Who Is the Journalist Shown in the Video Being Expelled From the Demonstration by Protesters?

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On December 9, the Facebook page “Conscience-Free Media” and a Facebook user shared a video showing demonstrators escorting two foreign journalists out of a protest area. In the video, protest participants can be heard calling the journalists propagandists. The posts accompanying the videos claim that the targets of the aggression from demonstrators were British and Italian bloggers, accused of being Kremlin propagandists without any verification of the information. The posts also state that Eka Kvesitadze, a journalist from Mtavari Arkhi, called the European journalists Russians, prompting the demonstrators to act on this basis.

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The claim that demonstrators expelled Italian and British bloggers from the protest without verifying information is manipulative. The video actually depicts American journalist Patrick Lancaster, who is known as a Kremlin propagandist. He has covered events such as the annexation of Crimea, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the Karabakh conflict in a propagandistic manner. Lancaster has been exposed for staging videos and spreading false information during conflicts. It is likely that he violated Georgia’s law on occupied territories, as he visited Abkhazia in 2019. Alongside him was an Italian journalist who is also linked to the Kremlin.

  • Who is Patrick Lancaster?

Patrick Lancaster is an American journalist and YouTuber. According to the description on his YouTube channel, he identifies as a video and photojournalist mainly covering the war in Ukraine and the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict in Karabakh. Lancaster also solicits financial support on the platform, stating:
“I am a totally independent & crowdfunded journalist, and as YouTube has totally demonetized my channel so I rely on my viewers to fund my work and help me show the world what is really happening in the Armenia & Azerbaijan War.”

On the Russian social network VKontakte, Lancaster writes that he was born in the state of Missouri. At various times, he worked for Thomson Reuters and Sky News and was also employed by the Russian state-owned media outlet Ruptly. Before starting his journalism career, Patrick Lancaster served in the United States Navy.

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Patrick Lancaster’s VKontakte Account

According to the Ukrainian media outlet Zaborona, Patrick Lancaster moved to Ukraine in 2014, after the Maidan Revolution, and settled in Donetsk. Upon his arrival, Lancaster quickly became one of the Kremlin’s favored foreign journalists. In journalistic materials, Lancaster claimed to have witnessed Ukrainian forces shooting down the Malaysian Boeing. In his video reports, he depicted victims allegedly tortured by “Bandera followers” and members of the Azov battalion in Mariupol. According to the investigative article, Lancaster used corpses from morgues to stage such footage, and the claims that they were tortured by Ukrainian nationalists did not reflect the truth. Lancaster married a local resident in Donetsk. The wedding ceremony was widely covered  by Russian media. During the ceremony, Lancaster wore attire in the colors of the Donetsk separatist flag.

Lancaster has been exposed for disseminating staged videos. On February 23, 2022, one day before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he published a video claiming that Ukrainian forces had used an improvised explosive device, killing several people. Investigative journalists from Bellingcat established that the video was staged. In particular, the individuals shown as deceased had not been killed by an explosion, and the vehicles had been artificially damaged in ways inconsistent with blast impacts. It is worth noting that the footage was disseminated by Russian media and the media outlets operating in the separatist regions of Ukraine, using it as evidence to allege violence against civilians in Donbas.

  • How Does Lancaster Cover Protests in Georgia?

Patrick Lancaster published his first video about the protests in Georgia on December 4, titled “Tbilisi, Georgia: The Seventh Day of Unrest Begins.” It is noteworthy that Lancaster traveled to Tbilisi from Donetsk. As of December 12, the Kremlin propagandist had released seven videos about the protests in Tbilisi. In his very first video, Lancaster claimed that fewer people were joining the protest each day. He also repeated Kremlin propaganda by comparing the protests in Tbilisi to Ukraine’s Maidan, stating that Maidan led Ukraine to war. In a number of videos, he repeated statements by Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, and Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for the Russian president. Lancaster also pointed out that the protests were mainly attended by young people and reiterated quotes from both Zakharova and Dmitry Medvedev in several of his videos.

Lancaster himself published a video showing how demonstrators forced him to leave the protest area. According to Lancaster, he was at the scene with an Italian journalist. In both his own video and others shared on social media, it is clearly heard that demonstrators asked him to leave the area because he is a Kremlin propagandist.

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Andrea Lucidi in Patrick Lancaster’s Video

Italian journalist Andrea Lucidi appears alongside Patrick Lancaster. On December 6, the Russian state media outlet TASS published information about Lucidi. According to the outlet, Lucidi has been living in Russia since 2022, covering Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, and is now seeking Russian citizenship.

  • Patrick Lancaster Likely Violated Georgia’s “Law on Occupied Territories”

In past years, Patrick Lancaster has also visited Abkhazia. Five years ago, he published several videos on YouTube that were filmed in the occupied region. Lancaster was in Abkhazia to cover the presidential elections. He recorded interviews with presidential candidates as well as locals. In one of his videos, he speculated that Germany might be considering recognizing Abkhazia’s independence. His questions to locals mainly focused on the quality of life in Abkhazia and their attitudes toward Russia and Georgia.

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Patrick Lancaster in Abkhazia

The Parliament of Georgia adopted the Law on Occupied Territories in 2008. According to the law, foreign nationals can only enter the occupied territories through Georgia-controlled areas: into Abkhazia from Samegrelo and into Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) from Shida Kartli. Violations of the law are punishable by imprisonment for 2 to 4 years or by a fine. It is likely that Patrick Lancaster has violated Georgia’s Law on Occupied Territories.

Since November 28, protests have been taking place in Georgia. Citizens are protesting the decision of the Georgian Dream not to put the opening of EU membership negotiations on the agenda until the end of 2028. Additionally, after the violent dispersal of protests, demonstrators are demanding the release of detained citizens. In parallel with the ongoing protests, numerous false reports have circulated on social networks and in the media. Their primary aim is to discredit the protests and their participants. Since November 28, Myth Detector has verified several claims related to the pro-European protests.


The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.

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11Topic: Politics
Violation: Manipulation
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