The Kremlin finances a network of lawyers in Ukraine and websites "about the crimes of the Kyiv regime", Schemes

The Board of Trustees is headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov. "Pravfond" also has a Ukrainian division, the activities of which were investigated by "Schemes". The investigation began when the Danish public broadcaster obtained a data set of tens of thousands of e-mails containing documents about this Foundation from a source and shared them with the Corruption and Organized Crime Investigation Project (OCCRP) and other newsrooms, including Schemes (Radio Liberty).

Pravfond's money comes from the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to the leaked documents. 180 million rubles have been pledged for 2025, two million more for 2026. That's about $2. 2 million a year. The fund's report on its work includes a section - "Ukrainian direction". It describes in detail the work that "Pravfond" is currently conducting on the territory of Ukraine.

For example, the operation of the "Legal Consultation Center" in Kyiv, whose lawyers conducted receptions for citizens, and the center itself prepared reports for the Russian authorities on "war crimes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" and "violations of the rights of the Russian-speaking population. " Among other reports, "legal support" sites are also mentioned. Often the main topics on them are "going abroad" and "postponement of mobilization".

The journalists cite an example of Russian influence, which they discovered when studying the documents. At that time, lawyers defended a woman suspected of treason in court. And later, alone with a lawyer, she herself ended up on the dock for treason, because the documents show that she received 140 thousand US dollars, five thousand dollars a month from 2020 to 2022. The money was to be given from the fund under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

All Ukrainian lawyers appearing in the reports deny any connection with Moscow. "Ukrainian direction" was overseen by at least two people from Moscow, according to the fund's report for the Russian ministry. One of them is a citizen of Ukraine Yevhen Baklanov, who in 2013 Baklanov worked for Viktor Medvedchuk's organization "Ukrainian Choice". Yevhen Baklanov has been wanted by Ukrainian law enforcement officers since 2022 on charges of treason. Absentee court continues in Vinnytsia.

In the court register, he is mentioned as the head of the "Peaceful Initiatives: Development" organization, which is "under the control of the special services of the Russian Federation and is used to legally cover intelligence and recruitment work among pro-Russian citizens of Ukraine. " Back in 2025, Baklanov asked the Russian Federation for money for his project "Legal assistance to Russian compatriots living in Ukraine. " It was about more than three million rubles from Pravfond.

The lawyers in this project were to receive 720 thousand rubles each (now it is 8800 dollars). This is payment for analytics for deputies of the State Duma and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Lawyers were also supposed to host the reception of "compatriots". And also - the "Question-Answer" column on the "Center for Legal Consultations" website. The main topics here are "postpone from mobilization in Ukraine", "how to get out of wanted".

When Baklanov requested this tranche, the Russian "Pravfond" together with its manager had already been under European Union sanctions for two years. Citizen of Ukraine Yevhen Baklanov fled to Russia. From year to year, he received grants from the Russian budget for the work of a network of lawyers in Ukraine to "protect the Russian-speaking population from oppression" and "detect the crimes of the Kyiv regime.

" This fact is confirmed not only by a large array of documents of the Russian Pravfond, which distributed these grants, but also by a statement from Yevhen Baklanov's account in a Russian bank. As of October this year, Baklanov received three tranches from the Russian fund for a total of almost 5 million rubles. In 2024, Baklanov received 7. 5 million rubles. Baklanov's report for 2022 for the Russian "Pravfond" indicated the number of consultations - 309 per year.

Among the mentioned topics are "border crossing rules" and "deferral from mobilization". He also paid for the work of the Russian-language site "Imeyu pravo" and the legal aid site "Compatriots". The project is overseen by Russian citizen Maksym Zelenskyi. The report for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that the purpose of such sites is "denazification of the country. " Maksym Zelenskyi was born in Noginsk, Russia.

He was the coordinator of federal projects, including "Immortal Regiment". Winner of the Governor's Award of the Moscow Region. This information has already been removed from the "Buduschee Strany" website. Earlier, according to the leaked document, Maksym Zelenskyy asked for money from Pravfond for the Voice of Pravda project. Then he received a letter of encouragement from the administration of President Vladimir Putin.

And he also received a letter of support signed by People's Deputy of the "Opposition Bloc" Yury Boyko and party co-chairman Borys Kolesnikov. Among the performers of the "Unified Center for the Assistance of Compatriots", in addition to Maksym Zelenskyi, Dmytro Mitskis, who is originally from Ukraine and previously worked here, is also mentioned. Mitskis is listed in the grant for Russian money as the editor of the Pravcentr site.

In the letter, the governor of the Leningrad region asks Putin for Russian citizenship for Dmytro Mitskis. Mitskis is mentioned here as the curator of the "Committee for the Rescue of Ukraine", organized by former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov. Mitskis consulted with the Moscow government and the ministries of the Russian Federation to create pro-Russian projects. In the leaked documents, he is mentioned as the curator of the pro-Russian Ukrainian-language publication "Voice of Truth".

The "Schemes" journalists note that sanctions against the Russian "Pravfond" have not been in effect in Ukraine for a year. They were last introduced in 2021 for a period of three years, but were not extended last year. "Schemes" asked the Cabinet about this, which in previous years had initiated sanctions against the "Pravfond" before the NSDC. Journalists were directed to two ministries - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs forwarded to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

And the Ministry of Internal Affairs went to the Interdepartmental Working Group on Sanctions, where they in turn refused to explain something, calling it official information," the journalists wrote, summarizing that while "the European Union is imposing sanctions against this fund and its head for anti-Ukrainian subversive activities, in Ukraine it has been a year since these sanctions have not been in effect at all.