Ukraine, former Gazprom manager: “This is how we made fake news against Kiev”

“I’ve seen the kitchen from the inside, I know how it works”. Igor Volobuev, former manager of Gazprom, said this in an interview with ‘Repubblica’, referring to the Kremlin’s propaganda machine. Volobuev, 50, is in Kiev. He fled Moscow in early March, leaving behind a life half lived in Russia and a comfortable chair. “Inside Gazprom I was in charge of teaching ‘information politics'”, says Volobuev, explaining that their activity was to carry out propaganda operations “against the whole of Ukraine, the most important country for the transit of Russian gas. control is and always has been in the President’s office. One of the men who pulled the strings was Alexei Gromov (Putin’s deputy chief of staff and propaganda officer, ed). During the gas war of 2008-2009 the main objective of the press service I was in charge of was to prove that Ukraine’s plants had a very high failure rate, that Kiev did not invest in modernization and that, therefore, it was cheaper to bypass them. of main transit country “. The orders to spread these fake news were given by “the CEO of Gazprom, Alexei Miller. He received them directly from the Kremlin. We gave the operations the guise of economic confrontation, in reality the gas war was a consequence of the problems that the Russian leadership had with Kiev “. What kind of problems? “The Orange Revolution, Viktor Yushchenko in power, the will to join NATO”. And on current Russian propaganda, Volobuev says that “they lie all the time. They claim that Ukrainian troops are bombing cities and the Russian people believe it. We never forget the basic rule: any information that comes from official Russian sources is by default. a lie until proven. ” The former Gazprom manager reveals: “When I was working there I knew that millions of dollars had been invested in bribing ‘intelligence agents’ to spread a pro-government view in the media. Apparently, the same mechanism is in place now.” And he adds: “In Gazoprom and Gazprombank there are people aware that all this will lead Russia to catastrophe. The more Europe is united in putting pressure, the faster they will abandon”. And the oligarchs? “Putin intimidated them, after Khondorkovsky’s arrest they understood the lesson. However, if the EU prevents them from entering the territory and continues with the sanctions, they will soon begin to do something to overthrow him”.