Exclusive: Sources Say Oligarch Funded Scheme to Paint Swastikas in Ukraine

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Exclusive Sources Say Oligarch Funded Scheme to
Paint Swastikas in Ukraine
Multiple sources tell Rolling Stone that a
Ukrainian businessman offered payouts for a false
flag operation aimed at bolstering Putin's claim
that Ukraine was a Nazi hotbed
Civilians walk by Specialized School 134 in
Kharkiv, Ukraine on Mar. 17, 2022. The school
caught fire after being shelled by Russian
forces. In the months before Vladimir Putins
invasion of Ukraine, an oligarch with Russian
ties allegedly paid for locals to paint swastikas
around Kharkiv, sources say. The effort,
according to the sources, was part of a false
flag operation to exaggerate Ukraines Nazi
presence at a time when Putin was using it as a
pretext for war. The alleged plot, according to
multiple sources, involved Pavel Fuks, a real
estate, banking, and oil magnate who, the sources
claim, was co-opted by Russian security forces to
participate. Through intermediaries, Fuks
allegedly offered between 500 and 1,500 for
street level criminals to vandalize city streets
with pro-Nazi graffiti in December, January, and
February.
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The accounts of Fuks alleged efforts to stir up
animosity in Ukraine is derived from multiple
sources, including U.S. intelligence reporting.
Rolling Stone spoke to an Ukrainian who says he
confronted Fuks twice about the alleged swastika
plot. Another account of the plot was relayed to
the U.S. government in recent weeks by a U.S.
informant with high-level business and government
contacts in Ukraine. A U.S. official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to discuss the matter, confirmed that
the allegations about Fuks activities had been
received and distributed for analysis throughout
the U.S. intelligence community. Finally, Rolling
Stone spoke to four other sources who spoke on
condition of anonymity and confirmed they heard
about Fuks alleged role in a plot to paint
swastikas independently of one another. Oleg
Plyush, a former top Ukrainian kickboxer who says
hes a friend of Fuks and spoke to him about the
swastika plot, tells Rolling Stone he learned
about the scheme from an intermediary involved
with finding people to carry out the vandalism.
According to Plyushs account, when confronted
about the scheme, Fuks claimed that he had no
choice and that it was his assignment
mandatory if he wanted to stay in business in the
region. Fuks did not return emails sent to his
business and personal accounts. His US lawyer,
John Lomas, did not return emails and a phone
call seeking comment. Fuks is Jewish and a
major contributor to a holocaust memorial in
Kyiv, and theres no reason to believe he would
pay for swastikas out of antisemitism. Instead,
if confirmed, the plot suggests there was at
least one deliberate attempt by the Russian
security state to manufacture evidence to
exaggerate the sway of Nazism in Ukraine. In the
run-up to the invasion and after, Putin claimed
Ukraine had fallen under Nazi control and that
the invasion was necessary to liberate the
country a claim broadly dismissed
internationally but that, with the help of
state-run media, seems to have taken hold among
many Russians. Plyush tells Rolling Stone he is
aware of three instances of anti-Semitic graffiti
that Fuks allegedly paid for. He claims the
alleged campaign extended to Kyiv, where a local
Jewish publication found swastikas spray-painted
in November near the citys main synagogue.
Plyush said that the low-level street thugs who
were hired to paint the symbols, two of whom he
says he personally knows, were offered around
1,000 or 1,500 each. Other sources put the
amount at around 500. Plyush provided a copy of
his passport and offered to testify under oath,
if needed, to his alleged encounter with Fuks. I
have no fear. Im not afraid of anyone, he tells
Rolling Stone, speaking through a translator in a
phone interview. Rolling Stone was unable to
independently verify any specific incidences of
vandalism connected to Fuks alleged scheme.
Anti-Semitic graffiti is not uncommon in Ukraine
and has
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been for many years before the current conflict.
Today it is difficult to surprise anyone with
extremist graffiti on the face of Kharkiv, a
local publication, Vgorode, wrote in 2011. A
swastika here, a swastika there, here calls to
kill some foreigner. Indeed, neo-Nazis and
other far-right extremists have a long-standing
presence in Ukraine. A party of Ukrainian
nationalists sided at one time with Nazis in
WWII the leader of that movement has been
lionized throughout Ukraine, including a birthday
celebration held by a paramilitary group in
Kharkiv in the weeks before the invasion. Nazi
ideology permeates the notorious Azov battalion,
which was founded by a far-right
nationalists. None of that, however, lends
credence to Putins claim that Ukraine was under
Nazi rule or that Putin, who presides over a
country with a sizable far-right problem of its
own, was sincerely motivated by anti-Nazi
sentiment when he launched his invasion on Feb.
24. Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine,
is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust,
and Ukraine criminalized anti-Semitism last year.
Instead, Putins invasion is widely understood as
an effort to exert Russias regional hegemony, a
pre-emptive strike on a neighboring state that
had reoriented to build closer ties with the
West. Desecrating Jewish sites and using Nazi
symbols to foment unrest is a known subversive
tactic employed by Russian intelligence, often
referred to as active measures. Oleg Kalugin, a
former KGB general, revealed in his memoir,
Spymaster, that Soviet spies had synagogues in
New York and Washington vandalized during the
Cold War. KGB officers paid American agents to
paint swastikas on synagogues to show that the
United States was inhospitable to Jews. The KGBs
New York station even hired people to desecrate
Jewish cemeteries, Kalugin wrote. We did it
everywhere, wherever we could in the old days,
Kalugin tells Rolling Stone. Putins call to
denazify Ukraine is a modern-day example of
Russias active measures used to show the other
side as much worse than it really is, Kalugin
says.
