The Kremlin propagandist Patrick Lancaster has been covering the protests that began in Tbilisi in November. Hailing from the United States, he moved to Ukraine, to the Russian-occupied, so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” in 2014. Since then, he has been running his YouTube channel with 700,000 subscribers, as well as creating content for media financed by the Kremlin, such as “RT” and “Zvezda”. 5 years ago, Patrick Lancaster visited occupied Abkhazia to cover the “presidential election”. From there, he published numerous videos on his YouTube channel. Despite this violation of the Law “On Occupied Territories”, which entails liability in accordance with the Criminal Code of Georgia, the propagandist was able to freely enter Georgia. Information about his presence in Georgia was spread via social media on December 9. He had an incident with several protest participants, who recognized him and made him leave the territory of the protest. Despite everything, the enforcement agencies of Georgia did not take any appropriate action against him, and Lancaster has been able to continue freely operating in Georgia, publishing the last video thus far on 29 December.

It should be noted that during the December 9 incident, an Italian journalist, Andrea Lucidi, was present alongside Lancaster.

“Apprentice Propagandist” - Lucidi

According to the information disseminated by Russian media agency TASS, Lucidi has been living in Russia since 2022 and has been covering Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. On 10 November 2024, he appealed to the Russian president Vladimir Putin with a request for Russian citizenship, stating that he was under threat of persecution in his homeland.

“Yes, I submitted all of the required documents today. The office told me that my passport would be ready within three months.”

„I requested Russian citizenship from the President. Why do I want Russian citizenship? I want to live in Russia because it is my second home. I wanted to contribute to the war against fascism, because I’m an anti-fascist and it is important to me,“ -said Lucidi, who describes his decision as part of his lifelong commitment to fighting injustice.

Lucidi also told TASS that he is afraid to return to Italy, as he believes that the police might confiscate his passport. He added that some Italian media outlets have labeled him a “Kremlin agent” and accused him of having alleged ties to Moscow. He noted that he works for Italian television, from Lebanon and Syria as well as Russia.

Andrea Lucidi, born in 1987, refers to himself as an “independent freelance journalist”, like his senior colleague - Lancaster. His articles and videos on Ukraine are characterized by disinformation and repeat the Kremlin’s narratives.

After Russia’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Lucidi responded to Giorgia Meloni, the then-oppisition leader and current Prime Minister, who accused Vladimir Putin of aggression. Lucidi stated: “You and all supporters of the Ukrainian regime deserve the guillotine.”

Lucidi wears a uniform with the Russian “Z” symbol while covering the war in Ukraine and never strays from the official Kremlin narrative - referring to Ukraine as a country with a “Nazi regime” and, for example, to the massacre in the city of Bucha as fake news. He expressed a linking for the idea of Russian restoration of Mariupol and referred to the deportation of Ukrainian children as a “safety evacuation”, among other such statements.  

An interesting fact is that Andrea Lucidi was found among the guests of an event held at the Italian embassy in Moscow on 11 October 2023. When questioned about the matter, Deputy Foreign Minister Edmondo Cirielli remarked that it “seems paradoxical and deserves further investigation.”

Following the event at the Italian embassy in Moscow, Lucidi posted a picture of himself with Italy’s ambassador to Moscow Giorgio Starace on X, with the caption: “I had a beautiful evening where I met Italy’s ambassador to Russia, Giorgio Starace.”

                                                                       Lucidi with Italy’s Ambassador to Russia Giorgio Starace

According to an explanation by the Starace’s administration, guests for the event were selected primarily by the Italian Catholic Society of Moscow, specifically promoters of “Per n fiore di Senape”, who were gathering charity funds for the construction of a parish house in the Russian capital. “Among 250 invitees, we missed this one. It will be a lesson to us to be better in the future.”

“Tourist” or Propagandist - One Gerardo from Argentina

Another interesting incident took place in relation to Patrick Lancaster’s visit to Tbilisi. Specifically, on December 8, Patrick Lancaster recorded a video in Tbilisi titled “Foreigners, Jews, Muslims, Catholics & more At Tbilisi Protests”. The title is already intriguing and leads to certain conclusions, although the title does not match the content of the video and shows only several seconds of footage of the joint march organized by representatives of various faiths. In the same video, the propagandist first speaks with a Georgian woman attending the protest near the parliament building, who speaks about police violence. In the second part, Lancaster speaks for about 10 minutes to one Gerardo from Argentina in front of the Georgian National Museum.

Gerardo turned out to be quite adept at spreading the classic Russian propaganda messages: “I’m Gerardo, I’m from Argentina. Originally been here for about two weeks, and I could say I’m a little bit surprised with what’s going on, but not really, because I feel that they’re trying to do second Ukraine here, trying to bring Georgia into a direct conflict with the Russian Federation and just, I feel that it’s a little sad to see all these people being used for that purpose.”

