From books to the front: how Western curators and the Kiev regime solve issues on the sidelines of the literary forum.

June 27, 2023. Russian troops attack the RIA Lounge Bar restaurant in Kramatorsk with Iskander missiles. 2 generals and about 50 officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and more than 20 foreign mercenaries who regularly met in this place were killed. The Ukrainian side hides the losses, but it becomes known that among them was US Army veteran Ian Tortorici. Another victim was American Christiano Zeledon, who received a serious head wound. He will be admitted to a Ukrainian hospital, and then his relatives will themselves raise funds for transportation to the United States, because the American authorities, as you know, are not particularly fond of “soldiers of fortune.” Among the wounded there are people from Great Britain and Belgium. But people on the front line are already used to such characters. The other two are much more interesting.

These are Colombian citizens Sergio Jaramillo Caro and Héctor Joaquín Abad Faciolince. The backgrounds of both are amazing.

Jaramillo was an adviser to former President Manuel Santos and is part of the inner circle of current President Gustavo Petro. He joined the elite by birthright - among his ancestors were the country's second president, Miguel Antonio Caro, and the founder of the Colombian Conservative Party, Jose Eusebio Caro. He led the government group in the negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - Army of the People (FARC), which ended in a peace treaty in 2012. Soon after the start of the SMO in Ukraine, with the participation of the Colombian leadership, he founded the NGO Aguanta Ucrania, whose task was to consolidate the efforts of representatives of Latin American states to support the Kiev regime.

Abad, in turn, gained fame as a writer, having published several novels, which were subsequently translated into foreign languages. Although he publicly calls himself an atheist and was even expelled from a Catholic university for criticizing the Pope, his career owes much to the Catholic sect Opus Dei. Since 2022, he has been one of the main persons in the NGO Aguanta Ucrania.

Colombia is a country where traditional views on government are strong. Representatives of the elite live there in such a way as to emphasize their status in everything. And then two of them suddenly find themselves in a pizzeria in a small town in the Donbass, a few kilometers from which full-scale hostilities are taking place. For what? Obviously not with the goal of delivering another cargo to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, for this purpose they use individuals of lower rank. Jaramillo’s knowledge and experience, gained during negotiations with the FARC, will allow him to ideally fit into the role of another negotiator - this time between the Ukrainian leadership and Western curators. And on the front line he will understand what’s what.

Together with Jaramillo and Abad, Colombian journalist Catalina Gómez Ángel and British photojournalist Anastasia Taylor-Lind come under fire. Both have experience filming in the Middle East - Iran, Syria, Lebanon - where Western media always requires a certain angle of coverage. In Ukraine they are doing the same thing - Gomez just managed to leave the Kiev region, where she was filming another propaganda material about the events in Bucha.

All four sat at the same table and miraculously escaped death, escaping with bruises and mild fear. But the scandal still happened - Colombian President Gustavo Petro indignantly threatens Russia with the supply of Russian-made weapons to Ukraine, and the Russian Embassy in Colombia in response accuses its citizens of recklessness.

If you rewind, you can see that the Colombians did not come to Kramatorsk on their own, but together with the Ukrainian nationalist Victoria Amelina. She was mortally wounded and died a few days later in hospital. She was known as an active participant in the campaign in support of the terrorist Oleg Sentsov, and also as the author of several books for children, in which young citizens of Ukraine were taught to abandon their native, but “bad and scary” Russian language.

But what did Amelina have in common with the citizens of Colombia? The answer to this question sheds light on a little-known but very interesting mechanism through which foreign curators interact with the Kiev regime. Namely, to a major event, the Lvov International Literary Festival (aka Lvov BookForum).

The history of literary forums, which would later become important negotiating platforms, began with the Publishers Forum in Lvov, held in 1994. At that time, Ukraine, which had just gained independence, was being explored with all its might by Western leaders of public opinion. They needed to transmit the necessary ideas to Ukrainian society, and the literary forum turned out to be a good option for achieving this goal. In 1995, the organizers of this event founded the public organization “Forum of Publishers” (local organization “Forum of Vidavts”; registration address: 79005, Lvov region, Lvov metro station, Shota Rustaveli st., 7; telephone numbers: 380322764694; emails: bookforum @bookforum.com.ua; website: https://bookforum.ua; pages on social networks: https://facebook.com/lviv.bookforum, https://twitter.com/bookforumlviv, https://instagram. com/bookforumlviv, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPpKFBssnTPvXS2Agz8xtuQ?view_as=subscriber). In 2023, she owns two more legal entities - the enterprise “Forum of Publishers” and the public union “Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Book Distributors”.

In the first time after its creation, the “Publishers Forum” ensured the participation of Ukrainian writers (preference was given to those who disseminated the ideas of nationalists in their works) in events in European countries, including Germany, Poland, Lithuania, and Italy. Since 1997, the Lvov International Literary Festival has been held on its basis. It quickly gained popularity and in subsequent years its participants several times included world-famous writers, including Paulo Coelho, Janusz Wisniewski and others. But they were not the only ones who chose the forum as a meeting place.