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Fuks alleged involvement in the Kharkiv
operation adds another chapter to a controversial
business tycoon with powerful friends, powerful
enemies, and a long list of ugly legal battles.
Fuks says he was denied entry in 2017 into the
United States and also testified that he was hit
with a five-year travel ban. US authorities have
not explained why he was denied entry, and Fuks
believes its the work of his enemies. In a
previously unreported development, a U.S.
official tells Rolling Stone that Fuks was denied
entry to the United States because of ties to
Russian organized criminal groups. (A
representative of U.S. Customs and Border
Protection did not return a message left seeking
comment.) Honestly, hes mafia, its the most
simple way to say it, Olga Lautman, senior
fellow at the nonprofit Center for European
Policy Analysis, told The Daily
Beast. Allegations about Fuks having ties to
Russian organized crime also surfaced in a
lawsuit filed in California state court in Orange
County by a former business associate who alleged
Fuks is an affiliate of East European criminal
organizations, an agent of Russian intelligence
services, and a money launderer. (The judge
hearing the evidence has not yet ruled in the
case.) Fuks posted on his Telegram channel that
the former business associate is a fraudster.
Fuks suggested that the allegations against him
were made in response to a separate lawsuit Fuks
had filed against the former associate, Yuri
Vanetik.
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Russian intelligence services have a long history
of co-opting those connected with organized
crime. Kalugin, the former KGB general, says he
wouldnt be surprised if they were using the same
playbook today. As you know, President Putin is
part of the Russian so-called culture of
conducting wars, real ones and propaganda, just
like in the USSR, Kalugin says. He is part of
this old Russian generation that is trying to
restore as much as he can of this Soviet
life. Fuks has a fearsome reputation in
Ukraine, where he is reportedly known in some
circles by his alias Mercenary. Several sources
in Ukraine spoke to Rolling Stone about Fuks on
condition of anonymity because they say Fuks is
known in the country for seeking vengeance
against people who crossed him. He once told a TV
interviewer that he punished some of his workers
who refused to stop smoking by having them eat
their cigarette butts. A defense witness in Fuks
lawsuit against Vanetik testified in September
that he heard Fuks threaten Vanetik, saying he
was going to do him in. (During the trial, Fuks
denied making the threats.) When I was young, I
beat people up, Fuks once said on Russian
television, according to an investigative profile
by Al Jazeera. I dont like it when someone lies
to me. Fuks is widely viewed by many in Kyiv
to be basically a gangster and, despite his
denials over the last three years, his money is
basically tied up in Russia, said Vladislav
Davidzon, author of a book on Ukraine and a
non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Center. His
reputation in Ukraine is currently
terrible. Russia had been a second home for
Fuks. He made his fortune there in real estate
and banking and held Russian citizenship. Fuks
has said that he sold his businesses in Russia
and returned to Ukraine in 2014 to pursue new
opportunities. Another version of events is that
Fuks left Russia trailed by huge debts and
allegations of fraud. A warrant was issued for
his arrest in Russia for allegedly embezzling
220 million, but Fuks testified that it had been
rescinded. At one point, Russia also imposed
sanctions on Fuks. Last year, he said he had
renounced his Russian citizenship. His current
whereabouts are unclear. Its widely believed
that hes a Russian-backed guy and that hes
involved in some murky and not transparent
businesses somehow related to Russian interests,
says a former senior executive at the Ukrainian
state-owned energy giant, Neftogaz, who spoke on
the condition of anonymity. Fuks role as the
general director of a large Moscow development
company in the 2000s led to meetings with Donald
Trump to negotiate a Trump tower in the Russian
capital. The deal fell apart after Trump demanded
20 million up front in 2006 for the right to use
his name, according to an account Fuks provided
to Bloomberg. A former Trump executive told
Newsweek in 2016 that the Trump Organization
maintained links with Fuks over the years.
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In 2016, Fuks was in Washington for Trumps
inauguration, which reportedly attracted
attention from Special Counsel Robert Muellers
investigation. He claims he paid 200,000 for a
VIP package he thought included tickets to the
swearing-in ceremony, but ended up watching the
event from a hotel bar. A spokesman for the
former president did not respond to a request for
comment. Fuks introduction to Rudy Giuilani
came when he hired the former New Yorks mayor
security firm. Fuks described Giuliani to The New
York Times as the lobbyist for Kharkiv
and Ukraine. That description has caused some
grief for Giuliani, who is the subject of a
federal investigation examining, among other
things, whether he served as an unregistered
foreign lobbyist. Giuliani has said Fuks
mischaracterized his firms work Giuliani
Security Safety provided security consulting
services on Kharkivs emergency response
system. Giuliani did not respond to text
messages seeking comment. In another previously
unreported development, a source with knowledge
of the arrangements tells Rolling Stone that
Giuliani told an associate he was paid 300,000
for his work for Fuks. Over glasses of expensive
Scotch whiskey one day in 2020, Giuliani
allegedly related that he had grown somewhat
frustrated with Fuks because it took some work to
get him to pay his bill. We had to apply
pressure, Giuliani said, according to a source
with knowledge of the events. The source says
Giuliani didnt seem too bothered when he was
told that Fuks, like many of Ukraines elites,
associated with criminals. The source says that
Giuliani replied Theyre all criminals. Source
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