By Fred. W. Rose http://www.russophobia.net, via
Wikimedia Commons
03.03.2017
Our hero, Christo Grozev, was born in 1969 in Plovdiv.
At age 16 he became seriously interested in radio and democracy, which
determined his career and political interests. Eventually, he became quite a
good businessman, but a poor propagandist.
Manufacturer for the globalist elite
Grozev graduated from the American University of
Bulgaria, which was sponsored with the money of the Soros Foundation and the US
Agency for International Development.
Mr Grozev denies that he is Soros’ agent. It is
strange to deny the obvious. He was even pictured with George Soros on the
cover of official AUB’s magazine dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the
university. In this significant photo, we can also see US President George Bush
Sr.’s special Envoy, Eileen Chu, and the first post-Soviet president of
Bulgaria, Zhelyu Zhelev. The latter, incidentally, was not only the initiator
of Bulgaria’s accession to NATO and the EU, but also was an ardent Russophobe
who wrote the book "Fascism" in 1982, in which the Soviet Union was
compared to Nazi Germany.
Zhelyu Zhelev stubbornly lobbied to open the
university to make Bulgarians more “freethinking”. He has described in detail
the whole process of the university’s founding. The media called all the
initiators CIA supporters and blamed them for the collapse of the country.
"Instead, they offered to establish a Slavic University with the support
of Moscow, for which there was no demand," said Zhelev. The problem was
only money, but in February 1991, the Bulgarian diplomat Stefan Tavrov
successfully met George Soros in Prague, where Soros came to claim the newly
created position of head of the "Open Society". Zhelev presented it
as almost a miracle, but in fact it was quite simple. George Soros was ready to
support the initiative financially from the very beginning. Later, he gladly
joined the leadership of the AUB, and each graduate receives a diploma with his
parting words.
This long digression was necessary in order to make it
clear that Russophobia, working for Western institutions, and lobbying is for
the graduates of these institutions the absolute norm. They truly believe that
George Soros is a great philanthropist, and all the "color
revolutions" carried out with his assistance are for good, despite the
tens of thousands of victims and the destruction of states. For all students,
he was an exceptional person, as well as the US government.
Starting the business
Christo Grozev created his own radio station during
his first year at university. The station was called “AURA” or American
University Radio. The room provided by the university and the equipment was
bought from Grozev’s Dutch friend. It was the first private radio station in
Bulgaria and, as Grozev himself claimed, was an illegal “pirate station”.
However, the frequency was given by the State Commission for Radio Frequencies.
Who sponsored the campus radio? Just one year after
its creation, the International Media Fund allocated AURA a large grant. The
exact amount is unknown, but it fully provided the station with the latest
professional equipment. The International Media Fund is an American
non-governmental organization with close ties to the government. It was founded
in 1990 and existed until 1996. Its main objective was "the creation of
independent media" in the former Soviet bloc. A former head of state of
the US Information Agency, Martin Stone, and US Secretary of State James Baker
were supervisors of this “noble” mission.
After graduating from the American University, Grozev
received a proposal from to the American media company Metromedia
International. He has not lived in Bulgaria since 1995.
Presumably, it was around this time that he met with
Karl Habsburg, the grandson of the last Austrian emperor and the head of the
House of Habsburg, who, after failing in politics, pursued the path of the
media business.
One of Grozev’s first major projects in Metromedia
International Steel was with a Russian radio station in St. Petersburg and
managing the European assets of the American company, and then directing the
group that owns the "Radio 7 on seven hills" in Moscow.
However, in 2006, Grozev faced problems in Russia and
was forced to leave his business there. After focusing on his investments in
Western assets, he became the co-founder and (until October 2016) the
shareholder of Radiocorp Holding, a Dutch broadcasting company.
Adventurer and swindler
A sharp turn in Grozev’s business activity occurred in
2014, when the seemingly successful businessman entered politics and started
“denouncing” Russian political movements in the world.
In an interview with Tsargrad TV, Grosev said: “I had
experience in the news business in Bulgaria. It turned out that there things
are different from the Russian entertainment business, there are many political
interests, politicians are trying to influence the news content, and that is
what I did not like. I got to know the concept of fake news which is made for
the sake of political interests or commercial advantage. I did not like it
either. Therefore, I decided to quit this business in Bulgaria. Then I started
to pay more attention to international news, fake news, and political news.
This happened in late 2013 and early 2014, when the crisis erupted in Ukraine.
