In April 2024, the network diverged on the network that the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine was in a prestigious Time rating thanks to a bribe. This was allegedly reported by BBC with reference to the publication of Bellingcat. We checked whether the journalists really published such an investigation.
Similar publications about Andrei Ermak, who allegedly bought a place in the annual list of the most influential people in the world according to Time, hugged on April 19th. In the Telegram channel of the TV presenter Olesya Loseva (25,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) The story is stated as follows: “Bellingcat excavated information about who paid for Time to enter them into the top 100 most influential people. Among others was Andrei Ermak. The average check for such a place is from $ 10 to $ 30 million, Ermaku cost $ 27 million. The editor -in -chief of Bellingcat Eliot Higgins believes that so Ermak receives political points to claim the place of [Vladimir] Zelensky, because at the end of May Zelensky may stop fulfilling his duties, including "for reasons related to health." The post also shows a one and a half -minute video with the BBC logo.
According to the TGSTAT service, at the time of writing this analysis of the bribe, Ermak was written by more than 220 Telegram channels, whose publications in total gained about 2.3 million views. Similar posts appeared in the channels "Uncle Glory"(190 000 views), Voblya (153,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(136 000),"The first folk"(108 000),"Bullet"(106 000),"Alexander Semchenko"(91 000),"Mishovets Yegor"(91 000), Gura Anton (85,000), "Scott Ritter in Telegram"(66,000) and"Special operation z"(54 000). O $ 27 million, which Time allegedly received from Ermak, also told YouTube channel "Where is the truth" (36,000 views), public in "VKontakte"And some media and news sites, among which"Notebook", IA News Front, "Podolyaka" Topnews And DR.
April 17 Time magazine Published The annual rating of the 100 most influential people in the world, in which in 2024 the editors included the head of the office of the Ukrainian president. Ermak became the only representative of Ukraine on the list and fell into the category "Leaders", Where among others are Julia Navalny, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Argentina President Javier Miley. Small accompanying article About Ermak for the magazine was prepared by the former NATO Secretary General Anders Fog Rasmussen. “Over the past two years, I worked closely with Andrei Ermak on long -term security of Ukraine. I personally convinced what great work he does to strengthen the support of Ukraine around the world, ” - wrote He.
In the viral video that Ermak was in the Time rating thanks to a bribe, the logo, as well as the introductory and final screensaver of the BBC video surveys, is shown. The record itself is a cutting of archival photos and videos, on top of which English -speaking credits are imposed.
The place of Andrei Ermak in the TOP-100 from Time can cost $ 27 million.
Bellingcat journalists got a list of people who paid for the rating of the most influential people of 2024. About 12 people paid from $ 10 million to $ 30 million per place in Time 100. Among the names received by the Bellingcat editors, was Andrei Ermak, the head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine. According to information, people known for their ties with Yermak paid $ 27 million for a place. The official commentary of the former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogg Rasmussen was also included here. Anders Fogg Rasmussen called Ermak "a man who played a central role in ensuring the work of the government." In 2024, Andrei Ermak became the only Ukrainian politician included in Time 100. The publication in the Time magazine could be one of the first serious steps of Yermak aimed at increasing his authority both among Western elites and among the internal audience. Eliot Higgins insists that this should be considered exclusively as the beginning of a direct confrontation with Vladimir Zelensky. “This is impossible without support from the United States,” Eliot Higgins emphasizes. “This is another confirmation of reliable information that Zelensky will not be able to fulfill his duties, including for health reasons.”
None of the notes mentioned above and posts have a link to original publications with video or investigation. "Verified" studied website and official social networks BBC (Facebook, X, YouTube), however, we were not able to find a similar video about Ermak. On the resources of Bellingcat (website, X) The investigation of the adviser of Zelensky in the list of the most influential people in the world is also absent.
This video about Ermak is another fake, which is issued for the content of the British broadcasting corporation. "Verified" has already issued a separate material On the mass production of fabricated videos with BBC logos and other famous international media. This is not the first time in such fakes that Bellingcat is also mentioned. For example, earlier this investigative project allegedly reported that Ukraine Sold Weapons of the Palestinian group of Hamas, which is the ex-adviser of the office of the President of Ukraine Alexei Armor for six months I spent to rent private aircraft $ 500,000 and what after resigning from the post of Armed Forces Commander Valery Zaluzhny received $ 53 million for the rejection of political ambitions. All these messages turned out to be false.
April 20 BBC Verify and BBC Monitoring Olga Robinson on her page X Name The viral video about Ermak and a bribe of $ 27 million “The next fake video of the BBC with reference to Bellingcat”. On the same day about fake wrote And the former journalist Bellingcat Khrista Grozhev. According to him, this mass fake campaign with fabricated BBC videos is also trying to discredit a bulk, included in the same rating as Ermak. April 21 Refutation Placed Bellingcat account on the social network X: “The name of our organization is used in a falsified BBC report to spread misinformation. This is a constant campaign of videos, first published in Telegram, and then appear in X and on other platforms. ” On the second tweet the project Clarifiedthat in all such records a design is used, similar to the branded BBC design, and text comments that are not duplicated in a voice. Both posts were retained by the founder of Bellingcat Eliot Higgins, mentioned in the video.
Often, in such analysis, it was “tested” as an additional argument about spelling errors, differences in fonts and other visual inconsistencies in the design of the fake. However, in the case of a video about a bribe of Ermak, the authors of Fake made a blunder, which we had not previously met. At the mark 01:26 Simultaneously with the text that in the summer Zelensky will not be able to fulfill his duties, another titer appears, some of which can be read: “On August 23, the business jet Evgeny Prigozhin ...”. "Verified" found out that such a proposal was in another fake video With the BBC logo - it appeared in the summer of 2023, and it claimed that Prigozhin did not die in a plane crash, but staged his death. Apparently, the authors of Fake got confused in their own files and did not revise a new video before its distribution in Telegram.
The earliest post with a fake that we managed to find by keywords appeared on April 19 at 16:16 Moscow time in the Telegram channel "Putin in Telegram"(164,000 views). He mentioned In the analysis “checked” several dozen times.
Photo on the cover: @AndriyYYERMAK (X)
- Time. The 100 Most Influential People of 2024. Andriy Yermak
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