Russia speaks highly about the "Western Propoganda" while we know no side is clear of manipulations, shore not the frozen dictatorship.
Is the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska an oligarch or a tycoon? Was the oligarch Mikhail Friedman involved in the ties between the authorities in Russia and Donald Trump? A layman checking this on English Wikipedia in recent years might be left confused, as the entries for these personalities have changed several times. This is no coincidence: an investigation recently published by an American Wikipedia editor, known as Smallbones, reveals that some oligarchs connected to the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin paid public relations and reputation management companies to, among other things, rewrite their Wikipedia entries. The investigation reveals dozens of fake accounts that these companies operated in order to influence what is written on Wikipedia, and in particular the values of their clients.
In Deripaska's entry, for example, an editor replaced the word "oligarch" with "business magnate". In Friedman's case, an editor named Earflaps almost completely rewrote the entry and deleted, among other things, a mention of the lawsuit in which he is involved, regarding the ties that existed between the authorities in Russia and Donald Trump and around allegations of Russian involvement in the US elections.
The investigation also shows that a group of accounts associated with the public relations firm RLM Finsbury, hired by oligarch Alisher Usmanov, edited the value dealing with him.
Already in 2012, the British media revealed that Osmanov, an Uzbek with Russian citizenship who is considered one of the oligarchs closest to Putin, became rich from a variety of businesses in the metals and mining sector, and with the help of the capital he accumulated moved to investments and now owns a large industrial conglomerate, he hired the services of RLM Finsbury for the IPO of his cellular company , MegaFon, on the London Stock Exchange. In 1980, Osmanov was convicted of criminal offenses in Russia and even served six years in prison. Among the other "image management" services that RLM Finsbury provided him was the deletion of his criminal past from the Wikipedia entry.
At the time, the company admitted that it edited the value on his behalf, but claimed that it was not at the request of the oligarch and that he would not admit to the edits at all. From the current investigation it appears that accounts related to this network made all kinds of values related to him, including a value related to his yacht, Dilbar. Both in this entry and in the entry directly dealing with it, the fake accounts not only wrote details but also participated in the discussions - a community process where the direction of the entry is discussed - and tried to change the content in favor of the customer. The company also represented oligarch Andrey Sukh and tried to remove photos of him and his yacht from another website.
An editor named Earflaps who wrote almost the entire entry and deleted, among other things, a mention of the lawsuit in which he is involved, regarding the ties between the authorities in Russia and Donald Trump and around allegations of Russian involvement in the US elections
It was also found that in the past a large number of accounts associated with the public relations company Bell Pottinger edited the values of the oligarchs Alexander Nesis and Arkady Abramovich, son of Roman Abramovich. Later it was revealed that these accounts were related to the company and therefore were removed from Wikipedia, but according to the investigation, these managed to change the content in the values of the oligarchs before they were caught. Arkady's father, Roman, is also represented by Belle Pottinger. Although the values dealing with the Chelsea owner appear to be free of foreign involvement, the investigation revealed that at least 50 fake accounts were active in editing his value in the past.
The investigation, which deals with oligarchs who are considered close to the Kremlin, and some of whom have even been put on the Western sanctions list, is based on the work of ants done for years by members of the community.