A Russian government-backed basis allotted funds by means of intermediaries in an effort to gather data supporting Kremlin narratives and undermine Kyiv’s protection towards Moscow’s invasion, Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, has discovered.
The findings are primarily based partly on a trove of tens of hundreds of e-mails and different paperwork that have been obtained by the Danish public broadcaster, DR, and shared with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and different information retailers, together with Schemes.
Through these paperwork and extra reporting, Schemes discovered that stories have been submitted to the Moscow-based Pravfond — an abbreviation of the Foundation for the Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad — through intermediaries referred to as “curators.”
Lavrov’s Kyiv Footprint
Pravfond was created by the Russian Foreign Ministry and Rossotrudnichestvo, a authorities company that claims its “major mission is to strengthen Russia’s humanitarian affect on the planet.” The basis’s said aim is to supply authorized and different assist to Russians overseas when their “rights, freedoms, and legit pursuits” are violated.
However, a broader OCCRP investigation concluded that it really works with intelligence operatives, funds Russian propaganda, and builds channels of Kremlin affect.
An settlement reviewed by Schemes indicated that Pravfond was to be funded for at the very least a number of years by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is chairman of its board of trustees.
The ‘Ukrainian Direction’
Among the supplies reviewed by Schemes was a bit of a doc titled “Ukrainian route,” which outlined the muse’s actions in Ukraine and indicated they have been overseen from Moscow by at the very least two coordinators together with Yevhen Baklanov, a Ukrainian citizen who has been needed in Ukraine on suspicion of treason since 2022, the primary yr of Russia‘s full-scale invasion.
According to the report by a Pravfond curator for Ukraine, legal professionals at a company referred to as the Legal Consultation Center obtained Ukrainian residents at its Kyiv workplaces, whereas the middle ready stories for Russian authorities on alleged “struggle crimes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine” and “violations of the rights of Russian-speakers” in Ukraine — most of whom usually are not Russian residents.
Ukrainian and worldwide authorities are compiling rising proof of attainable struggle crimes dedicated by Russia and its forces in Ukraine. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023, alleging he’s chargeable for the struggle crime of illegal deportation and switch of youngsters from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.
Details of the stories produced for Pravfond have been scarce, and there was no direct proof of who ready them. When contacted by Schemes, a number of legal professionals named within the paperwork denied cooperating with Pravfond.
Money From Moscow
Documents present that the Legal Consultation Center has been working in Kyiv since 2015, the yr after Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and fomented a struggle within the japanese area referred to as the Donbas. It is unclear whether or not it stays lively.
In a report back to Moscow on actions in 2022, Baklanov said that the middle had performed 309 authorized consultations all year long. Topics included “guidelines for crossing the border” and “acquiring deferrals from mobilization” — suggesting that, whoever initiated the conversations, the middle suggested Ukrainians on actions that might undermine Kyiv’s efforts to defend towards the Russian invasion.
Ukraine’s protection towards Russia, whose inhabitants is way bigger, has been hampered by desertion, struggles to mobilize males of conscription age, and the flight of potential troopers in violation of a bar prohibiting most males aged 23-60 from leaving the nation.
Schemes additionally decided that funding for a community of legal professionals and web sites in Ukraine was repeatedly requested from Pravfond by the curators. In a 2025 funding request, Baklanov sought greater than 3 million rubles ($39,000) for “authorized support for compatriots in Ukraine.”
The trove of paperwork and a press release from an account held by Baklanov in a Russian financial institution, which was obtained by Schemes, revealed at the very least one occasion over the previous two years through which Baklanov obtained cash from Pravfond. There was no data indicating whether or not any of that cash was ever transferred to the Ukrainian legal professionals.
Treason Trial
According to paperwork reviewed by Schemes, Svitlana Novytska, a Ukrainian lawyer who will not be related to the Legal Information Center, utilized to Pravfond straight, in search of a grant “for the protection of Tetyana Kuzmych,” who’s charged with treason. Ukraine’s SBU safety service alleges that Kuzmich led an agent community run by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) within the Kherson area, which is partially occupied by Russian forces and which Moscow baselessly claims is a part of Russia.
Schemes didn’t see proof that Novytska obtained cash from Pravfond. Novytska, who was herself detained in a separate treason probe, denied receiving any assist when contacted by Schemes. “This is the primary time I’m listening to this,” she mentioned.
Websites Promote ‘Denazification’
In addition to references to the Legal Information Center and the Kuzmych case, the Pravfond-related materials examined by Schemes identifies 4 web sites linked to Ukraine, one in every of which is known as Pravcenter. A report back to the Russian Foreign Ministry states that the aim of such websites is to assist the Kremlin’s said aim of the “denazification” of Ukraine.
The demand for ‘denazification’ stems from Putin’s false assertion that Ukraine is run or dominated by “nazis,” a declare extensively seen as a part of the Kremlin’s effort to make sure that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s authorities loses energy and is changed by Russia-friendly figures.
In one in every of his stories to Pravfond, curator Maksym Zelenskiy highlighted a Pravcenter article that republished what it claimed was a report in a Polish media outlet that mentioned Ukrainian refugees in Poland had “satisfied folks of the necessity for denazification in Ukraine,” referred to as Ukraine’s authorities “neo-fascist,” and warned that Ukrainian migration might destabilize the European Union.
While the European Union has imposed sanctions on Pravfond and its management for what it says have been anti-Ukrainian subversive actions, the muse is at present not topic to sanctions from the Ukrainian authorities. Kyiv hit the group with sanctions in 2021 for a three-year interval, however the measures expired in 2024 and weren’t prolonged.
