Criminal cases against successful reformers are nothing but a natural consequence of the creation of new punitive bodies in Ukraine instead of systemic changes in governance.“Keep your head down, smart***!” is the message that the people who drive reforms are getting from corrupt officials. Such messages discourage those who are willing to break the mold to change the system and throw the entire country years back. The cases against Andriy Kobolyev and Yevhen Dykhne are model examples of such signals.Here is the story in a nutshell: the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine (SAPO) are charging Andriy Kobolyev, the former Chairman of Naftogaz with awarding himself an illegal bonus of UAH 261 million (1% of the money collected after winning the case against Russia's Gazprom). It was UAH 229 million over the legal limitation for such bonuses in state-owned companies. The excess also equaled the amount of bail that the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HAAC) set in Kobolev’s case.The High Anti-Corruption Court had found Yevhen Dykhne, former director general of Boryspil airport guilty of abuse of office and had sentenced him to 5 years in prison.The creation of an anti-corruption infrastructure generated a great deal of discussion in Ukraine. Such discussions were often used for political gain.

Last week, Russian propagandist media ran yet another fake report about Ukraine's intention to use weapons of mass destruction — this time in Transnistria. The Russian disinformation machine continues to build an image of a peace-loving Russia willing to negotiate things in a civilized manner. The only problem is that the evil West is hell-bent on war. This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.

President Zelensky did not believe a full-scale invasion would happen and talked about barbecues in the spring – and the civilian authorities weren’t prepared for such a turn of events either. When Russia invaded, the government repeated optimistic reports that Ukrainian forces were successfully repelling the attacks. It cost the lives of those who took that message at face value and did not leave the soon-to-be-occupied territories in time. Others even moved to the occupied territories in a naïve hope to sit out the period of hostilities in a quiet area away from Kyiv.Читати українськоюTranslated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike Lytov

Putin’s recent address to the members of parliament was all over the front pages of Russian media last week. The Russian dictator was mentioned more than 1,300 times — a new record for our monitoring reports. Putin was praised for his eloquence despite the fact that his speech lacked meaningful content and was so long and boring that it lulled some of the officials in the audience to sleep. However, the dictator's latest self-presentation should not be treated too lightly. Putin is still holding the whole world hostage with his nuclear threats without any meaningful victories in the conventional war. This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.

The sanctions continue taking a heavy toll on the Russian pharmaceutical market. Many Russian pharmacies ran out of Viagra last week with no further supplies in sight. However, the propagandists rushed to assure that this is just a minor inconvenience since Russia has strategic stockpiles of sildenafil, the basic component of Viagra. This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.

After the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia, Ukrainians are actively switching from speaking Russian to Ukrainian. This is visible in the information space and at the everyday level - many have acquaintances who started speaking Ukrainian last year. For example, a third of the 67,000 surveyed users of the "Kyiv Digital" application answered that they started to communicate in Ukrainian during this period.Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike LytovЧитати українською

In Ukrainian schools, teachers of the Russian language and literature were considered a privileged caste. Even higher than history teachers. History was considered mainly an ideological discipline at school. "Historians" also taught the course "Fundamentals of the state and law". They were, traditionally, leaders of Communist party cells at schools.Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike LytovЧитати українською

Although Russians rejoice at every bit of tactical success in the battlefield, this joy is bittersweet. According to Russian analysts, every scenario for the war to end is equally grim for Russia. Russian propagandist media are trying hard to drive a wedge among the Western coalition nations and erode their support of Ukraine.It seems that Russians have finally realized the scale of the disaster they caused urging them to invite Ukraine to the negotiation table, just like they did before.This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.

Russia is facing unprecedented budgetary deficit. Western sanctions are pushing hard on the people and the economy. However, Russian propagandists assure that this is all but temporary: stiff upper lip, tighten your belts as the whole planet will soon be covered in the radioactive ashes of Word War III, and North Korea will help to make it happen.This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.