Janus Kostia Putkonen (born 16 January 1974 in

Pernå Pernå (, Sweden ; fi, Pernaja) is a former municipality of Finland. Pernå is located in the province of Southern Finland and was part of the Eastern Uusimaa region. The municipality had a population of 3,961 (31 December 2009) and covered an ...

) is a Finnish theater director and journalist. Putkonen was the editor-in-chief of the Verkkomedia website, which was active from 2011–2013. From 2015 to 2018, he was the director of the Russian-backed Donetsk Separatist Information Center Doni-News. Since 2019, he has been the editor-in-chief of

MV-media ''MV-media'', also known as ''MV??!!'', formerly ''Mitä Vittua?'' ("What the Fuck?") and ''MV-lehti'', is a Finnish fake news website founded by . The website publishes disinformation and conspiracy theories with a racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Is ...

. Putkonen focused Russian funded Doni-news and MV-media to support pro-Russian propaganda about the

Donetsk People's Republic The Donetsk People's Republic ( rus, Донецкая Народная Республика, Donetskaya Narodnaya Respublika, dɐˈnʲetskəjə nɐˈrodnəjə rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə; abbreviated as DPR or DNR, rus, ДНР) is a Territorial ...

Life

In 1994 Putkonen participated on 's Tähtimannekiini modeling contest and won. Next year he was the press favorite of Mr. Finland -competition, but didn't place in the prize positions. In 2009 Putkonen moved to the city of

Nakhon Sawan Nakhon Sawan ( th, นครสวรรค์, ) is a city (''thesaban nakhon'') in Thailand, the name literally means "Heavenly City". The city is the capital of Nakhon Sawan Province, and covers the complete subdistrict (''tambon'') Pak Nam P ...

in Thailand, with his family. He started to work on his Verkkomedia fake news outlet on 2011, it was operated from his home office. Kilvenmaa collective project that was founded by Janus Putkonen in 2013 in the city of Alajärvi. It was supposedly an anti-capitalist commune based on conspiracy theories of society. It's story ended when Putkonen escaped his debts to Thailand. Afterwards participants revealed that all they did was smoked marijuana and posted disinformation on the Internet on topics decided by Putkonen. Putkonen participated in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

as a candidate of Itsenäisyyspuolue political party. He got a total of 962 votes and wasn't elected. In summer of 2015 Putkonen moved from Nakhon Sawan to

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; uk, Донецьк, translit=Donets'k ; russian: Донецк ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino (see also: Names of European cities in different languages (C–D), cities' alternat ...

, while his wife and child stayed in Thailand. Soon Ukrainian

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

Myrotvorets Myrotvorets or Mirotvorets ( uk, Миротворець, lit=Peacemaker ), is a Ukrainian Kyiv-based website that publishes a running list, and sometimes personal information, of people who are considered by authors of the website to be "enemies ...

added Putkonen to their ‘Peacemaker’ list, on suspicion of cooperating with Russia and propaganda against Ukraine. In September 2016, Putkonen went public on offering Ilja Janitskin political asylum in the

. Putkonen also appeared on leaked mail dump known as Egorova Leaks. Tatiana Egorova was an employee of "DPR Ministry of Information". In 2017, Putkonen appeared on an episode of Viceland’s Big Night Out Ukraine. In it, Putkonen explains that he hopes Novorossiya will show an example of insurgence to other countries. In October 2022, Putkonen organized a friendship tour, from Finland to Russia's

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, with help from Kosti Heiskanen. This was branded as a trip organized by Fennomatkat, which is thought to be a subsidiary brand of Fennomaa. According to both Putkonen and Heiskanen they got help with travel documents from Rustravel Oy. These kinds of friendship tours are echoes from the era of

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. In Finland, there was even a company named Friendship Tours Ltd. It was founded in 1977 and went bankrupt in 1991. Putkonen has been involved in recruiting Finns for the war in eastern

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

on the Russian side. Putkonen is the editor-in-chief of the Finnish fake news outlet ''

'' starting April 2019.

Personal life

Putkonen's parents are opera singer

Marko Putkonen Marko Putkonen (born 18 October 1947 in Helsinki) is a Finnish opera singer with a bass background. Life and career Putkonen is known as a singer of Hortto Kaalo, fi, :fi:Horto Kaalo who specializes in Roma music. He is one of founding member o ...

and theater director Tuovi Putkonen. He has two sisters, horse farm owner Esma Haddas and actress Krista Putkonen-Örn. And a wife and one child, name Anayan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Putkonen, Janus Living people 1974 births People of the Donetsk People's Republic Finnish theatre directors Russophilia