ANNA News
Russian pro-government news agency From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ANNA News (Analytical Network News Agency) is a Russian pro-Kremlin[14] news agency.[15] The agency's name ANNA used to stand for "Abkhazian Network News Agency"; after the head office moved to Moscow, when registering in Roskomnadzor on 22 September 2017,[16] "Abkhazian" was changed to "Analytical".
| |
| Industry | News media |
|---|---|
| Founded | 18 July 2011 |
| Founder | Marat Musin |
| Headquarters | Moscow, Russia (Abkhazia until 2017) |
Number of employees | 50 (as of 2013[update])[1] |
| Website | www |
History
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ANNA News was officially registered as mass media in Abkhazia on 18 July 2011 after the events of the Abkhaz–Georgian conflict.[17][18] It was founded and managed by Marat Musin until his death in May 2018.[19] Musin was a specialist in financial intelligence who worked at Moscow State University and at the Russian State University of Trade and Economics.[1]
The agency takes a pro-Kremlin position,[20][21] and is part of a wider network of outlets that amplifies Russian propaganda.[21] ANNA publishes in the Russian language and is known for being "a voracious purveyor of insider YouTube footage of the Syrian civil war since 2012"; ANNA embedded with the Syrian Arab Army in their operations against rebels.[22][23] It has been known for publishing footage recorded directly from Syrian Army tanks.[24] In January 2013, a Russian judge and a former military intelligence officer Sergey Berezhnoy survived being shot while accompanying ANNA crew in the Damascus suburb of Darayya, Syria.[25][26] Berezhnoy said that he participated in the coverage of the military operation in Syria as a writer.[27] According to a 2018 publication from the Moscow Psychological and Social University, ANNA News works with officers of the information confrontation group of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria.[28]
ANNA journalists were also embedded with Russian-backed separatists fighting the Government of Ukraine since 2014.[29][30]
In May 2020, ANNA News was banned from YouTube for violating its terms of service.[31][13][32][33][34] It was revealed that employees of ANNA also worked for Russian propaganda websites NewsFront and SouthFront,[35][32] and that NewsFront had raised money for ANNA in 2014.[32] Both ANNA News and SouthFront support separatist forces in Ukraine.[36][37][38] In August 2021, president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, based on the decision of the National Security and Defence Council, signed a decree "on the application of personal special economic and other restrictive measures" against ANNA News. The decision ordered the web resources of the news agency to be blocked.[39][40]
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According to U.S. intelligence officer T. S. Allen, Pascal Andresen and the Ukrainian magazine Political Life, it is engaged in influence operations and is a propaganda tool.[41][42][43] According to The Moscow Times newspaper, it has a 'forceful pro-Assad slant.'[1] Professor of Arabic language and civilisation Stéphane Valter writes that the way the news agency diffuse their images "clearly indicates a bias in favour of the Syrian regime."[44]
In June 2014, ANNA News falsely claimed that political advisor Jen Psaki had been fired from the US State Department.[45] In the fall of 2014, the agency published a fake photo of several dead people who were allegedly killed by the Ukrainian authorities.[46]
On 5 January 2017, ANNA News falsely claimed that the jihadist organisation Al-Nusra Front, which fought against the Syrian authorities, calls the White Helmets volunteer organisation "soldiers of the revolution".[47]
In February 2017, ANNA News claimed that Ukraine was the source of a leak of radioactive iodine-131. The news agency did not provide any evidence.[48][49][50]
In late 2017, ANNA News journalist Oleg Blokhin based in Syria created staged photos to substantiate the existence of a fake private military company Turan.[2][51][52] After it was discovered that the photos were fake, ANNA removed all of Blokhin materials from its website.[53] Oleg Blokhin categorically rejected the claims of Russian research group Conflict Intelligence Team that the PMC Turan, fighting in Syria, is a fiction created by him.[54] He also mentioned that neither he nor ANNA News have ever released information about "Turan", since he doesn't comment on information of any Russian units in Syria at all.[55]
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