In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Canadian journalist and alleged Soviet/Russian spy, David Pugliese (@davidpugliese). He’s best-known for his articles about “Ukrainian Nazis”, and for allegedly being a spy for both the Soviet Union and later Russia.

Several months ago I was anonymously sent a pile of documents from the mid-80s originating from the KGB archives in Kyiv. These documents outlined a KGB recruitment into “Stuart”, or David Pugliese who “works in foreign mass media” and who is…

…“studied with the perspective of possible operative use”. Another document described “Stuart’s” contact “Ivan”, who allegedly became his handler.Some have speculated that “Ivan” is Fred Weir, a correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor.He’s lived in Moscow since 1986.

Fred & his uncle John were active in the Communist Party of Canada, and both of them also worked for the Canadian Tribune.

The documents concerning Mr. Pugliese themselves were proven to be authentic by experts, but they don’t clearly show…

…that Pugliese was a Russian agent. A leading expert on KGB operations stated that the documents confirm Pugliese was recruited by 1984, meaning that he was accepting conspiratorial methods of work and taskings directly from Moscow, and by 1990 he was also receiving money.

As is tradition in democratic countries, Mr. Pugliese had the possibility to defend himself against these strong claims. He stated that the documents had “factual errors and falsehoods” about his personal life. For example, he claimed that he didn’t live in Ottawa in 1984.

Interestingly,the journalism school, where David graduated in 1986, is at Carleton University in Ottawa — the records of his graduation are from their convocation. Considering this takes about 4 years of studies, this would imply he was living in the region during that time.

His BA in psychology is from Lakehead University, which is still in the province of Ontario, but 1500 km from Ottawa. Strangely, in his bio at SpaceNews David claims that he has a Bachelor’s degree in political science from the same university.

This is so confusing!

To be fair, all this happened a long time ago and it’s almost impossible to say whether David was indeed recruited by the KGB, but as a reporter at a Canadian newspaper with a relatively small circulation, David really seems to like writing about the “Ukrainian Nazis”.

A quick Google search brings up dozens of articles he wrote about Ukraine, and in the last eight years, there are many articles written by him either attacking Ukraine or Canada’s support of Ukraine and referencing “Ukrainian neo-Nazis”.

Kirill Kalinin, a former employee at the Russian embassy who also ran their social media platforms and acted as their spokesman, often shared Pugliese’s articles and tagged him in tweets. After Kalinin was kicked out of Canada, he gave an exclusive interview to Pugliese.

In one of his articles, Pugliese cited the director-general of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, which was then led by Oleksandr Feldman, a former member of a pro-Kremlin party, Opposition Platform — For Life, founded by the grandfather of Putin’s daughter, Viktor Medvedchuk.

Within a 1½ year period before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and continuing for a few months into the invasion, David used the words “Nazi” and “Ukraine” more than two dozen times, basically just copying the Kremlin’s “Nazi” narratives.

David is also closely connected to Yves Engler, a well-known Grayzone reporter who also has ties to RT, and who has promoted various pro-Kremlin and pro-Assad narratives online. Pugliese and his wife even used to organize lectures together with Engler.

People promoting Kremlin viewpoints are often part of the Canadian “left” — a loose group of people in the fringes of the political spectrum. They often claim that the “Canadian foreign policy has been captured by the Ukrainian-Canadian community”, blame Putin’s…

…invasion on NATO, call for lifting of sanctions against Russia and blame inflation and price hikes on them, claiming that the war in Ukraine is actually a proxy war between Russia and the US… You know, the typical vatnik bullshit.

One Canadian “independent digital news publication” called The Maple came to Pugliese’s defense. The paper published an “An Open Letter in Defence of David Pugliese,” which was signed by around 50 journalists, including Moss Robeson and Mark Ames:

Mark Ames

Robeson is best-known for his work on The Grayzone, where he obsessively writes about “Ukrainian neo-Nazis” and “ultranationalists”. In October 2022, he also wrote a long article on #NAFO, framing it as a “far-right Ukrainian network”.

Pugliese’s viewpoints are also very similar to Ivan Katchanovski’s, who’s also exaggerated the role of far-right and neo-Nazi involvement in Ukrainian politics and in the Russo-Ukrainian War:

Ivan Katchanovski

Pugliese has been one of Canada’s most prolific journalists covering defence for over three decades, where he has smeared countless people, operations and procurement projects. Wouldn't this be exactly the type of person Moscow would seek to recruit?

To conclude, it’s hard to say if the Soviet intelligence ever managed to recruit Mr. Pugliese. But the signs are there — parroting of Kremlin’s viewpoints, promotion of “Ukrainian neo-Nazis” narratives, and criticism of Canada’s military aid to Ukraine.

What do you think?

The 2nd edition of Vatnik Soup — The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation is officially out!

You can order your copy here:

The Book | Vatnik Soup