There was a real Russian intervention by both private individuals and the
Russian state apparatus in the events in Ukraine.”
This change of activity was preceded by two infamous
and sophisticated stories in Bulgaria, where Karl Habsburg, under the guidance
of his adviser, tried to acquire a number of assets. This oddity forces us to
suggest that Habsburg and Grozev turned to a couple of ventures instead of
major media executives.
In 2010-2011 they expressed interest in buying the
assets of the Bulgarian German concern WAZ, including editions "Trud"
and "24 hours". The total transaction value was estimated in a solid
amount from 40 to 60 million euros, but Radiocorp surprisingly easily agreed to
pay. Later, it turned out that they did not have the money. Christo Grozev
pestered local oligarchs in the hope of getting a loan. In exchange for these
loans he promised the opportunity to lobby their interests in media.
According to Bulgarian media, the founders and owners
of the largest alcohol company "Winery Cave”, Atanas Shterev and Anton
Petrov, helped register an intermediary structure BG Privatinvest GmbH, which
was specially created for this transaction. Setting capital was also paid out
of their pocket. Therefore, it turns out that Radiocorp didn’t even have the
money for registration (about 30,000 euros). So how could they afford the whole
deal which cost tens of millions of euros? Now we know that Grozev asked
alcohol magnates for 15 million euros. At the same time, Christo Grozev spoke
to another oligarch, Ognian Donev, the owner of Sopharma pharmaceutical
corporations.
After the transaction, the new owners refused to
formally bring their possession patrons into the circle of shareholders. Also,
it turned out that they did not even know about each other. A scandal broke out
as Christo Grozev received physical threats from his “partners.” Ognian Donev
even claimed to put Grozev in jails for 10 years, but, apparently, the issues
could eventually be resolved. But the bad aftertaste remained.
A reasonable question arises: How is it possible that
the serious businessman Karl Habsburg, who owns fairly large media
corporations, has no money? In an interview with the Swiss Weltwoche, the heir
to the Austrian crown confessed that he could not maintain the family castle,
because "we are not rich. After the First World War, my family was
expropriated of all the property. My grandfather, the last emperor, had nothing
but his uniform, when he was exiled to Madeira." In the same interview, he
said that, like his father, he had a seat in the European Parliament (which he
has since lost), where they both "made every effort to overcome the
division of Europe, especially with regard to countries affected by Soviet
domination.”
Karl is married to the daughter of the billionaire
Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza has become
one of the most influential patrons of the arts. According to some reports, the
couple is no longer living together, but their marriage is not formally
terminated.
The market
of lies
Anyway, apparently, in 2014 the state of both partners
suffered a harsh loss. All attempts to invest in Ukrainian radio also failed.
Then an utter destitution pushed Christo Grozev to enter the new promising
segment of the media business, information war, which as we know from the story
of the hacker group "Humpty Dumpty", can be very profitable.
According to Grozev, he began to work against Russia
for the think tank Risk Analysis Management, which is led by the former prime
minister of Bulgaria, Ivan Kostov. In 1999, Kostov supported the bombing of
Yugoslavia and closed Bulgarian air space for Russian aircraft but opened it
for NATO air forces.
In late 2013, he began to investigate mails leaked
with the help of "Humpty Dumpty." Grozev claims that he had no
intention to become involved in politics and that his activity at Risk Analysis
Management was just a hobby; his business partners were unaware of it. He also
denies any close cooperation with Bellingcat, saying that his work with them was
a one-time thing.
Yet he continues to promote anti-Russian hysteria in
cooperation with the analytical center.
Grozev and Habsburg parted paths last year. According
to the financial report of Radiocorp, the last four years were unfortunate for
the holding, and Karl Habsburg decided to get rid of it. Since October 2016,
N.C. de Boer is called the director of Radicorp. The corporation owns four
companies, including a Ukrainian radio station, while the total number of
employees is less than 50 people (for example, only a single person operates AD
VENTURE RADIO B.V.).
Now, Christo Grozev is a member of the supervisory
board of a powerful media group, De Telegraaf Media Group NV, and own about 5%
of the shares.
But it seems that the Russophobic "hobby"
has been his main activity. Lately, he made major information buzz around the
so-called "coup" in Montenegro allegedly organized by Russia. Now he
is actively promoting conspiracy theories around relations between Trump and
Putin.
No comments:
Post a Comment