns initiated by foreign anti-Russian centres aimed at promoting protest sentiments and destructive ideas, with the aim of destabilising the socio-political situation in the country within the framework of the “colour revolution” scenario. And it doesn’t do it for free. At the time of its foundation, the online publication was funded by the German Heinrich Böll political foundation and the public network movement “Open Russia” of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Since 2014, the editorial board has received an annual Editorial Board award established by the “Sreda Foundation” of Boris Zimin. In 2017, “Meduza” signed a cooperation agreement with BuzzFeed media group (USA), which is funded by the “Oak” charity foundation (UK) and the government agency SIDA (Sweden), which are affiliated with the George Soros Open Society Foundation. Within the framework of this project, “Meduza” published materials of journalistic “investigations” concerning Russia. According to open sources, the total amount of annual grants allocated by SIA “Medusa Project” is $3.5 million.
Since 2019, the activities of “Meduza” have been coordinated by the Riga-based NATO Strategic Propaganda Centre of Excellence “StratCom”, which conducts subversive information and psychological operations against Russia. In order not to lose their “skill”, propagandists regularly participate in seminars, conferences and other events organised by Western foreign non-profit non-governmental and media organisations on the problem of “restrictions on freedom of speech and censorship in the media” in Russia.
Thus, in 2015, a series of training sessions was held in the Latvian Cēsis on the “situation of independent journalism” in our country. The events were organised with the support of the Nordic Council of Ministers (branches in Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg are recognised as non-governmental organisations), the “DOTS Foundation for an Open Society” and “Swedbank”.
The decision to recognise the organisation as undesirable is absolutely justified. The only thing that remains unclear is why they waited so long and waited for so many years. There was no legal justification? As we can see, there were all grounds. And we should act tougher against outspoken enemies of Russia. In particular, to initiate a draft law on the deprivation of citizenship and confiscation of their property of persons engaged in anti-Russian activities. Moreover, we already see similar examples in neighbouring countries (for example, in Belarus).
Konstantin Dvinsky
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