Tales of Thierry Laurent-Pellet: A One-Man Russian Propaganda Franchise or Troll?

Tales of Thierry Laurent-Pellet: A One-Man Russian Propaganda Franchise or Troll?

10 Nov, 2015

Introduction

Thierry Laurent aka Thierry Laurent-Pellet aka Thierry Andre Laurent-peller tells a dramatic story of how his business travel to Ukraine turned into a nightmare with detention by the Ukrainian SBU, and a violent encounter which Laurent claims injured his back. This entire Pulse article is a review of the reporting and accounts of Laurent’s story between Russia Insider, Novorossia Today, and Koter News – The Gazette LLN-WSL-UC.

Choice of Publications for “Exclusive Interview”

Mr. Thierry Laurent is a French businessman whose business frequently took him into Ukraine. In a Pulse article on LinkedIn he linked to an article at Russia Insider, entitled “EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Detained by the SBU, Beaten by Right Sector – The Incredible Story of a French Businessman in Ukraine.” There, Russia Insider wrote-up a synopsis of Laurent’s account, and posted several audio files of Laurent speaking. The SBU is the Security Service of Ukraine.

Russia Insider is an online “news” outlet where today, for example, one could find headlines like, “On Fire”: US Navy Can Be Sunk, The Refugee Crisis Will Be the Demise of Europe, Alex (ClubOrlov); and How Russia Is Saving Syria, Alexander Mercouris.

Observation: The exclusive interview of a French businessman who was allegedly a victim of a Ukrainian SBU detention and physical attack in Ukraine would be most newsworthy in France, but the exclusive went to Russia Insider. Here is Russia Insider’s contact information:

Office

We are a network of volunteers all over the world, but in Moscow, some of us work at a coworking space called Cowork Station. Stop by and say hello if you like.  Address is Leninsky Prospect 30A.

Physical mail

USA: Russia Insider, P.O. Box 22, Greenwich, CT 06836 USA

Russia: Russia Insider, Co-work Station, Leninsky Prospekt 30A, Moscow, Russia 119334

Not to worry, there was a French iteration of Mr. Laurent’s story here: Arrêté et menacé par le SBU, il quitte l’Ukraine. The publication? Novorossia Today.

Mais bien sûr!

Discrepancies in Stories Surrounding Alleged SBU Detention

In his Russia Insider recording on the SBU detention, Laurent claims he had to go to Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine to deal with his “ex-girlfriend.” He said he woke up at 6:15 AM and 5 armed men were in his room, asking him to come with them for interrogation. There is a recording, here, nearly 10 minutes long. There are no questions. It is just Mr. Laurent narrating.

In the Russia Insider recording above, Mr. Laurent states that after 3 hours in interrogation, he reversed the pressure, forced them to apologize, and then took him to the bus station. However, the Novorossia Today piece narrates about Laurent: “Released, he must press for the’ll (sic) walk to the bus station, waiting for his friends indeed for a long time in Kiev.” Also, the Novorossia Today article puts Mr. Laurent’s detention at 7 hours, not a little over 3 as Laurent seems to say in the recording at Russia Insider.

In the Novorossia Today narrative, Mr. Laurent is taken by 5 SBU policemen to the police station, and 7 heavily armed policemen escort him into the police station, while only 3 interrogate him. However, in Laurent’s Russia Insiderrecording he recounts only 5 SBU policemen from start to finish.

Also in the Novorossia Today account, the story recounts Laurent’s attacker as a gigantic man in a tavern who hit his spine, not in a restaurant as Laurent said in his recording for Russia Insider.

In his Russia Insider recording Laurent said the very big man hit him so hard in the spine he couldn’t breathe, telling Laurent that he’d seen him “at Maidan.” Despite that, Laurent summarily says he “managed” to escape. However, the Novorossia Today account claims that Laurent escaped the huge man byusing a taser against him.

Also, at Novorossia Today, a back or neck X-ray is shown, impliedly showing Mr. Laurent’s spine injury. Yet the name on the film is “O. Arnaud.” Most films have the patient’s name on them.

Photographic Fraud as Propaganda?

Another “journalism” website entitled Koter News – The Gazette LLN-WSL-UC, picked-up Thierry Laurent’s story of SBU detention, and headlined it under the following photo, as seen below:

Ukraine held by the SBU, beaten by neo-Nazis – A French businessman speaks

The photo that was placed directly over the headline, it turns out, is a grab from a video, yet is presented as if it must be Mr. Laurent in his alleged detention at the Koter News website. The photo’s URL I entered into the image search field at https://www.tineye.com/ as such:

http://img.scoop.it/z6yXIVvucYXVHcr3MJanrDl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9

The results were identical and very close images found, thanks to TinyEye.com, as follows:

A closer look at the first match at Zakon.kz, however, shows a close-up and story that appears to publish the name of a protestor as Mikhail Gavriluk, here (with link from capture below):

Below is a link to the video from which the photos of this awful incident involving the reported Maidan activist were taken (due to the nudity and brutality I will not embed the video, but link to it. DO NOT VIEW IT IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY SUCH THINGS, OR CHILDREN ARE ABLE TO SEE IT):

Here is a screenshot, from the above link.

The purpose for the comparison is to judge the utilization of the photograph of the unfortunate nude man over the story about Thierry Laurent Pellet being detained and abused by the Ukrainian SBU at Koter News, seen below for review purposes:

Does the photo in the Koter News piece above give readers the impression that the man in the photograph is Thierry Laurent-Pellet, the subject of the story below it?

We know, for a fact, the man in the video is Mykhailo Gavrylyuk, seen and identified here, and here, his vk page here.