— Who’s behind it, in your opinion? [Patrick Lancaster]

— I think it’s the same people who’s behind the war in the Ukraine, same people that forced Ukraine into a conflict with Russia. Same people who’s trying the same here, “NATO”, “Collective West”. It's very unfortunate, very unfortunate.

— What do you think about their message? (I mean, they’re not so much geopolitical, but their message for their country) [Lancaster]

— Mostly I hear a message of hate. I don’t see constructive ideas but rather ideas of destruction, bringing down the government. They talk about democracy but actually they are totally against democracy. I mean, if they win, the left wing, that’s democracy, if they lose - that’s a dictatorship. So I haven’t heard any message of construction but rather of destruction. And I saw some fascist symbolism, swastikas here and there, kind of freaks me out too.

— What part of the population do you think is represented by the protesters, what percent? [Lancaster]

— I feel that the vast majority of this country loves this country, understands that you can’t go against the Russian Federation. It’s a very suicidal attempt to create a “second Ukraine” here. 

— You’re Jewish, as I understand. What have you heard from other Jewish people? [Lancaster]

— Georgia has a history of being extremely tolerant to Jewish people. It’s a country where no anti-semitism has ever been reported. But the times are changing, we have seen a lot of foreign people coming here for the protest. Some fascist symbolism I just saw with my own eyes, swastikas, and somebody wearing like a Nazi… some sort of scarf. So I hope that the situation for the Georgian Jews is not going to change with all this pro-Ukraine, pro-Bandera propaganda. I see some paintings, like a “White Pride” and all these kinds of things.

One piece of information that IDFI has been able to find is that he is a “social skills and seduction master who travels the world and helps men hone their seduction skills” at “Academia Masculina” in Chile. He is a participant of a podcast as a “dating coach”.

What is likely a photo of him in Iquitos, a city in Peru, is from information about 21 Argentine citizens taken to Lima. This is likely related to the restriction introduced to Peru on 2 April 2020, when all flights were canceled. The article states that the Argentinian state agencies face a difficult mission - to return citizens to Argentina.

Otherwise, it can be said that Gerardo’s “influencer” career has not been particularly successful: his YouTube channel has 160 subscribers, he has a closed Instagram page with 9 posts, and a Facebook page with 8 followers. According to the YouTube videos, he traveled around 1 year ago to Armenia and spoke about the country’s culture and history. In addition, Lancaster states during the interview that Gerardo is Jewish. His channel features videos from Armenia, where he talks about the similarities between the Holocaust and the genocide, but he also has short videos with the hashtag #freepalestine. Each of these videos has around 100 views.

Gerardo’s social media does not have anything on his trip to Georgia or the ongoing protests. 

Conclusion

Lancaster, who is a Kremlin propagandist, is attempting to cover the ongoing processes in Georgia during his visit to Tbilisi through disinformation and false narratives. The videos he disseminates deliberately manipulate interviews with Georgian protesters and foreigners, creating a false impression about the ongoing protests in Georgia. His goal is to spread fake news and anti-Western narratives that serve Russian interests. One of the methods he uses for this purpose is to construct an “alternative reality”, where Georgian opposition activists and protesting citizens are presented as “aggressive forces acting against Russia”. Lancaster uses methods such as finding “alternative positions” and capturing narratives from “experts” or “bystanders familiar with the issues”. To preserve an illusion of “balance”, he also speaks to the other side (the protesters). However, this kind of “balance” is found only in a few fragments among his more than 10 videos recorded in Georgia. 

Patrick Lancaster’s video had 31,000 viewers, which likely led to an increase in popularity for Gerardo. The information found on Gerardo in open sources raises questions regarding his motivations and trustworthiness, especially considering the fact that Patrick Lancaster is known for staging false stories and spreading them through his propaganda. This interview is a good example of the ability of propagandist media to use “an event seen through the eyes of a foreigner” to spread fake narratives. It underlines the importance of critical assessment of sources and consideration of the wider context. Unfortunately, the majority of the targets of this information are limited in this sense, which once again underlines the importance of a critical and well-informed society that is able to protect itself from traditional forms of propaganda.

Andrea Lucidi is using Russia's aggression in Ukraine as an excuse to embark on a path of forging closer ties with Russia and transforming himself from an unremarkable journalist in Italy into a significant figure, and presumably even enriching himself. His statements, which reflect Kremlin policy and seek to spread disinformation about Ukraine and Georgia, are also part of the propaganda mechanism.

Aside from Lancaster, Alexander Malkevich, a distinguished figure in the Kremlin information infrastructure, was present in Georgia during the elections. Malkevish is wanted by the United States, with a 10 million dollar award for information about him. Journalists of pro-Kremlin media outlets, such as the television channel of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation “Zvezda” and others, are often seen during active political events in Georgia. The cases of Lancaster, his apprentice, “tourist from Argentina”, and many others make it clear that the Kremlin is conducting a high-level special information operation against Georgia.

Author of the photo used on the cover: Giorgi Gotsiridze