Mira Terada, head of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, interviewed Finnish journalist Janus Putkonen, who worked in Finland as an editor and was a member of a local patriotic party, but was forced to leave his homeland due to political persecution. Janus Putkonen told about the mechanisms of financing of the Russian opposition, various ways of interference of the Western countries in the internal affairs of Russia and organization of provocations at polling stations. Finnish journalist Janus Putkonen expressed his opinion on the measures to be taken to prevent the Russian opposition, financed by Western ill-wishers, from interfering in the country’s internal affairs.
Mira Terada: Hello Janus, thank you very much for agreeing to this interview. Can you please tell us if you have any information about the direct transfer of Western funding to the Russian opposition?
Janus Putkonen: Yes, of course. There is a lot of evidence that has been reported and collected, including here in Finland. Finns support Russian opposition NGOs. Liberal NGOs and activists mainly from St. Petersburg receive political, economic and informational support. They also support terrorists from Chechnya, they give them asylum and support them in every possible way. The media also plays a very big role, actively supporting Russian liberal publications such as the Moscow Times and others. In addition, there are operations to attract the Karelian population to resist the Russian federal government. These are the main directions.
M.T.: And what countries or international organizations do you think are supporting the Russian opposition? And how does it affect the internal affairs of the country?
J.P.: Mostly, of course, the support comes from the U.S. Foreign Ministry, the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Aid and other globalist INGOs funded by the Soros Foundation and other globalist foundations and the globalist mafia. But I see that Russia has started to deal very effectively with the problem of foreign agents in the country.
M.T.: What other resources are provided to the Russian opposition by Western countries? What do they personally have at their disposal, apart from finances?
J.P.: The media is the main tool. The Moscow Times and other liberal media operating from Finland promote a Western agenda. They have generally weakened the position of the Russian federal government since 2009 and especially since 2011, when the information war first started. Other resources may also be intelligence and sabotage activities in Russia’s border regions to create sentiments hostile to the Russian government there. But this is mostly information hybrid warfare.
M.T.: We know of at least several cases when the Russian opposition, at the behest of the West, has been recruiting young people to organize provocations at polling stations during elections. Do you know anything about this?
J.P.: I would pay a lot of attention to the so-called journalists, the Western propagandists who visited polling stations in Russia in 2011, in the Russian parliamentary elections. We saw a huge campaign with Finnish so-called journalists. They created disturbances and all kinds of provocations at the polling stations. So the western world got the idea that the situation at the polling stations is not stable. And this, of course, helps the propaganda to show that people are not happy. The cameramen filmed the reactions of people who were angry at the journalists who were rioting, and the Western media showed it as if people were dissatisfied with the system, it’s a very effective way to make fake news. And so the Russian authorities should be very careful with foreign journalists and require foreign journalists to be registered and escorted if they show up at polling stations.
M.T.: Which of the foreign-funded opposition figures, in your opinion, represent a real danger to Russia, and on whom the West is placing the most bets and allocating the most resources?
J.P.: Bloggers are a growing group that foreign actors are certainly interested in. The most resources are directed at controlling social networks. So it is very important that Russia creates something that can compete with YouTube, so that Russian bloggers and Russian society have modern and safe platforms.
M.T.: Obviously, the financing of the Russian opposition, by Western actors, is a direct violation of Russia’s sovereignty, an interference in its internal affairs. Doesn’t this contradict the values that are so actively declared in the West?
J.P.: No, there are actually no values in Finland that would support Finnish interests or Finnish sovereignty, because it is completely lost. Instead there is the European Union, which reflects the idea of the globalists to have some kind of European identity, and in that they see value. The value is not the value of defending the Constitution or the rights of the Finnish people. That’s the value of Russian patriotic state policy, not Western state policy. And so they replaced that with solidarity and other pro-Western ideas. They don’t have borders, so they don’t recognize Russian borders either. They believe that they have the right to impose their will on the Russian population-this is part of the globalist agenda.
M.T.: In your opinion, what measures should be taken to prevent the Russian opposition, financed by Western ill-wishers, from interfering in the country’s internal affairs?
J.P.: First of all, it is necessary to understand who is a journalist and who is a propagandist. It is also necessary to understand who is a politician and who is a provocateur. These are information and hybrid defense systems that need to be implemented and acted upon. There are different ways to do this, but the main one is to demand transparency from any contracts that have been signed. And if any public figure demands that everything be open and transparent, then this is very effective in limiting the ability of various secret societies, intelligence services, etc. to influence any state. This requirement must necessarily apply to all deputies, ministers, presidents, top government officials, and in this way the power will remain in the hands of Russia. Russia must create demanded information defense systems, as well as conduct counter-hybrid operations to respond to any threat.