Readers may judge whether this was a falsification or deception. Who uploaded the story with the photo? It was “Scooped” by Koter Info, a Scoop.It! account holder. That account lists “journalism” as one of the account holder’s interests.

Ashamed to Be European

One wonders how Mr. Laurent-pellet could get his urgent message out that he is ashamed to be European without the help of News Front, which is an internet news website published by  in Cyrillic with offices listed at: 295034, Russia, Republic of Crimea Street. Shooting 57, per the News Front website contact page, and in Russian, Наш адрес:  295034, Россия, Республика Крым, ул. Стрелковая, 57. Here’s that upload from August 31st, 2015 in English (note the anchorwoman’s name: “Catherine Nollan”):

Having established his bona fides for News Front’s purposes at the end of August, Mr. Laurent was then invited by News Front to give his take on the MH17 Malaysian passenger jet shoot down over Donbass.

News Front

The Newsfront website solicits reader donations on its About and Help pages, providing detailed instructions on how to “help the militia volunteers information front!” using Sberbank, Yandex money, Western Union, MoneyGram, and full funds transfer instructions. The help page says donations are for:

– Protective equipment (body armor, helmets);

– First aid;

– Produce timely repair of technical equipment;

– Food, accommodation and the ability to quickly move from one hotspot to another.

Shabalin Mikhail Konstantinovich, is listed as the Western Union / MoneyGram account holder recipient, and the same name appears in fund transfer instructions. If there are issues, readers are given a Gmail email to contact:

Sending translation numbers and other issues
please contact us by email: elennewsfront@gmail.com

It is fascinating to read the SWIFT instructions down the page, a system that it has been suggested would be a powerful sanction in bringing Russian aggression under control.

Thierry Laurent Is On LinkedIn

It appears that Mr. Thierry Laurent has also been on LinkedIn. In fact, it was his Pulse article that directed LinkedIn users to the Russia Insider story of his alleged SBU detention.

Mr. Laurent had been joining LinkedIn Group discussions and slide shares in which pro-Kremlin LinkedIn participants have discussed and debated foreign policy toward Ukraine with Western LinkedIn users representing many opinions. This writer is one of those volunteers who, while professionally networking with others in public and private sector national security and intelligence group discussions discovered a consistent, coordinated, disruptive, and deceptive pro-Kremlin trolling aimed at disabling LinkedIn.com as a forum for U.S. perspectives on international relations.

This writer believes that Mr. Laurent has been part of that trolling effort, whether willingly or by cooption. Serially, trolls make aggressive assertions stated out of the contextual big picture, or skew of facts, aimed at demonizing the United States, NATO, Ukraine, and the West in general. Others seek to disrupt and derail examination of topics unfriendly to Kremlin views.

Centering on international relations, policy, national security, and intelligence topics, a number of volunteer participants on LinkedIn found themselves checking the trolling behavior on LinkedIn and using the experience as an opportunity for professional enrichment. The more I have engaged in this informal yet serious counter-propaganda project with my fellow LinkedIn participants, the more important I realize the effort is. There are many of us, who make the time in our busy schedules to help. The information war effort against the U.S. is massive and funded by nation states adverse to the U.S. political system, not just one or another politician.

Below you can see an exchange between Thierry Laurent and U.S.-based LinkedIn volunteers in a discussion of a Russian LinkedIn member’s slide share about the Russia-Ukraine relationship. It is one sample of many. See the exchange below:

In this the comment from the top, Mr. Laurent appears to write something cryptic in transliterated Russian, “moy horoshiy drug Evgeniye otvetili by vam s 9 gr” which could be translated as “my good friend Eugene will answer you with a 9mm Grach.” The standard issue Russian military sidearm is the MP-443 Grach.

While it is possible that the controller of the Laurent profile meant “my good friend Eugene will answer you with his sninegr,” that did not make any sense. Erring on the side of caution and considering the gun reference a veiled threat, the comment was reported to LinkedIn. As it turns out, the Novorossia Todayaccount of Laurent’s SBU detention mentions a friend of Laurent’s named Eugene (ostensibly during the Yanukovych presidency): “In fact, his activities led him to maintain friendships with important people. There will be Eugene, part of SBU.” See below:

Then Mr. Laurent did it again. He made a comment insinuating that another LinkedIn member was old, alcoholic, and that his best days were past (all false), followed by encouragement for him to kill  himself in a bathtub. That exchange was so disturbing that I did not reduplicate it here. After reporting this, Mr. Laurent’s profile disappeared, and all thought it was due to LinkedIn’s enforcement of its standards. Recently, however, Mr. Laurent’s profile popped-up again. He is once more availing himself of the free speech platform on LinkedIn.com.

Conclusion

For those who doubt that there is a Kremlin information war reaching out to redefine the U.S., NATO, Europe, and Western civilization before the world, the tales of Thierry Laurent, aka Thierry Laurent-Pellet, aka Thierry Laurent-peller, is a blatant example illustrating the reality of it.

This is a distracted world, with technologies driving faster decision making and cramming our schedules with more because we can. In that atmosphere, few read, reflect, or even finish a thought. Many act on emotional perceptions, letting their emotions control, instead of inform their thinking about what they see or hear. While to seasoned national security executives the efforts of Mr. Laurent may seem harmless and unconvincing, those he is trying to sway in the general public may not have as much time to filter and fact check the websites, headlines, photos, and assertions they sense.

By issuing false media propaganda purveyors put all media in doubt, especially if false media becomes more convincing. NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers said it well in his interview with the Wall Street Journal, “But what happens when suddenly our data is manipulated, and you no longer can believe what you’re physically seeing?” Indeed, by analogy, what happens when we lose the benefit of ham-handed attempts at deceptive propaganda, and it becomes so sophisticated we are not laughing anymore with certainty?