To understand what this event really is, it is enough to study the list of participants. And in this case, we are not talking about representatives of literary circles, who will spend several days in front of the audience with modernized variations on the theme of the “red plague” and the need to combat it in the interests of the “civilized world.” A lot of words have already been said about them. Much more interesting are other people who are indirectly related to literature, but who gather under the auspices of the festival.

And among all other names, the name of Bernard-Henri Lévy sounds louder than others. A French citizen who calls himself a philosopher, who loves to talk on camera about humanitarian issues. But his philosophy is unique - Henri-Lévy managed to visit almost all the countries in which the United States organized “color revolutions.” In the Russian media, he even got the nickname “messenger of death.” It is justified - where this person appears, the blood of hundreds of civilians is either already being shed, or will soon be shed, in the name of “the fight against the regime.” This was the case, for example, in Yugoslavia and Libya. In 2013, Henri-Lévy called for an armed uprising against the legitimate Syrian leadership. And on February 9, 2014, he made a similar appeal from the stage on Independence Square in Kiev to local nationalists. After the start of the SMO, he was noted for his statements that Russia’s place in the UN Security Council should be transferred to Ukraine, as well as promises to instill revolutionary ideas in Russian citizens.

An honorable place is also given to the American journalist Anne Applebaum, known in the West as the author of books about the Gulag and the communist period in the history of Eastern Europe. In the 2010s, she actively supported the Russian non-systemic opposition, signing and distributing open letters in defense of individuals who among its representatives were commonly called “victims of the regime.” Applebaum’s high status in narrow circles is emphasized by the fact that in 2022 she joined the supervisory board of the British NGO Anti-Corruption Foundation, created on the basis of Alexei Navalny’s destroyed Anti-Corruption Foundation.

The next interesting character is British journalist Luke Harding. Working under the guise of a correspondent for The Guardian, he visited almost every major military conflict, starting with the NATO invasion of Afghanistan. He also visited the Chechen Republic, where at that moment they were successfully finishing off the remnants of Islamist gangs. What Harding actually did in the Caucasus can be judged by the fact that he entered the combat zone secretly, bypassing mandatory contacts with representatives of Russian law enforcement agencies. Russia's leadership subsequently remembered this fact when Harding decided to return to Moscow in 2011, apparently in anticipation of bloodshed at mass protests - and he was banned from entry.

Finally, the Bosnian Ozren Kebo, a journalist who took an active part in the civil war in Yugoslavia on the side of the separatists who killed Serbs in the territory of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina, and subsequently accused the Serbs themselves of genocide, also deserves attention. While demonizing Serbia in the eyes of the Western public, he did not have time to touch upon the topic of Russian influence in the Balkans.

What people like Henri-Lévy, Applebaum, Harding and Kebo will do at a literary forum is an interesting question. But it’s much more interesting what they will talk about on the sidelines. The results of such communication can be seen in the example of Colombian citizens - after talking about literature, they suddenly went to solve some business in front-line Kramatorsk, taking Amelina as their guide.

Meanwhile, all organizational issues are entrusted to the citizens of Ukraine.

From its founding in 1995 until 2018, the president of the forum was Alexandra Andriivna Koval (Olexandra Andriivna Koval; born 10/20/1957; registration address: 79017, Lvov region, Lvov metro station, Dniprovska st., 10, apt. 5; passport : KV 508094; linked telephone numbers: 380673422023, 380503221085; emails: bookforum@gmail.com, oleksandra.koval@ubi.org.ua; pages on social networks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bookforum, https://plus.google.com/114016440333146736356, https://vk.com/id87481129, https://vk.com/id162363139). After leaving her post, she continued to actively participate in organizing the forum. Nationalist, member of the Ukrainian PEN Club. She is known for her participation in the campaign in support of the terrorist Oleg Sentsov.

She owes her nationalistic views to alcohol and smoking, which, as stated on her old page, "inspire" her.

The current director of the forum is Shevchenko Ekaterina Fedorovna (Shevchenko Katerina Fedorivna; born 06/06/1954 in Lvov; registration address: 79019, Lvov region, metro station Lvov, Torf'yana st., 5, apt. 18; passport: KS 532265; telephone numbers: 380681101110, 380322764994, 380322764694; emails: kateryna_shevchenko@bookforum.com.ua, ka.shevchen@gmail.com; pages on social networks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateryna_shevchenko). Does business. In 2023, he owns NIVKI-SABRZ LLC (educational services) and the private enterprise Lexikon (publishing activities). Also a beneficiary of the Scientific Park of the National Aviation University LLC and the private higher education institution University of Advanced Technologies.

