The independent British-Dutch investigative collective Bellingcat states that the Russian military intelligence service GRU actively supplies Dutch websites and journalists with propaganda material in a disinformation campaign concerning the downing of the Malaysian passenger plane MH17.
Platforms and journalists who present themselves as independent researchers not only receive material but also submit their articles and own work to the GRU prior to publication, Bellingcat claims.
Among others, former RT journalist Yana Yerlashova and Dutch journalist Max van der Werff reportedly maintain regular contact with the GRU, according to Bellingcat, as reported by weekly magazine De Groene.
Promotion
An opinion piece written by freelance journalist Eric Van de Beek for Bonanza Media (owned by Yerlashova and Van der Werff) was, according to Bellingcat, forwarded by Yerlashova to a GRU officer for final editing before publication. Van de Beek responded by saying he was not surprised by the accusations: “If, as a journalist, you touch on powerful interests, you face attacks by being made suspicious and ridiculed.”
The investigative platform says all emails and phone data it uncovered can be verified. The researchers rely on leaked email inboxes of two high-ranking GRU officers and their phone conversations, De Groene reports in an extensive analysis of Bellingcat’s investigation.
Weekly magazine De Groene states that final editing by the GRU is unprecedented by Dutch standards: “Several articles by former Elsevier journalist Eric van de Beek, now a writer at Bonanza and conspiracy publication De Andere Krant, were submitted through this channel in Moscow. In some cases, it appears entire sentences were added. That Russian spies have such extensive influence on what activists and citizen journalists write is a unique example of interference in the Netherlands.”
In De Groene, Thomas Bruning, general secretary of the journalists’ association NVJ, said he was shocked by the findings. A press card, which Van der Werff uses to be taken seriously as a journalist, was not renewed by the NVJ. “The reason was that he could not clearly demonstrate he earned his money independently,” Bruning said.