The “hand of the Kremlin” or Bankova’s plan: what is behind the fake CNN about the “unsuccessful conversation” between Biden and Zelensky

On Thursday, January 27, a telephone conversation took placePresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky With US President Joe Biden. The leaders of the countries discussed common efforts to de-escalate the conflict with Russia. The next day, CNN published an article in which it was reported that the conversation “was not smooth”: Zelensky and Biden allegedly argued about the threat level of the Russian invasion, after which the American president said that Ukraine would no longer see assistance from the United States. The White House and the Office of the President of Ukraine denied this information. The Segodnya website found out whether the CNN material is true or whether it is another FSB fake.

What did the Presidents say?

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that during a conversation with an American colleague, they discussed de-escalation efforts and agreed on common actions.

“Thanked President Joe Biden for the ongoing military assistance. We also discussed the possibilities of financial support for Ukraine”Zelensky wrote on his Twitter page.

The White House reported that Joe Biden confirmed Washington’s readiness, together with its allies, to respond decisively to the Russian invasion. Biden also noted that the United States provided more than half a billion dollars to Ukraine last year and is exploring the possibility of additional macroeconomic support.

Commenting on the departure of family members of US embassy employees, Biden stressed that the diplomatic mission in Kiev remains open and fully functioning.

On the morning of January 28, CNN published an article in which it reported that Biden’s telephone conversation with Zelensky “failed.”

What the CNN article says

The publication refers to an anonymous source in the government of Ukraine, who allegedly said that the negotiations were unsuccessful due to differences in the assessment of a likely Russian invasion.

“According to our interlocutor, Biden warned Zelensky that the invasion could be in February, after which Kiev would be occupied and plundered. However, according to the Ukrainian president, the threat from the Russian Federation remains dangerous, but ambiguous. Zelensky said that he had no confidence that there will be an invasion, as Ukrainian intelligence sees the situation differently”writes CNN.

As the newspaper notes, Zelensky urged Biden to “calm down reports” about a possible Russian invasion so that the economic situation in Ukraine does not worsen due to panic. In response, the American president allegedly stated that Ukraine would no longer receive military assistance from the United States.

How did the White House and the President’s Office react?

US National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne stated that the sources of the publication “merge lies.”

“That’s not true. President Biden said there was a clear possibility that the Russians might invade Ukraine in February. He said it publicly, and we’ve been warning about it for months. Reports of something more or different than this completely false”– emphasized Horn.

Denied CNN information and Press Secretary of the President of Ukraine Sergey Nikiforov.

“These reports are completely untrue”Nikiforov wrote on Facebook.

What is known about the authors of the article

British journalist Matthew Chance Has been with CNN for 20 years. He covered the terrorist takeover of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai in 2008 and was the first to interview Yasser Arafat after Israeli forces lifted the siege of his residence in Ramallah in 2002. But something else is curious.

Recently, Chance is based in Moscow. He often accompanies Russian intelligence operations with information and took part in the campaign to popularize the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

In particular, this was stated in Guildhall’s commentary by the head of the Center for Defense Reforms, coordinator of the interagency platform to counter hybrid threats in the framework of Ukraine-NATO cooperation. Alexander Danilyuk.

“During the coronavirus pandemic and the massive flow of Russian information operations in the West, Matthew Chance was vaccinated with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and took part in the campaign to popularize it. Russian propaganda actively replicated and exaggerated this event. Moreover, Chance accompanied a number of world conflicts in which Russia was involved. He gained access to objects and information that other journalists from the world’s leading media, by a surprising coincidence, did not have access to. In 2008, as part of the conflict in South Ossetia, he was the only TV reporter from Tskhinvali, and then interviewed Putin and Medvedev. In 2011, during the capture of Gaddafi in Libya and the Rixos hotel by militants, he broadcast live for CNN, being one of the hostages. He covered the terrorist attack in Beslan and other operations of the Russian special services. Taking into account all these aspects, the level of trust in published article is very low”the analyst noted.

