SBU: Top Russian propagandists difficult to prove guilty

Proceedings against top Russian propagandists are complicated because their guilt is difficult to prove, said Oleh Mazur, the head of the Main Investigative Department of the Security Service of Ukraine, at the press conference "Crimes of Russian Propagandists: Presenting the Submission to the International Criminal Court" in Kyiv, reports Ukrinform.

"Some people here have said that guilt is easily provable in such proceedings. I totally disagree with this, because the Russians... I think we have considered them stupid since 2014, and even more stupid since 2022, but this is not the case at all," he said.

According to Oleh Mazur, evidence must be obtained properly by the pre-trial investigation body or the prosecutor. The way to properly investigate statements by this or that propagandist is by asking the opinion of a forensic expert – a linguist.

"I want to say that this is not always so, and in the absolute majority of cases, when we submit material for an examination, the expert decides against writing conclusively that certain statements contain calls for something. So, in terms of easy provability... I don't know what the International Criminal Court will make of these facts, but even our law shows that it is not quite simple," Mazur said.

He said that one of the proceedings handled by the SBU is the "alphabetical" case: "Or, as we call it, the main one, on propaganda in general."

"Absolutely all of the top propagandists are under investigation in this case, namely Gromov (Alexey Gromov, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Russia – Ed.)," said the SBU representative.

Mazur stressed that Gromov is a top Russian official who deals with propaganda. However, according to him, he is a private, latent official who does not speak openly.

"And the pre-trial investigation body had obtained no documents that would indicate that he is taking any proper action managing this propaganda machine. So I would be interested to see what material you submit to the ICC. And as was mentioned (during the presentation – Ed.) about the five other people (top Russian propagandists – Ed.), I would like to review this material. Maybe it will be helpful to the pre-trial investigation body, to the prosecutor and, in the future, to the court," he said, addressing the human rights activists present at the press conference.

As reported earlier, the SBU issued a suspicion notice to Anatoliy Torkunov, the rector of the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, for falsifying Ukraine's history and promoting the Russian ideology in the temporarily occupied part of Ukraine.