A Polish suspect in the February 2018 firebombing of a Hungarian cultural center in Ukraine’s Zakarpattya Oblast has implicated a German far-right journalist with deep ties to Russia in organizing the attack.
On Jan. 14, Michal Prokopowicz — one of three suspects in the firebombing — told a Krakow court that journalist Manuel Ochsenreiter provided instructions for carrying out the attack, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported from the courtroom.
Ochsenreiter and his lawyer have both denied his involvement to RFE/RL.
Still, the accusation against Ochsenreiter did not come as a surprise.
On Jan. 6, the Polish news agency TVP.info reported that three Polish citizens were facing terrorism charges for firebombing a Hungarian cultural center in the Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod. Polish investigators had concluded that the three men received 1,000 zlotys ($267) from a German journalist who most likely acted on instructions from Russia’s intelligence services.
The bombing came at a time of tense relations between Kyiv and Budapest: Ukraine had just passed an education law that the Hungarian government alleged would infringe upon the rights of Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian minority.
It quickly became clear that the firebombing was a false flag operation.
The same day as the TVP.info report, Anton Shekhovtsov, an Austria-based researcher and expert on the far-right, made what he termed an “informed guess” that the journalist was Ochsenreiter.
Ochsenreiter was the only German journalist “who had very close links to the Polish far-right,” Shekhovtsov told the Kyiv Post. Additionally, Shekhovtsov shared a picture on Twitter of Ochsenreiter taking part in a panel discussion with Michal Prokopowycz and two other Polish far-right figures.
Here he is, in a revealing company: (left to right) Bartosz Bekier, Mateusz Piskorski, Manuel Ochsenreiter and Michał Prokopowicz. /9 End of thread pic.twitter.com/SWNXQbxVS0
— Anton Shekhovtsov (@A_SHEKH0VTS0V) January 6, 2019
Who is Ochsenreiter?
Ochsenreiter is the editor of Zuerst!, a German far-right magazine, and an consultant to Markus Frohnmaier, a parliamentarian from the right-wing Alternative for Germany party. Frohnmaier has advocated lifting EU sanctions on Russia, RFE/RL reported.
Oshsenreiter also has long taken a friendly stance toward Moscow. Alexey Kovalev, a Russian journalist and blogger who writes about disinformation, identified the German as a regular guest on Russian state television and RT, the Russian international broadcaster known for its anti-Western bias.
Ochsenreiter was present in Crimea in March 2014 during the unrecognized referendum on joining the Russian Federation and he also served as an observer during unrecognized elections in Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast in November 2014, months after Russia occupied parts of eastern Ukraine. Four years later, Ochsenreiter again served as an election observer, this time during the unrecognized elections in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk Oblast.
Additionally, researchers of the far-right connect Ochsenreiter to Alexander Dugin, a Russian “neo-Eurasianist” philosopher. The journalist even appears in a video interview with Katehon, a think tank associated with Dugin and other arch-conservative figures in Russia.
Despite his strong support of Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine, Dugin has increasingly become a toxic figure in Russia, according to independent journalists and analysts. In 2014, the philosopher was fired from his job as a professor at Moscow State University for statements calling for violence against Ukrainians. In 2017, he was reportedly asked to leave Katehon and Tsargrad, a Russian nationalist television channel. Still, he maintains significant standing among some individuals on the political fringes.
Fringe ties
The three suspects in the firebombing of the Hungarian cultural center also appear to have connections to “Duginism.”
In the weeks after the attack, Zakarpattya Oblast Governor Hennady Moskal identified two of the suspects as Adrian Marglewski and Tomasz Rafal Szymkowiak, members of the Polish far-right organization Falanga.
Bartosz Bekier, the leader of Falanga, then confirmed to the Kyiv Post that both Marglewski and Szymkowiak worked on XPortal.pl, the organization’s website. However, he said they would be expelled from the movement if their involvement in the firebombing were proven.
Falanga, in turn, is connected to another Polish far-right party, Zmiana, founded by Polish politician and neo-Eurasianist activist Mateusz Piskorski, who advocates for Europe’s realignment with Russia. Like Ochsenreiter, Pikorski has served as an election observer in Russian-occupied territories. In March 2014, as Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula, Piskorski travelled there to monitor the unrecognized referendum.
According to Shekhovtsov, Dugin was an “inspiration” for Piskorski.
Falanga and Zmiana “are all one company. It’s one group of people essentially,” Shekhovtsov told the Kyiv Post. “It’s very difficult to distinguish between them.”
In May 2016, the Polish security service detained Piskorski, reportedly on charges of espionage for Russia and China. Since then, he has remained behind bars.
Despite these connections, Shekhovtsov says it’s unclear whether one of the claims of Polish investigators is correct: that Ochsenreiter was working at the behest of the Russian security agencies.
“This is a guy who knows how to do pro-Kremlin stuff without being ordered by the Kremlin to do something,” he said.
