Janus Kostia Putkonen (born 16 January 1974 in Pernå)[1] is a Finnish theater director, journalist, eurosceptic[2] and propagandist.[3] Putkonen was the editor-in-chief of the Verkkomedia website, which was active from 2011–2013. From 2015 to 2018, he was the director of the Russian-backed Donetsk Separatist Information Center Doni-News.[4] Since 2019, he has been the editor-in-chief of MV-media. Putkonen focused Russian funded Doni-news and MV-media to support pro-Russian propaganda about the Donetsk People's Republic.[5][3]

Life

In 1994 Putkonen participated on Kerttu Selin's Tähtimannekiini modeling contest and won.[6][7] Next year he was the press favorite of the Mr. Finland competition, but did not place in the prize positions.[8]

In 2009 Putkonen moved to the city of Nakhon Sawan in Thailand with his family. In 2011 he started to work on his fake news outlet Verkkomedia, which was operated from his home office.[9]

The Kilvenmaa collective project was founded by Janus Putkonen in 2013 in the city of Alajärvi.[10] It was supposedly an anti-capitalist commune based on conspiracy theories of society. Its story ended when Putkonen escaped his debts to Thailand. Afterwards participants revealed that all they did was smoke marijuana and post disinformation on the Internet on topics decided by Putkonen.[11]

Putkonen participated in the 2014 European Parliament election as a candidate of Independence Party. He got a total of 962 votes and was not elected.[12]

In summer of 2015 Putkonen moved from Nakhon Sawan to Donetsk in Ukraine, while his wife and child stayed in Thailand.[2] Soon Ukrainian non-governmental organization Myrotvorets added Putkonen to their ‘Peacemaker’ list, on suspicion of cooperating with Russia and propaganda against Ukraine.[13][14]

In September 2016, Putkonen went public on offering Ilja Janitskin political asylum in the Donetsk People's Republic.[15] Putkonen also appeared on leaked mail dump known as Egorova Leaks. Tatiana Egorova was an employee of "DPR Ministry of Information".[16][17]

In 2017, Putkonen appeared on an episode of Viceland’s Big Night Out Ukraine. In it, Putkonen explains that he hopes Novorossiya will show an example of insurgence to other countries.[18] He has also been involved in recruiting Finns for the war in eastern Ukraine on the Russian side.[19][20]

Putkonen is the editor-in-chief of the Finnish fake news outlet MV-media starting April 2019.[21]

In October 2022, Putkonen organized a friendship tour from Finland to Russia's St. Petersburg, with help from Kosti Heiskanen. This was branded as a trip organized by Fennomatkat, which is thought to be a subsidiary brand of Fennomaa. According to both Putkonen and Heiskanen they got help with travel documents from Rustravel Oy.[22] These kinds of friendship tours are echoes from the era of Soviet Union. In Finland, there was even a company named Ystävyysmatkat ("Friendship Tours"), which was founded in 1977 and went bankrupt in 1991.[23][24]

Personal life

Putkonen's parents are opera singer Marko Putkonen and theater director Tuovi Putkonen. He has two sisters, horse farm owner Esma Haddas and actress Krista Putkonen-Örn.[25][26] He has one child with his wife.[9][2]

