''NewsFront'' (sometimes written ''News Front'') is a website based in Russia-occupied Crimea. It describes itself as "a

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency may ...

that runs news in ten languages including Russian, German, English, Bulgarian, Georgian, French, and Spanish." In 2021, the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

described it as "a Crimea-based

disinformation Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate. The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the L ...

and

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

outlet...particularly focused on supporting Russia-backed forces in Ukraine." According to owner Konstantin Knyrik, however, ''NewsFront'' is fighting an "

information war Information warfare (IW) (as different from cyber warfare that attacks computers, software, and command control systems) is a concept involving the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a ...

" against unfair attacks on Russia.

Leadership and origin

''NewsFront'' is published by Mediagroup Newsfront LLC, headquartered in

Bakhchysarai Bakhchysarai ( crh, Bağçasaray, italic=yes; russian: Бахчисара́й; ua, Бахчисара́й; tr, Bahçesaray) is a town in Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Re ...

in central

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

, registered to the home address of local council member Konstantin Knyrik. In addition to running ''NewsFront'', Knyrik is head of the Crimean branch of the pro-Putin political party Rodina. The co-owner with Knyrik is Mikhail Sinelin, a Russian businessman who was formerly a Kremlin official. Both had an equal 50% share. As of 2022 as the owners of Mediagroup Newsfront LLC are listed Knyrik (50%) and Yulia Lozanova (50%), Lozanova is supposedly the wife of Sinelin. ''NewsFront'' was established in March 2014 when, during the Russian invasion of Crimea, Knyrik with a group of masked gunmen broke into the headquarters of the Crimean Center for Investigative Journalism and took over its resources. In April 2015, the Media Group News Front company registered NewsFront.info as a private news agency. In 2018, Knyrik told an interviewer that his goal was "an alternative source of information for people in Europe and the U.S." to counteract "this bullshit published by the

mainstream media In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Chomsky, Noam, ''"What makes mai ...

in the West." With ''NewsFront'', he claimed that he was fighting an "

" that had been started by Western nations unfairly attacking Russia. Knyrik has been sanctioned by the

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 ...

in 2020, followed by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 2022. Sinelin has been sanctioned by the United States, Ukraine and Australia in 2022. Mediagroup Newsfront LLC has been sanctioned by the United States in 2021, followed by Ukraine, Australia and Japan in 2022.

Allegations of disinformation

In 2017, German newspaper ''

Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The ...

'' alleged that ''NewsFront'' had tried to influence elections in both Germany and France by promoting false claims against

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...

and

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...

. According to the

Atlantic Council The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosp ...

, ''NewsFront'' was in 2017 one of the top three sources of Russian propaganda in Germany. Together with official Russian outlets ''RT'' and ''Sputnik'', their content had 500,000 followers on Facebook. In 2019,

EU vs Disinformation The East StratCom Task Force (ESCTF) is a part of the European External Action Service, focused on "effective communication" and promotion of European Union activities in Eastern Europe (including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, an ...

stated that ''NewsFront'' focuses its German-language version on anti-immigration German nationalism in order to attract a discontented German-speaking audience to the pro-Kremlin viewpoints of news from RT and

Sputnik Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for t ...

. The English language version pursues the same goal, but with "left-leaning" commentary, nothing about immigration. According to

, ''NewsFront'' published more than 800 disinformations since 2015 (as of July 2022). In 2020, the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

described ''NewsFront'' as part of a "

and

ecosystem," where Russian state actors teamed with others whose connection to Russia was less clear, in order to get wide attention for their ideas. In 2021, a State Department official speaking on the basis of classified information told ''The Wall Street Journal'' that NewsFront "is guided by the FSB," Russia's successor agency to the Soviet Union's

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

. ''Time'' magazine in 2021 described ''NewsFront'' as "by far the most successful and ambitious" Russia-led website making false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines. For example, ''NewsFront'' published claims that the U.S. government created coronavirus and intentionally exported it to China. In 2021 and again in 2022, the

US Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and th ...

announced sanctions against ''NewsFront'', calling it in 2022 "a Crimea-based disinformation and propaganda outlet...particularly focused on supporting Russia-backed forces in Ukraine."

Social media

In April 2020, according to ''

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

'', Facebook and Twitter deleted many pages and accounts they said were linked to "Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior" by Russian actors, including those linked to ''News Front'' and to ''

SouthFront ''SouthFront'' (sometimes written ''South Front'') is a multilingual website registered in Russia and based in Crimea. It has been accused by multiple sources of being an outlet for disinformation and propaganda under the control of the Russian ...

''. In May 2020, ''NewsFront'' was blocked on YouTube due to a violation of YouTube’s Terms of Use. In February 2022, Facebook again took action against ''NewsFront'' and ''SouthFront'', for further activity violating their policies. According to the

German Marshall Fund The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is a nonpartisan American public policy think tank that seeks to promote cooperation and understanding between North America and the European Union. Founded in 1972 through a gift from the We ...

, the new violations involved fake profiles that helped evade the bans by posting links to

mirror site Mirror sites or mirrors are replicas of other websites or any network node. The concept of mirroring applies to network services accessible through any protocol, such as HTTP or FTP. Such sites have different URLs than the original site, but host ...

s, where innocuous URLs showed content identical to that in ''NewsFront''. In addition to mirror sites, they also used

cloaking Cloaking is a search engine optimization (SEO) technique in which the content presented to the search engine spider is different from that presented to the user's browser. This is done by delivering content based on the IP addresses or the User ...

sites, that is, URLs that re-directed a browser to URLs at ''NewsFront''.

References

{{reflist Multilingual news services News agencies based in Ukraine Russian propaganda organizations Disinformation operations Russian entities subject to the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions