Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) published a new report on July 14, fingering 78 international “speakers” as purveyors of alleged “Russian propaganda.” The first 30 names on the list, including Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, all had one thing in common: Each had spoken before at least one Schiller Institute international conference this year. (https://cpd.gov.ua/reports/%d1%81%d0%bf%d1%96%d0%ba%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b8-%d1%8f%d0%ba%d1%96-%d0%bf%d1%80%d0%be%d1%81%d1%83%d0%b2%d0%b0%d1%8e%d1%82%d1%8c-%d1%81%d0%bf%d1%96%d0%b2%d0%b7%d0%b2%d1%83%d1%87%d0%bd%d1%96-%d1%80%d0%be/ )
A number of the 78 named by the CCD, which operates under the Ukrainian presidency’s National Security and Defense Council, warned after learning of its existence that this was a hit list, and a threat to their personal security.
Andriy Shapovalov, acting head of the CCD, has made that threat explicit. In an address to an international roundtable on countering disinformation on July 14, the very day the CCD list was released, Shapovalov charged that people who deliberately spread disinformation are “information terrorists,” subject to be tried as “war criminals.”
As reported on the CCD’s “Events” page: Shapovalov emphasized to the (unnamed) participating “representatives of state authorities, public organizations, mass media and international experts,” that “`people who deliberately spread disinformation are information terrorists.’ He noted that in order to protect the information space, it is necessary to make changes to the legislation. `Information terrorists should know that they will have to answer to the law as war criminals,’ he emphasized.”
The U.S. State Department played a key role in organizing and funding the roundtable to which Shapovalov delivered this chilling threat, on the very day his center published its hit list. As the following initial investigation shows, the State Department knew or should have known of the threats issued. The question arises: Were any State Department officials involved in drawing up the hit list and encouraging its publication?
