Ukrainian musician Freel (Freel, Andriy Shalimov) on Twitter drew attention to the activities of the European correspondent and former head of the Moscow office of the Financial Times Henry Foy (Henry Foy), who for many months has been systematically spreading Russian fakes and propagandistic nonsense in the respected publication. One of his latest publications distorted the words of the current Prime Minister of Moldova about the war in Ukraine.

In the original Freel thread, the opening tweet of which cannot be quoted in the printed edition due to the emotional language of the author, Oleksandr Ivanov (a Ukrainian IT expert, scientist and activist, founder of the Surrender Resistance Movement and other organizations) replied that he was adding Henry Foy to the site’s database Useful Idiot (to which it is obviously related).

Useful Idiot is an English-language database dedicated to participants in the spread of Russian propaganda in countries. Its pages contain photos, short annotations, direct quotes from social networks and the press, videos and other materials exposing the activities of individuals and organizations. The profiles of the participants have tags that reveal various aspects of their propaganda activities.

The first entry in the usefulidiot.info database is dated December 24, 2022. So far, only 40 profiles have been published on the site, but it is obviously being actively updated. The About section says:

“This site is about useful idiots who openly or secretly support Russian imperialism, Russian Nazism, Russian aggression against Ukraine and other countries, Russian energy wars and Russian apologists.

Useful idiots often disguise their support for Russia as an independent opinion. We understand that people can have different opinions about politics and war. It’s okay to have your own opinion. Our goal is to expose politicians, journalists, TV presenters and public figures who systematically directly or indirectly serve Russian imperialist interests.

Being useful idiots and serving the interests of Russia, people often undermine the freedom, security, stability and prosperity of their countries. Modern Russia is a fascist state and a threat to global peace, democracy and stability. Useful idiots are helping Russia to undermine these basic human values, their actions must be exposed.”

You can contact the authors and help supplement the database of Russian information collaborators using the email address contactusefulidinfo at gmail.com. It is quite obvious that there are many “useful idiots” missing.

The author of this publication found the Soviet Union and remembers the reverential attitude of people towards Western radio stations and other mass media: only they gave real information. It is obvious that now it is necessary to take a much more critical attitude to the publications of not only the Financial Times, but also other sources – Russia is actively conducting an information and corruption campaign in the West, and has managed to involve many in one way or another.

Elon Musk organized a poll on Twitter about “peace between Ukraine and Russia” – he, among other things, offered to give Crimea to the occupiers