Czech Republic expels Russian propagandists who came to film ‘documentary series’ on Europe

Czech police detained and questioned two Russian nationals, Vitaly Chashchukhin and Igor Dolmatov, who had traveled from Germany to film a “documentary series” for the pro-Kremlin propaganda outlet Rybar, the Czech outlet Seznam Zprávy reported. The detentions occurred on Monday, and both men were ordered to leave the country within three days.

During questioning, the pair identified themselves as employees of the Russian state media outlet Izvestia, which is currently sanctioned by the EU. Boris Dvorkin, a Moscow-based documentary filmmaker who organised the shoot, said Chashchukhin was interrogated for roughly nine hours before returning to Germany, where he holds a residence permit. Sources told Seznam Zprávy that Czech security services are continuing to investigate Chashchukhin’s activities and have informed their German counterparts.

Seznam Zprávy had previously reported that Rybar, which is headed by a former press officer for the Russian Defence Ministry, was filming a “documentary series” across the Schengen area on the sociopolitical and economic situation in Europe. The shoot was organised by Dvorkin, whose other projects have received backing from Russia’s History of the Fatherland Foundation, chaired by Sergey Naryshkin, head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). Czech journalists arranged a meeting between the film crew and a disinformation expert, secretly recording Chashchukhin as he admitted, on hidden camera, to working for Rybar.