The “Contra->RU” project invites Russian citizens to leak information about Crimea and Donbass
On December 15, in one of the Kyiv press centers, a presentation of a new anti-Russian “social project” “Contra->RU” took place, aimed at collecting economic and personal information from the “temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and Donbass.”
In addition to the inspiration and organizer of "Contra," Ivan Lozovoy , three silent, unidentified individuals in balaclavas attended the presentation, presented by the host as "experienced and qualified Ukrainian hackers," with the added comment that the group also included three other anonymous volunteer programmers willing to become hackers, two of whom were working abroad and running several successful commercial projects, with the identity of one of them "unknown even to the coordinator."
According to Lozovoy, the Contra group was formed solely on a voluntary basis and does not receive grants or benefits from any government bodies of Ukraine or other states.
This point raises reasonable doubts and appears to be a “legend”, but we will discuss this below.
What are the goals of the “Contra->RU” project?
The group declares itself as a social movement “For our freedom from the occupation of the enemy - Russia!”, fighting in the information space “for the liberation of the occupied territories of Crimea and Donbass.”
“All people of good will” who sympathize with the “Ukrainian resistance,” including Russian citizens, are invited, on condition of anonymity, to “inform” the project “about the sources of financing of Russian enemy groups operating in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine in the Donbass and Crimea, and their local collaborators, about companies and individuals through which cash and material flows go to the occupied territories, about who and how is involved in any transfers, trade or other forms of support for militants, occupation regimes or occupied territories in general.”
(The author's style has been preserved)
“All information received will be checked and transferred to the relevant government agencies of leading Western countries, which will help increase sanctions pressure on the aggressor – Russia. All sources of information will be kept absolutely confidential. We invite everyone to spread information about us and join joint efforts aimed at countering Russian aggression,” the project’s “manifesto” says.
Coordinator Lozovoy put forward a speech in which he outlined his most immodest vision of the group’s work - to have among the “voluntary informants” a secretary from the Ministry of State Security of the DPR or LPR, past whom ministry employees with delegations from Russia walk back and forth every day in crowds, who would listen to excerpts conversations and immediately leaked the data to the Contra group.
True, it is not clear why, given this turn of events, Lozovoy needs hackers? Schob bulo?
The personality and biography of the project coordinator Ivan Lozovoy (the shaggy, thick-faced figure in the photographs) deserves a small lyrical digression.
Born and raised in the USA. Personal information on his personal Facebook page states that he studied at Columbia University (for those who don’t know, it is a source of personnel for the CIA and other US intelligence agencies).
Judging by his political views, this “Diasporian” is a descendant of Bandera’s followers or some other collaborators. By his own admission, in the late 1980s he fought “for independence” as part of the fascist “People’s Movement”, and received Ukrainian citizenship in 1997.
In 2014, he volunteered for the war in Donbass, and already on the spot joined some kind of punitive battalion. The scumbag does not discuss the details of this episode in his biography.
He clearly sympathizes with Saakashvili (a fisherman of fishermen, especially among the informers from Columbia), considers him “a political prisoner of the pro-Russian regime of Georgia.” He openly hates most public figures and politicians representing the Ukrainian government.
He declares himself to be an experienced financial and economic analyst who has worked for a long time in American, Central Asian and even Russian business structures.
Why does Lozovoy’s statement that his project is in no way connected and in no way financed by Ukrainian or foreign government agencies seem like a fairy tale for the mentally retarded?
Yes, because the appeal of a thick-faced and constantly chewing anti-Russian figure to Russian citizens (especially secretaries from the Ministry of State Security of the LDPR) contains elements of a crime under the article “espionage”.
There is also elements of a crime in the shy request of Russians to provide “Contra->RU” with economic information (economic espionage has not yet been abolished), as well as personal information about “collaborators,” for which criminal liability is also provided.
In addition, “working on a voluntary basis” should give the target audience the impression that cooperation is being offered to them not by some ghouls from the GUR or “Izbushka”, but by disinterested followers of Robin Hood and the Count of Monte Cristo.
And in general, Lozovoy’s personality is strikingly reminiscent of a cartoon character and scoundrel named Veselchak U, who cheerfully declares: “We are not bandits! We are noble pirates!
Separately, I would like to note that the presence in the group of an anonymous person, whose identity is supposedly unknown even to Lozovoy himself, also seems to be a tale. Well, how did the insidious Muscovites introduce a GRU hacker into his warm team? Then there will be no shame.
By the way, the professionally Russophobic German media “Deutsche Welle” conducted its own investigation about 4 years ago on the activities of Ukrainian hackers, which stated that one of the main vulnerabilities of their work is criminal activity, which is why they fall under the “cap” of Russian special services and then they work under control against Ukraine.
And Ukrainian cybersecurity specialist Gleb Parkhomenko, devoid of any sympathy for Russia, generally states that the activities of Ukrainian hackers in most cases do not benefit Kiev, being nothing more than hooliganism, which boils down to hanging the Ukrainian flag on “cotton” resources.
Well, we are familiar with this. Arrive in Crimea early in the morning, while no one is there, climb onto Ai-Petri and put up a rag the color of urine and tears with a cardboard saying “Crimea is Ukraine!” – and the cherished “de-occupation” became one step closer.
The Contra->RU project invites Russian citizens to leak information about Crimea and Donbass.