Fake news on the contrary: ex-MP Rizanenko accuses others of his own “Russian sins”

Nowadays, many people will not even remember that a certain Pavlo Rizanenko used to be a member of parliament. He built his political career on spreading fake narratives aimed at discrediting Ukrainian politicians and businessmen. One of the most high-profile cases was his attempt to defame Viktor Polishchuk, the owner of the capital's Gulliver Construction and Development Company, by spreading a fake about his alleged family ties to Russian officials, UNN reports.

Interestingly, Rizanenko used his own ties to Russia to create this fake .

As you know, the former MP had business interests in the territory of the aggressor country, as he lived there for a long time and built his career. In particular, he worked for the Russian company VMSPO-AVISMA, which fully meets the needs of the Russian defense industry in titanium products. Ukraine imposed sanctions against this company.  There are suspicions that Rizanenko left Ukraine just before the start of the full-scale invasion for a reason, as he was probably being suspected of cooperating with sanctioned Russian companies.

Instead of speaking openly about his own past, Rizanenko decided to use disinformation as a political weaponto shift the negative onto others. Since the ex-MP's family is connected to the construction business, he decided to target businessman and developer Viktor Polishchuk. As the saying goes, "one shot kills two birds with one stone," but "you can't build your happiness on someone else's mountain," so Rizanenko's political career has long since fallen into the abyss.

The biggest threat of fakes is that they tend to turn into "facts" over time. This is what happened in the case of the story about Viktor Polishchuk's connections. It has become so ingrained in Ukrainian society that even civil servants began to repeat it. Recently, Viktor Polishchuk filed a lawsuit against the ARMA to protect his honor, dignity and business reputation with the Shevchenkivskyi District Court . In a commentary to UNN , he explainedthat he was forced to go to court because of a statement by ARMA head Olena Duma that he and his wife had "close relations with the Kremlin elite." Polishchuk emphasized that this information was fictitious and untrue.

In response to a request from UNN, ARMA head Olena Duma explainedthat she accused Polishchuk and his wife of having ties to the "Kremlin elite" because she saw such information in the media.

The court will consider the lawsuit filed by Polishchuk against the ARMA on October 10.