Wikipedia

Patrick Lancaster

Patrick Lancaster is an American vlogger, podcaster and influencer.[2][3] Although described as pro-Kremlin, Lancaster has been called a double agent, and his videos covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine while attempting to spread Russian propaganda have actually often revealed compromising Russian military information, which has been used against Russia by Ukrainian forces, western intelligence agencies, and western media.[4][5][6] Lancaster is known for regularly filming staged scenes and attempting to pass them off as real, and has been referred to as a fake master.[7][8][2][9]

Patrick Lancaster
Personal information
Born
Missouri, United States
NationalityAmerican
OccupationVlogger
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2014–present
GenreVlogs Documentary
Subscribers605,000[1]
(May 2024)
Total views63 million[1]
(2024)
Contents are inEnglish and Russian
Associated actsRusso-Ukrainian War, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Biography

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Early life and US Navy

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Lancaster is originally from Missouri in the United States of America.[10][11] From 2001 to 2006 he was a sailor in the US Navy specializing as a cryptologic technician and rising to the rank of petty officer third class. He sailed on the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) from 2002 to 2006.[12]

Ukraine

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According to Lancaster, he arrived in Ukraine in March 2014 to cover the aftermath of the Maidan revolution. He then settled in Donetsk later that year, after meeting the woman who would become his wife, converting to Orthodox Christianity. Lancaster has worked for several Kremlin-backed media outlets, including RT and Zvezda, covering the War in Donbas.[2][11] From 2014-15 in Donbas, Lancaster worked as a cameraman for British journalist Graham Phillips. Phillips would later be highly critical of Lancaster, writing in 2022 that Lancaster is an “illiterate, grifting charlatan, with a journalistic acumen and ability lower than a potted plant.”[2]

From 2015 on, Lancaster has mostly created videos for his own YouTube channel. Lancaster's videos have purportedly exposed information of Russian war crimes, revealing locations, identities of perpetrators, and sensitive Russian military information.[4][6] In his videos, Lancaster refers to the Donbas, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions under Russian occupation as being 'part of Ukraine'.[13][14][15]

Lancaster has often appeared on Alex Jones' InfoWars show.[2] In 2022, research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) identified Lancaster as one of the twelve key Western influencers spreading pro-Kremlin disinformation about the Russo-Ukrainian War.[16] Ukrainian media outlet Zaborona investigated his links to the Kremlin, reporting his connection to Eric Kraus, a pro-Putin French businessman who is close to Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council.[11][17]

MH17

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Lancaster has created and published multiple videos connected to the tragedy of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and has received strong criticism for his actions in relation to MH17. In 2017 Lancaster claimed to have found skeletal remains of victims of the shoot-down of MH17 and pieces of the wreckage[18] which he, after a request from the Joint Investigation Team,[19][20] turned over to the local mayor with the request to transport them to The Netherlands.[21][22][23] After investigation by the Netherlands Forensic Institute the remains were found to contain remnants of 7 passengers, 4 of whom were Dutch.[21] In 2018, relatives of the victims of the shoot-down expressed anger that Lancaster continued to show imagery of remains of the victims online. They believed he was using them in a campaign to acquit Russia from the shoot-down. In the Russian media the discovery of the remains by Lancaster was portrayed as evidence of the Dutch authorities having examined the crash site poorly and not caring for the relatives. In Ukrainian and Dutch media, Lancaster has been criticised for making propaganda out of the tragedy, insensitivity towards victims, and exploitation of the tragedy for personal gain.[24]

The Dutch authorities have repeatedly urged Lancaster to turn over all his findings, but as of 2024, he had yet to do so.[25][26]

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

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Over the years, Lancaster has sporadically done videos on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for his YouTube channel.[2] Lancaster has been accused of producing fake news and staged videos on the conflict.[5][8]

2022 to present

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In the early days of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vice Media and NBC News described him as the most popular of the pro-Kremlin influencers spreading Russian propaganda and disinformation on YouTube.[2][9] According to Bellingcat, the scene in at least one of Lancaster's videos was staged.[9][27] An August 2022 investigation by Bellingcat found that one of Lancaster's YouTube videos showed the presence of, and helped identify, a Russian soldier suspected of torturing and castrating a Ukrainian prisoner of war.[28]

Lancaster's videos on the conflict have regularly been aired by Russian state owned media like Ruptly, Zvezda, and RT. Earlier in the conflict, his videos were featured on international media like the Associated Press, ITN, Skynews, Reuters, SPIEGEL TV. In 2022 Lancaster's sole 'international' outlet was conspiracy theory website InfoWars.[29][9]

Lancaster's videos from Ukraine gained considerable attention until July 2022, when Lancaster's output became sporadic. He then left Ukraine for an extended period, occasionally posting videos from Armenia. In October 2022, he returned to Ukraine, posting videos to his YouTube channel, and doing podcasts and interviews.[10][3] In June of 2023, Lancaster did a video report from Rostov-on-Don, where he expressed his support for the Wagner Group rebellion against the Russian Government taking place at that time.[30][31][32][33]