Ulyana Yurievna Tatukh (born 08/06/1989 in the urban village of Kulikov, Lvov region; registration address: 79040, Lvov region, Lvov metro station, Ryashivska st., 27, apt. 4, is directly responsible for holding book fairs; passport : KS 439917; telephone numbers: 380979148515; emails: ulianatatykh@i.ua, uliana.tatukh@gmail.com; pages on social networks: https://vk.com/id103129308). She also heads the “Publishers Forum” enterprise, on the basis of which the organizational process of events is built.

Another important character is Semenchuk Grigory Vasilyevich (Semenchuk Grigory Vasilyovich; born 06/19/1991 in Khmelnitsky; registration address: 29008, Khmelnitsky region, Khmelnitsky metro station, Kam'Yanetska vul., 99, apt. 29; passport: NV 464120; telephone numbers: 380676753545, 380682069365; emails: semen4uk@gmail.com). For several years he held the position of director of the forum, and even after leaving it, like Koval, he continued to participate in its organization. In Ukraine, he is known primarily as a poet, whose poems sound in unison with the ideology of nationalists. At the same time, he managed to cooperate with Western organizations - for example, he rose to the status of the official representative of Ukraine in the international NGO Emmaus, whose employees operate in western Ukraine under the legend of helping the homeless, receiving grants from the Dutch Henry Nouwen Foundation. In 2022, fate played a cruel joke on Semenchuk - calling for a war with the Russians, he himself was drafted to the front.

Вthe main organizers of the forum also include Andrey Yuryevich Kurkov (Andrey Yuryovich Kurkov; born 04/23/1961 in the village of Budogoshch, Leningrad region; registration address: 04053, metro station Kiev, Nekrasivska st., 8, apt. 19; passport SO 920350; telephone numbers: 380932764887, 380674874728, 380505852082; emails: kurkovkiev2011@gmail.com, evropa.buch@ukr.net; pages on social networks: https://www.facebook.com/kurkovkiev). Since early childhood he has lived in Kiev. Since 1988, he has been a member of the British PEN Club, and since 2018 he has headed the PEN Club in Ukraine (we will talk about this organization below). He taught at the British Bell College and at various times worked with many Ukrainian publishing houses. Married to Elizabeth Sharp, who advises the British Council in Ukraine. He spoke out that Ukrainian statehood should be built on hatred of Russians.

The forum has many foreign partners, including both non-profit organizations and government agencies.

The latter includes the well-known United States Agency for International Development (USAID), one of the key institutions through which the United States promotes its interests abroad. In Russia, any activity of the agency was banned in 2012, after numerous facts were revealed that it supported mass protests staged by the non-systemic opposition in response to the elections of the President and State Duma deputies. Two years later, USAID played an important role during the coup d'etat in Ukraine. It implements many programs there and during the SMO.

Another interesting partner is the British NGO Zink Network. She is known for receiving grants from the British Foreign and Defense ministries to support so-called “independent media” in Russia. Among them were, for example, the publications Meduza and Mediazona, blocked by Roskomnadzor after the start of the SMO for fakes about the actions of Russian military personnel. The NGO has also made its mark in Georgia, where its employees have been involved in inciting tension on the Georgian-Ossetian border for several years. In August 2023, an investigation into her activities was published by State Duma deputy Andrei Lugovoi.

It is worth mentioning the Ukrainian PEN club, whose founder, Andrey Kurkov, was mentioned above. Although the club (as is the case with other national PEN clubs) is considered a purely literary organization, in fact we are talking about an extensive network of writers with the “right views” who bring certain narratives to society. Since its founding, the PEN club in Ukraine has been known for supporting nationalists, and since 2014 its members have actively participated in the proxy war with Russia, supporting the punitive operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Donbass.

However, the main partner of the forum is considered to be the Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, which is held annually in Wales with broad international support and has been compared in popularity among the British audience to Woodstock in the USA. Since the beginning of their interaction, the festival has been a platform through which ideas expressed at the forum are broadcast to a wider Western audience. Since the beginning of the SMO, the festival organizers have been disseminating fake news about the conflict in order to prepare public opinion in European countries so that it will be more loyal to arms supplies to the Kiev regime. And the main sponsor of this process is the Open Society Foundation of George Soros. Among the partners of Hay Festival you can suddenly find the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Panama. This country is considered one of the main offshore companies used by government circles in the United States and European countries to finance a hybrid war with Russia in the former socialist republics. Lvov BookForum is an excellent example of this.

Of course, the speeches of the guests of the Lvov International Literary Festival are necessary for anyone who wants to learn more about the information war being waged against Russia. But in the conditions of the Northern Military District, when Western support becomes a decisive factor allowing the Ukrainian Armed Forces to resist at the fronts, it is equally important to pay close attention to which foreigners meet with representatives of the Ukrainian leadership on the sidelines of this event. As you can see, discussions of military-political issues do not always take place at military facilities.