Revelations of the former assistant, betrayal and quarrels with relatives. Fakes about Julia Navalny

In February 2024, several news appeared in Telegram channels about the widow of Alexei Navalny-the pro-Kremlin bloggers accused her of betrayals, hypocrisy and conflicts with her mother-in-law. We decided to make out the most popular of these statements.

Romanes with Grozev and Chichvarkin

In February, a video appeared in social networks with the revelations of a certain Anna Gonchar, represented by ex-pons in the arms of the Corruption Fund (FBK) and the former personal assistant Julia Navalny. A three -minute video was almost completely devoted to her personal life. In particular, the author accused the wife of a politician of a love affair with a journalist-investigator Christ Grozev-the couple allegedly went on romantic trips while Alexei Navalny was in prison in Russia.

It is noteworthy, this story had two surges in popularity in social networks. The first-February 5, when the confessions of Gonchar were told, for example, Telegram channels "Live broadcast"(726,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Sanya in Florida"(357 000),"Putin in Telegram"(160,000) and"Ostashko! Important"(100,000). The earliest of the discovered “tested” publications in Telegram appeared on February 4 at 23:59 Moscow time in the Neues Aus Russland Alina Lip (51,000).

The second wave of distribution of the video began on the evening of February 16, on the day of the death of Navalny, and continued in the next few days. So, the already mentioned Telegram channel “Ostashko! Important ”twice in a short time he wrote about Navalny’s personal life with reference to the same potter - February 16 (127,000 views) and February 18 (134,000). 17 February the same post Placed In his Telegram channel, TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov (337,000). 

First of all, let's try to understand who Anna Gonchar is and how close to FBK and the Navalny family. The video itself is supposedly cutting the story on Instagram, nickname is visible in the upper left corner.

There is no user with nickname @anna_gonchar_fbk in this or other social networks. It was not possible to find it with the help of a Google search, all links only lead to the screenshots of the video. FBK director Ivan Zhdanov told “verified” that a girl named Anna Gonchar never worked for them.

It is possible that it does not exist at all, and the video itself is a dipper. In mid -February, the editor -in -chief of the State RT and Sputnik Margarita Simonyan reportedthat her news agency "stuck a whole bunch of artificial presenters." In favor of this version, it also says that the use of the Pimeyes person recognition did not give any significant results.

On February 3, Gonchar told the site about revelations Clear Story News. The first publications on this resource appeared in October 2023, basically it was the reprints of the notes of the American media. At the same time, there is no contacts of the editorial office or section “About us” on the site, in which information about Clear Story News would be presented, and the news publishes either anonymous or authors with empty profiles.

In the viral video, not only the statements of the potter, but also the printouts of the hotels in France, where the oppositionist’s journalist and the wife of the opposition allegedly rested together rested together, are given as evidence of Navalny’s connection. The screenshots of these documents were separately published by the author of Clear Story News, and after him the pro-Kremlin Telegram channels. Gonchar claims that she personally book rooms in hotels: in July 2023, in LE NEGRESCO in Nice, in December of the same year in Mont-Blanc in Chamonix.

Such printouts from the Booking.com service contain a reservation number and a PIN code with which the client can find out information about the dates of the trip and details of the residence. The pages are cut in the screenshots, and the confirmation number is not displayed completely. Groszev’s colleague from the Bellingcat investigative group Elliot Higgins, however, Determined These numerical combinations with a simple selection.

It turned out that, firstly, both reservations were canceled. Secondly, these trips could not take place in 2023-Booking reservation was made no earlier than the beginning of 2024. The number in Nice was ordered in April 2024, in Chamonist - for December 2024. Without a doubt, both reservations were made by the authors of “exposure” specifically for publication.

In the video and the publications that followed him, as an indirect evidence of close relations between Navalny and Grozev, their joint photos are given. In the very presence of such images, there is nothing surprising in general-it was the Bulgarian journalist in 2020 that Alexei Navalny Navalny Paramlytic poison "Novice" and I found outThat the FSB of Russia was behind this crime. But it is characteristic that in one of the photographs there were originally three people: Christ Grozev, Julia Navalny and Alexei Navalny. However, the authors of the video were removed from the photo. Navalny posted the original picture in his Instagram December 15, 2020.

The second photo that fell into the Gonchar video is a fragment of a picture taken in April 2022 and affordable In the photo bank Getty Images. The photographer captured Grozeva and Navalny, as well as her daughter Daria, the head of the department of investigations of the FBK, Maria Pevchiki and director Daniel Roer on the New York premiere of the documentary “Navalny”. The presence of Groznev at this event is not surprising - the picture talks about how he, along with his colleagues, investigated the poisoning of the Russian politician.

In the video, the potter also speaks of Navalny’s connection with businessman Evgeny Chichvarkin. As evidence Used Their joint photograph on the seashore. The same picture, along with the “exposure”, subsequently published Russian pro-government Telegram channels.

