The automated responses on Ribar’s Telegram channel, one of the largest Russian disinformation factories in the world, give the impression of a conversation with a real person, while offering journalists an online course on how to use the app in Russian.
Ribar has been expanding its influence beyond Russia’s borders for years. In April 2024, they boasted about having trained 500 people in the Balkans on how to manage Telegram channels, an app that Russian propagandists have almost exclusively used since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine to bypass sanctions and restrictions on the spread of disinformation.
The leading figure of Ribar, who was placed on the European Union’s sanctions list for supporting actions that undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine, now wants to focus on Republika Srpska.
Mihail Zvinchuk has already visited Banja Luka at least twice and met with directors of government agencies, announcing cooperation, though no further details have been made public.
The Detektor investigation revealed previously unknown details and confirmed that a government agency in Republika Srpska plans to sign a cooperation agreement with Ribar to open a media school and collaborate with local universities.
According to automated responses on Ribar’s Telegram channel, this process is still in its early stages. After applying to attend the school in Republika Srpska, Ribar responded that “the school in the Balkans will open soon” and added that they were “working on recruitment for online training in Serbian.”
Detektor followed up with another inquiry about the school in Republika Srpska, but did not receive a response.
This was followed by Ribar’s offer of an online course in Russian. They provided a registration link and stated that for the course in Serbian, “you need to wait.”
After this, Ribar stopped responding to Detektor.
Some people in Banja Luka heard about and received invitations for the course that Mihail Zvinchuk himself held for over 500 people in Republika Srpska and Serbia, but Detektor could not find a single participant or a location where such a training was held physically.
Aleksandar Stojanović, a journalist from Banja Luka, met Zvinchuk in the city.
“I was personally prevented from attending the lecture, and as I was informed, the lecture did not even take place. I do not know any other details,” Stojanović told Detektor.
Ribar may have exaggerated its past activities in RS, but it may soon formalize its presence by entering universities, which would give the organization the opportunity to further strengthen Russian influence in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Olena Churanova, a journalist from the StopFake editorial team based in Kyiv, who is involved in hunting disinformation during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, points out that Zvinchuk is actually a former officer of the Russian army.
“Of course, now he says that he no longer functions in that capacity,” she explains, adding that there are doubts that the Russian Ministry of Defense is providing the information that is being spread on the channel.
Ribar sees the Bosnian-Herzegovinian region as one of its frontlines. In late summer, during the EUFOR exercise, Ribar published a map of Bosnia and Herzegovina showing the locations of the exercise sites, the number of vehicles, planes, and soldiers involved.
Ribar linked the regular annual exercise to the visit of William Burns, the director of the CIA, to Sarajevo, Belgrade, and Kosovo, and emphasized in its announcement that the exercises were a good justification for increasing the number of troops on the ground, but did not provide proof.
The European Union External Action Service in Brussels explained to Detektor that any cooperation with Zvinchuk would constitute a violation of sanctions that Bosnia and Herzegovina has committed to.
“Any cooperation between him, his associates, and the authorities of Republika Srpska would not only be unacceptable but would also be a clear violation of the existing EU sanctions to which BiH is committed,” explained Petar Stano, the EU spokesperson for foreign affairs and security.
The announcement of the opening of the media school came after Zvinchuk’s spring stay in Republika Srpska and Serbia, including a meeting at the Center for Social-Political Research. It is stated that agreements were reached to hold regular master classes with the participation of authors of Russian Telegram channels.
“Our goal is to show that you can do without Twitter/X, Facebook, and Instagram. That Russia’s experience in the information war can and should be taken into account. Telegram is a platform that allows you to do this. (…) For a long time, we have studied Western approaches to developing an information war against us. The time has come for us to apply our knowledge and train our collaborators in the right approaches and draw them into Telegram,” says part of Ribar’s announcement.
Olena Churanova, a journalist from the StopFake editorial team in Kyiv, who is actively engaged in countering disinformation during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, notes that Zvinchuk is actually a former officer of the Russian military.
Churanova says Ribar is one of the key disinformation platforms, and that one of Russia’s goals is to control the information space in various countries, especially where there are existing issues, for example, with NATO.
“Currently, Ukraine is not Russia’s main issue. NATO is Russia’s main enemy. I am already discussing this with my colleagues from Albania, where Russia is working to spread the message that Albania should leave NATO and that there is no point in being there. Bosnia and Herzegovina also wants to join NATO, and it is very important for Russia to spread these messages – that joining NATO is pointless. It is a weak alliance. You can see what happened in Ukraine. There is no help there. The Balkans are a very important region for Russia,” explains Churanova.
Every time, immediately before or after Banja Luka, Zvinchuk would go to Belgrade, where he held public meetings and lectures at his school. In April and June 2024, Zvinchuk held lectures at the “Moskva” hotel in Belgrade.
“In Belgrade, experts are employed for visual propaganda, for Telegram journalism, which is marketed as a product. What they have done since 2022 or 2020 is being sold as a product so that journalists in these areas can learn to do similar things. They claim that the participants are journalists, PR professionals, civil servants, which in itself is extremely problematic. (…) They are the most prominent in the Russian-speaking area. Are they so well represented in the Western Balkans to have many followers? No, but they have people skilled in media to spread that Russian propaganda and malign influence,” says digital forensic expert Kilibarda.
The school was attended twice by Vladimir Prebiracevic, the director of the Serbo-Russian center Majak, who himself runs a Telegram channel followed by 15,000 people, where news from Russia and the Ukrainian battlefield dominate.
Churanova believes that new personnel in the Balkans could help spread what she considers Russian propaganda.
“He [Zvinchuk] constantly repeated, when the invasion began, that they hired many people from Ukraine, who provided various information on where the Ukrainian army was or where the weapons were located. So, maybe he didn’t have a base working for Ribar, but he certainly had a network of people who just gave information,” Churanova believes.
At the end of September 2024, Ribar published photos and text showing how the school was held in Kyrgyzstan, in cooperation with Bishkek University. In addition to Kyrgyzstan, Ribar holds courses in several countries in the Russian Federation.
At the end of October, Ribar announced that Zvinchuk was giving lectures during the “Ministry of Defense Day” at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, which is linked to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