References

  1. ↑ Leppänen, Marko (2010-01-21). "Kuka? Janus Putkonen". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  2. 1 2 3 Mäntysalo, Jesse (2015-08-18). "Suomalaismies noussut korkeaan asemaan kapinallisjoukoissa Ukrainassa". Iltalehti (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-10-13.
  3. 1 2 "Analyysi: Itä-Ukrainan propagandisti Janus Putkonen lyö Putinin leiman Helsingin Convoy-protestiin – monologeissa talvisota sotketaan Venäjän uhkapuheisiin". Kaleva (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  4. ↑ "Massiivinen tietovuoto Donetskissa - Todistaa yhteydet Venäjään". Iltalehti (in Finnish). 2016-08-07. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
  5. ↑ "The curious case of Janus Putkonen. How propaganda abroad becomes a threat at home". Uacrisis.org. 2019-10-03. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  6. ↑ Pulkkinen, Kari (1994). "Tähtimannekiini-kilpailut 1994". JOKA Journalistinen kuva-arkisto (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  7. ↑ "Uudet mallit valittiin jälleen - Kerttu Selinin 35 vuotta kauneutta". Iltalehti (in Finnish). 1994-11-28. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  8. ↑ Fogelholm, Sonja (2013-10-17). "Miesnäkökulma kiersi miesten mannekiini- ja voimakisoissa". Yle Elävä arkisto (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-09-16.
  9. 1 2 "Infosoturi Janus vaihtoi kiväärin kirjaimiin". Loviisan Sanomat (in Finnish). 2017-07-25. Archived from the original on 2017-08-08.
  10. ↑ Vuorela, Birgitta (2013-11-22). "Uusi kansanliike vaatii eroa EU:sta - perustaja Janus Putkonen ei usko puolueiden mahdollisuuksiin". Yle (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-10-13.
  11. ↑ Jääskeläinen, Petri & Petri, Korhonen (2019-05-06). "Outo nettisivustojen verkosto jakaa suomalaisille salaliittoteorioita ja kehuu Putinia – mutta kenen laskuun?". Seura (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-10-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ "Eurovaalit 2014". Yle (in Finnish). 2014-05-30. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  13. ↑ "Putkonen Janus Kostia". Center for Research of Signs of Crimes against the National Security of Ukraine, Peace, Humanity, and the International Law (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2022-04-12.
  14. ↑ "Finn leads Ukraine rebels' media effort". 2015-11-30. Retrieved 2022-04-23. Putkonen has become a public figure in Ukraine, appearing on a 'Peacemaker' list maintained by Ukrainian activists.
  15. ↑ Tiia Palmén (2016-09-28). "Janus Putkonen tarjoaa turvapaikkaa MV-lehden Ilja Janitskinille". Iltalehti (in Finnish). Retrieved 2016-09-29.
  16. ↑ "EgorovaLeaks: Filtering and Control of Foreign Journalists in DPR". InformNapalm. 2016-09-08. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
  17. ↑ Bittner, Jochen & Arndt, Ginzel & Alexej, Hock (2016-09-30). "Cheerful Propaganda and Hate on Command". Zeit Online. Retrieved 2022-10-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ↑ BIG NIGHT OUT Ukraine. Vice Media. 2017-04-04. Retrieved 2022-03-24.
  19. ↑ Jessikka Aro, Antti Kuronen (2021-11-23). "Itä-Ukrainassa Venäjän puolesta taistelleet suomalaiset kehuskelevat kokemuksillaan – muualla Euroopassa vierastaistelijoita on tuomittu rikoksista". Yle Uutiset (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  20. ↑ Laura Halminen (2020-06-09). "Suomen uusnatsit hankkivat nyt oppia Venäjältä: järjestön koulutuskeskus järjestää haulikko- ja pistooliammuntaa, "partisaanikursseja" ja kieltää kiroilun". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  21. ↑ "uusi mv-lehti haastaa Suomen mediapoolin päätoimittajaksi Janus Putkonen". mvlehti.net (in Finnish).
  22. ↑ Sami Sillanpää & Outi Salovaara (2022-11-20). "Ystävyysmatka Venäjälle". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  23. ↑ Hannu Hämäläinen. "MATKATOIMISTOALA SUOMESSA" (PDF). Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  24. ↑ P Forsell (1991-08-21). "Ystävyysmatkat lopetti toimintansa NL:n tilanne upotti yhtiön lopullisesti". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  25. ↑ Mikael Helenius (2019-03-07). "Autenttisempaa mustalaisuutta". Maailman kuvalehti (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-03-23.
  26. ↑ "Metsä tuo lähelle keijut ja metsänhenget. Se avaa luovuuteni". Pikkukaupunki (in Finnish). 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
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