Lancaster continued blogging from Russia, and Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine in July, and August of 2023, before returning to Armenia in September for an extended period.[34] As of 2024, Lancaster is vlogging and podcasting from Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine.[3]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b "About PatrickLancasterNewsToday". YouTube.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Gilbert, David (9 June 2022). "Meet the US 'Journalist' Helping Spread the Kremlin's Propaganda". Vice. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "Patrick Lancaster: Eye Witness of Ukraine Attack on Civilian Marketplace". 23 January 2024. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Tracking the Faceless Killers who Mutilated and Executed a Ukrainian POW". 25 November 2022. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Patrick Lancaster: Double agent, blogger living on donations, "fake master"". 30 September 2023. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Russian troops living in stolen Ukrainian tents and using WW2-era sniper rifles". Daily Mirror. 11 June 2022. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  7. ^ "From the Lancaster family: The story of an American reporter who settled in the DNR, was friends with Givi and used morgue bodies for fake news". 27 June 2022.
  8. ^ a b "Patrick Lancaster – freelance journalist, propagandist or ideologist? Analysis". 29 July 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  9. ^ a b c d Zadrozny, Brandy (8 June 2022). "Russian propaganda efforts aided by pro-Kremlin content creators, research finds". NBCNews.com. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  10. ^ a b Paladino, Jason; van Wagtendonk, Anya (18 April 2022). "Meet Patrick Lancaster: A U.S. Navy veteran from Missouri and Russia's favorite war propagandist". Grid News. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  11. ^ a b c Martin Fornusek, Meet the foreign journalists promoting Russia’s war propaganda, 2022/09/01
  12. ^ SCHOGOL, JEFF (19 April 2022). "How a former US Navy sailor". taskandpurpose.com. Task and Purpose. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  13. ^ Patrick Lancaster – freelance journalist, propagandist or ideologist? Analysis. Patrick Lancaster. September 2022. Archived from the original on August 4, 2023. Retrieved 2023-08-04 – via YouTube.
  14. ^ Referendum in Mariupol from the Inside. Patrick Lancaster. September 2022. Archived from the original on August 4, 2023. Retrieved 2023-08-04 – via YouTube.
  15. ^ Showing the Berdyansk and Zaporizhzhia referendums. Patrick Lancaster. September 2022. Archived from the original on August 4, 2023. Retrieved 2023-08-04 – via YouTube.
  16. ^ Emma, Vardy (2022-04-22). "Russian propaganda efforts aided by pro-Kremlin content creators, research finds". NBC News. Retrieved 2023-01-17.
  17. ^ Humeniuk, Oleksandr (27 June 2022). "From the Lancaster family: the story of an American reporter who settled in the DNR, was friends with Givi and used morgue bodies for fake news". Заборона. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  18. ^ Annick van der Peet (2017-10-05). "Opnieuw mogelijk menselijke resten MH17 gevonden". BN DeStem. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  19. ^ "Mogelijk opnieuw menselijke resten MH17-ramp gevonden". RTL Nieuws. 2017-07-21. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  20. ^ "'Weer menselijke resten MH17-ramp gevonden'". Metro. 2017-07-21. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  21. ^ a b Bonne Kerstens (2017-11-14). "Menselijke resten MH17-slachtoffers geïdentificeerd". BN DeStem. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  22. ^ "Gevonden botresten zijn van slachtoffers MH-17". Leeuwarder Courant. 2017-11-14. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  23. ^ "Gevonden botresten zijn van slachtoffers MH-17". Dagblad van het Noorden. 2017-11-14. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  24. ^ Wilmer Heck (2017-07-21). "Mogelijk weer menselijke resten MH17-ramp naar Nederland". NRC. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  25. ^ "Appel op journalist om stoffelijke resten MH17". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 2018-09-10. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  26. ^ "Schriftelijke vragen Stieneke van der Graaf e.a. over de verklaring (nr. 2) van het bestuur van de Stichting Vliegramp MH17 inzake meldingen en publiciteit over lichamelijke resten op MH17-crashsite - ChristenUnie.nl". ChristenUnie. 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  27. ^ Waters, Nick (28 February 2022). "'Exploiting Cadavers 'and 'Faked IEDs': Experts Debunk Staged Pre-War 'Provocation' in the Donbas". Bellingcat. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  28. ^ "Tracking the Faceless Killers who Mutilated and Executed a Ukrainian POW". 5 August 2022.
  29. ^ Mischa van Diepen (2022-05-10). "Deze tv-beelden krijgen Russen van de oorlog: 'Wij laten zien wat Westen niet durft'". De Telegraaf. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  30. ^ "Патрик Ланкастер: . С "Вагнером" и Пригожиным уезжают из Ростова (Эксклюзивное интервью) Спецрепортаж" [Patrick Lancaster: Leaving Rostov with Wagner and Prigozhin (Exclusive interview) Special Feature] (in Russian). 25 June 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  31. ^ ""Нормальный результат». Пригожин оценил итоги мятежа ЧВК «Вагнер"" ["Normal result". Prigozhin summed up the result of the Wagner mutiny] (in Russian). 25 June 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  32. ^ With Wagner "Coup" Leaving Russia (Exclusive Prigozhin) Special Report. Patrick Lancaster. 2023-06-25. Retrieved 2023-07-01 – via YouTube.
  33. ^ "Пригожин о результатах мятежа: «Нормально, всех взбодрили»" [Prigozhin about the mutiny result: "Normal result, everyone was cheered up"] (in Russian). 25 June 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  34. ^ "Armenian extremist militants have been brainwashed". 26 September 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
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