an independent, cross-border journalism initiative dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting and independent press in the Visegrad Region
Polish journalist, co- founder of Fundacja Reporterów (Reporters Foundation). Worked as foreign correspondent covering Russia, former head of investigative desk at Dziennik daily. Based in Warsaw.
photo by Wojciech Grzedzinski, Luganskoye 13th of July 2016
Alexander Usovski was active in the Visegrad region, set up foundations, looked for EU grants, finally received money from Russia in cash, without leaving any paper trail. That’s how he started to organize a network of dutiful and useful people. And indeed, everything went just the way his sponsor wanted.
Perhaps he was a fool, a liar and a fraud, the Baron von Munchausen of Russian influence in Europe. But the case of Alexander Usovsky – even though it may seem like a farce – is actually very serious. It’s the first so thoroughly documented example of Moscow’s foreign policy. It shows sources of its financing and explains who is answering to Kremlin’s propaganda puppet masters. And how it makes use of radical nationalists.