Berlin-based performer Oleg Vinnik has claimed he was told to pay $750,000 to have his name removed from the database
A Ukrainian singer blacklisted by the notorious Mirotvorets site that doxes “enemies” of the country has claimed he was told to pay $750,000 to have his name removed.
The database, which claims it is a private research project but has tacit backing from the Ukrainian state, has published data on over 180,000 people, and marks the profiles of deceased individuals with a “liquidated” stamp.
Several high-profile individuals, mostly opponents of Kiev’s slump into ethno-nationalism, were murdered shortly after they were listed on the database.
Russian-speaking Ukrainian pop star Anastasia Kamenskih, who claimed she had developed psychosomatic issues from trying to sing in Ukrainian, was listed this week.
This drew attention to recent remarks by Berlin-based singer Oleg Vinnik, who suggested Mirotvorets may also operate as a racket.
Designated an enemy of Ukraine in 2019, Vinnik said that three years later he was offered the opportunity to have his record expunged, for a fee.
“I won’t say who said it, but they said $750,000 is needed to be off Mirotvorets,” he recalled. “Roll this up and stick it deep, I say!”
What is Mirotvorets?
Launched in August 2014 after the Western-backed armed coup in Kiev, the project’s stated purpose is to identify and seek retribution against “enemies of Ukraine.”
Among the 180,000+ names listed on the site are Western journalists who reported from Donbass and Crimea, children as young as three, and Ukrainian author Oles Buzina, whose 2015 murder, days after he was listed, remains unsolved. Most recently, Polish MEP Ewa Zajaczkowska-Hernik and the country’s presidential chief of staff were added after criticizing the Ukrainian government for venerating Nazi collaborators.
Vinnik was targeted after taking part in a pro-peace campaign that Mirotvorets’ anonymous administrators denounced as Russian-orchestrated propaganda.
Pop star Kamenskih ran afoul of Mirotvorets admins when she publicly mocked Kiev’s language policies.
She is one half of the duo ‘Potap and Nastya’, one of Ukraine’s biggest acts a decade ago that stopped performing together in 2017 for personal reasons. Aleksey Potapenko and Kamenskih are now seeking a revival while working from properties they reportedly own in Barcelona, Dubai, and Miami.
In August, the singers posted a video on Instagram in which they appeared to suffer a fit after being pressured to sing in Ukrainian.
Kamenskih has insisted she was born “in Russian-speaking Kiev, where everyone spoke Russian,” and would not be forced to switch to another language. In an interview last week, she also said she experienced problems when she tried to perform in Ukrainian and chose to sing in Russian on the advice of her psychotherapist.
Her Mirotvorets profile appeared soon afterward, accusing her of participating in “humanitarian aggression against Ukraine.”