By the way, in September 2021, there was a scandal after CNN released a story about a special operation to detain Russian mercenaries from the Wagner PMC. The author of the story, the same Matthew Chance, said that the Ukrainian special services carried out the operation with the help of the US CIA. Then the Office of the President of Ukraine denied this information, hinting that the “hand of the Kremlin” was noticeable in the journalist’s material.

Specified in the co-authors of the article about the “unsuccessful” conversation between Biden and Zelensky journalist Jeremy Herb in 2018 he was a nominee for the Fake News Awards (fake news), created by the then acting US President Donald Trump. Herb was ranked third in the Top 11 Fake News Journalists for an article in which he wrote about the cooperation of the Trump campaign with Russian officials. CNN had to “acknowledge the error in the author’s article and correct it.”

Information strike on Biden, Ukraine and Europe

Political scientist Anton Kuchukhidze believes that the CNN article is a fake and a deliberate “stuffing” of the special services of the Russian Federation. As the expert notes, Russia today suffers losses in diplomacy and information policy.

“During a conversation with Zelensky, Biden confirmed that the US embassy continues to work in Ukraine, thereby stopping the media hysteria that diplomats are urgently evacuated from Kiev. In addition, we see that Europe has teamed up with America and threatens Moscow with sanctions. Ukraine receives weapons and financial support from all over the world. Russia has practically no allies left. Negotiations between the Kremlin and the United States and NATO have failed. Moscow’s basic demands for security guarantees have been rejected, NATO is strengthening and arming the eastern flank,” Kuchukhidze says.

According to the political scientist, Russia’s diplomatic and media attack on Ukraine and the West has bogged down, so the Kremlin tried to launch a new information strike using CNN.

“CNN is considered an authoritative TV channel, one of the top publications, whose information is trusted by most Americans and Europeans. Probably, the expectation was that this article about the quarrel between the presidents would hit Biden’s rating in the United States, show him as a failed politician who first supported Ukraine, and then he suddenly decided to refuse to help her.The article was also supposed to show Ukraine as an unstable partner, which first declares the threat of a Russian invasion, and then says that there is no threat.As a result, the scandal was supposed to divide the united West, turning Europe against the United States and Ukraine,” says Kuchukhidze.

The political scientist is sure that the CNN article traces the narratives of the Russian Federation.

“The FSB or another Russian agency is behind this fake, but the Kremlin’s hand is clearly visible here,” the political scientist is sure.

Banking could “beat” the FSB

Military expert Oleg Zhdanov also believes that the FSB was involved in the stuffing of the CNN article, but does not exclude that the fake was originally created by the Office of the President of Ukraine in order to “outplay” the Russian special service.

“It has long been said that a Russian “mole” is operating on Bankovaya. It is quite possible that the information about the “unsuccessful conversation” with Biden was announced on the sidelines of the President’s Office, maybe even in Zelensky’s office, specifically for the “mole” to hear it. And then, Through controlled journalists, the FSB published this information and the whole world learned that CNN journalists launched a fake,” Zhdanov summed up.

Earlier, the Segodnya website reported that on January 12, negotiations were held within the framework of the Russia-NATO Council, at which Moscow’s demands were discussed – to abandon the expansion of the Alliance and not to accept Ukraine into its ranks. The Kremlin also demanded a guarantee that the West would not place weapons and military bases near Russia. On January 10, similar negotiations took place between the US and Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is afraid that NATO will deploy missiles in Ukraine that can fly to Moscow in 5-10 minutes. At the same time, the owner of the Kremlin warned that if “the obviously aggressive line of Western colleagues” continues, Moscow will take “adequate retaliatory military-technical measures.”

We also informed that on January 26, US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan submitted to the Russian Foreign Ministry a written response from Washington to Russian proposals on security guarantees.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the US response to Russia’s proposals contains “positive aspects” on which joint work is possible. He noted that the US and Russia can cooperate on strike missile systems, transparency of exercises, and arms control. The Secretary of State added that US responses to Russia’s proposals were coordinated with Western allies and Ukraine.

In turn, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexei Zaitsev said that Russia is not going to invade Ukraine.