How the US raises Russophobes in Europe

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.