Bellingcat

On July 15, 2014, Eliot Higgins began raising funds for the Bellingcat project through the Kickstarter platform ^[3] . The required amount of 47 thousand pounds was collected in a month ^[3] .

Two days after starting Bellingcat occurred disaster Boeing 777 in Donetsk region , and numerous subscribers and associates Higgins asked him to understand the tragedy ^[3] . Based on their investigation, project activists concluded that the anti-aircraft missile that shot down the aircraft was fired from the Buk-M air defense system from the 53rd air defense brigade of the Russian Federation, based in Kursk ^[4] . The work attracted the attention of Dutch investigators investigating the disaster ^[5] . The Russian Ministry of Defense refutes its findings ^{[6] [7]} , stating that "the conspiracy theories of a journalistic group have been repeatedly refuted by bloggers and experts, so they are not subject to serious comment." ^[8] Criticism for the unprofessional approach in the MH17 case was voiced by experts at Bellingcat and the West ^[9] . On May 24, 2018, the Joint Investigative Group (JIT) issued a report ^[10] , which confirmed the findings of the Bellingcat research group on the use of the Buk air defense system in service with the 53rd anti-aircraft missile defense team of the Russian Federation . The expert commission claims that its results were based on an analysis of the technical data of Buk itself, the unique distinguishing features of the launching installation, and also on the “materials” of Russian “eyewitnesses” of transporting the air defense systems from Kursk to the border with Ukraine.

In February 2015, an investigation was launched by the Bellingcat group on shelling Ukrainian troops from Russian territory for the period July 14 - August 8, where using satellite imagery of the battlefields, craters from artillery strikes and probable artillery positions in Russia were analyzed, from where these strikes were carried out. In addition to the analysis of satellite images, 6 captured videos were investigated, on which missile launches from Grad artillery systems from Russian territory to Ukraine were recorded, in particular, a resonant video from the Russian village of Gukovo ^[11] .

In December 2015, an investigation was launched into Russian artillery shelling during the offensive on Novoazovsk in late August 2014. ^[12]

December 21, 2016 an extended study Bellingcat. In it "found" at least 149 artillery positions from which allegedly led the Russian artillery fire, and another 130 positions that are "very likely" been used for the same purpose. On the territory of Ukraine, 408 sites were identified that were fired upon. ^{[13] [14] [15] [16]}

Among other things, she was investigating the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war, the American-born bomb dropped by the Saudi coalition at a wedding in the Hajj governorate ^[17] , and the training of Ukrainian ultra-right by a large European military firm ^[18] .

In September 2018, in collaboration with The Insider, the Russian online publication of Roman Dobrokhotov, Bellingcat conducted an investigation by allegedly publishing copies of official documents of the Federal Migration Service of Russia with a passport in the name of Alexander Petrov, one of the British authorities suspected of poisoning Sergei and Julia Skripal , which may indicate his connection with the Russian special services ^{[19] [20]} . At the same time, the Russian BBC service indicated that “The Insider, the first to receive the documents, writes that they were provided by a source from the Russian police. The BBC cannot confirm the authenticity of documents ” ^{[19] [21]} . In turn, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova , criticized this publication, stressing that after that she had no doubts about “proximity to special services” Bellingcat, which she sees as “a special office that deliberately merges misinformation under the guise of investigations”, and also expressing doubt that these documents really are relevant to the FMS of Russia, wondering why it is easier for Bellingcat to “crack the FMS database” overnight than to obtain at least one evidence of “involvement” P etrova and Boshirova to poisoning? ” ^{[19] [21] [22]} .

From the correspondence of WikiLeaks , a message published by journalist Emma Best, it follows that the project received funding from the UK Department of Defense ^[23] . Eliot Higgins responded to this accusation on his Twitter account : “The WikiLeaks merged private messages contain complete nonsense about funding the Bellingcat by the UK Department of Defense” ^[24] .

Oliver Boyd-Barrett, professor emeritus of the USA ^], in his book “The Leading Western Media and the Ukrainian Crisis” ( Western Mainstream Media and the Ukraine Crisis ) drew attention to the assessment of expert C. Johnson of the Judicial Institute of Cranfield, Bellingcat research methodology to track Russian rocket launchers in Ukraine are experimental and prone to inaccuracies ^[26] . That is why Bellingcat is a convenient means of bringing charges where official versions of Western countries suffer from a lack of evidence ^[27] .

American journalist Robert Perry in his many publications was skeptical of the results of Eliot Higgins. Perry noted that Bellingcat was seen for cooperation with the organizations, funds sponsored by George Soros and the US Agency for International Development . According to Perry, this explains the critical attacks of Bellingcat precisely on those states that fell out of favor with the United States ^[28] Examples of misinformation spread by Higgins can serve to refute the charges of the Syrian government in the sarin attack in 2013 ^[29]

In 2015, Eliot Higgins Bellingcat and received a special prize prize Hans-Joachim-Friedrichs . ^[thirty]

• Boyd-Barrett, Oliver. Western Mainstream Media and the Ukraine Crisis: A study in conflict propaganda. - L .: Routledge ; NY, 2017 .-- ISBN 978-1-315-55968-1 .

• Official website
• “We could have prevented hundreds of deaths”: Bellingcat founder on how the site investigated the MH17 disaster