After the death of Navalny in Telegram, they began to spread another photograph of his widow with Chichvarkin. This picture was posted, in particular, channels "Soloviev"(356,000 views) and"Uncle Glory"(221 000)

The first photo is real: it was taken in August 2021 on the beach in Latvian Jurmala. Chichvarkin posted this picture in his Instagram And he accompanied him with the signature “From the First Lady of the Beautiful Russia of the Future” and the call to free Alexei Navalny.

The second photo appeared no later than the fall of 2021. Unlike the first, this is a fake. The original picture was taken by the photographer Evgeny Feldman in Kirov on July 19, 2013, after the announcement of the decision in the case "Kirovles". Subsequently, instead of Alexei Navalny, embracing his wife, Chichvarkin was added to the image. This is confirmed by both the data of the photographs and the Feldman.

In the story of accusations of the marital infidelity of Julia Navalny, the same scheme was used that were previously used, for example, in misinformation campaigns against the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky. In particular, in December 2023, pro-Kremlin Telegram channels They told About elite real estate, allegedly purchased by a politician in the USA, Germany and Egypt. In all three cases, certain insiders or journalists-investigators allegedly reported this with reference to the documents, then little-known sites mimicing under the media shared their revelations, and then Russian propaganda resources. In fact, it turned out that the evidence was forged, and the exposures of corruption in the Ukrainian leadership pretended to be for other people.

"Joy after the death of her husband"

On February 16, when the news appeared about the death of Alexei Navalny in the colony, his wife was in Munich at the International Security Conference. From the rostrum of the forum, Julia Navalny made a special appeal. “If this is true, I want Putin, all his environment, Putin's friends, his government know what they would suffer for what they did with our country, with my family and my husband, responsibility,” - She said she. 

The very next day on social networks Messages appearedthat the psychologist Paul Ekman, the prototype of the protagonist of the series “Deceiving Me”, analyzed the video with the performance of Navalny. A specialist in the field of emotions claimed that the widow of politics could not hide the joy of the death of her husband.

As confirmation, a video with the logo of the American Psychological Association was used, at the end of which the audience was invited to read Ekman's article about the performance of Navalny, printed in a profile magazine. However, neither on the website of the Association, nor in the indicated edition of the relevant materials, it was found, and the video itself turned out to be a fake. The press service of the psychologist said that he did not give such assessments, and in general, neither he nor his company provide public comments on other people's behavior.

As in the case of the “revelations” of the potter, the viral video about the “joy” of Navalny after the appearance of the news about the death of her husband is a long -developed practice used by propaganda resources. Back in 2022, the pro-Kremlin media and Telegram channels began publish Fake stories allegedly placed by the world's largest media. Dozens of such videos, disassembled “tested” and other factor projects, were aimed at discrediting Zelensky and Western leaders, as well as Ukraine, the United States and the European Union.

Quarrel with a mother -in -law

February 22 on social networks became The video is dispersed Allegedly with the appeal of his mother Alexei Navalny to his widow. In a viral one and a half-minute video (and in fact, audio recordings with a pipe-pound) Lyudmila Navalny, stated, reproaches the daughter-in-law that it was she who convinced the politician to return to Russia, rewrote his property and set up her daughter Daria against her father. “It was strange and wild for me to see you and the smile a few hours after Alexei’s death, speak on his behalf in Munich. How do you appropriate his voice after his death. You didn’t even take a pause for the sake of decency, did not observe mourning. They ran to trade in his death. You are a vile and low person. I despise you and forbid you to speculate on the name of my son, my child, ”the opposition’s mother supposedly says.

The primary source of the audio recording was the “Signal” Telegram channel, which was previously repeatedly seen in the distribution of fakes, including about Vladimir and Elena Zelensky.  By data “Medus”, “important stories” and The Bell, the “signal” is supervised by the blogger Ekaterina Augarovich (Katrusya), which also represents the “grid” of the channels close to the Kremlin, the media manager of Kristina Drytchik.

“Verified” analyzed the audio using the AI ​​OR NOT service, which allows you to determine the speech generated by the neural network. With a very high probability, the results of the analysis are evidenced, the appeal of Navalny’s mother to his widow was created using artificial intelligence. At the time of the release of the viral video in the public domain, there was only one easily detected sample of the voice of Lyudmila Navalny (video from her requirement To the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to give the body of his son), so the fake came out imperfect, and the voice does not look like the present.

The use of neural networks to fake voice is another method, often used by the creators of propaganda materials. So, in 2023, on the pro -Kremlin resources widely advertised Documentary about corruption in the International Olympic Committee, allegedly shot by Tom Cruz. The Hollywood actor himself never appeared in the frame, but his voice was used to voice acting, apparently generated with artificial intelligence.

Photo on the cover: x/yulia_navalnaya