Dmitry Khmelnitsky
Among the Russian publishing houses that have sprung up in Cyprus over the past 30 years, one can hardly find a single one that is not connected to Moscow and its security services. Control over the Russian press abroad has always been one of the Kremlin’s most important tasks.
But even against this background, the RUCYCOM LTD publishing house looks unusual. It was registered in Limassol in 2005 and liquidated in 2022. It published the magazine Cyprus Quarterly Review and the newspaper CypRusCommersant. The first issue of the magazine was published in Moscow in 2003. In 2004 the magazine was registered in the Ministry of Press Affairs of the Russian Federation, and in 2006 it was awarded with a diploma of the Moscow Government «for creative contribution to the development of multilateral relations with compatriots abroad». That is, these press organs were created as Russian press organs.
Judging by the memories of Cypriot old-timers, the CypRus Kommersant newspaper was published only a couple of times. The «Cyprus Quarterly Review» was published for three years and was a primitive propaganda publication.
According to the 2013 brochure of the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots, the Cyprus Quarterly Review traces its history back to the Corsair and RuCyMagazine magazines published in Cyprus in the 1990s. It was not possible to find any mention of them on the Internet. The newspaper CypRusCommersant was a supplement to the magazine and both were published and distributed simultaneously in Moscow and Nicosia. The task of the publications is formulated in the brochure as «interaction with the Russian Embassy, leading Russian companies working in Cyprus, with organizations of Russian compatriots on the island to promote Russian spirituality and culture, the Russian language, to unite the Russian-speaking community and to defend the legitimate interests of Russians».
All this is pure vocabulary and tasks of special services and in no way tasks of normal press bodies. This is confirmed by the very expressive biography of the head of the company and editor-in-chief Vladislav Drobkov.
He graduated from the Faculty of International Journalism of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in 1972. For twenty-three years he worked at Pravda newspaper, rising to deputy editor-in-chief. He was Pravda’s own correspondent in Athens, Brussels, and Washington. This is the classic life path of a Soviet spy under journalistic cover. There are no other options here.
And his Cypriot publications themselves quite obviously did not make the slightest commercial sense. It is not clear what group of readers they were intended for (if any) and how they were financed. Most likely they served as a cover for some other, much more serious operations. The publishing house was closed, but Drobkov lives in Cyprus and is unlikely to have changed his profession.
In 2015, Drobkov registered the company V.D. OBOZRENIE LIMITED, which was liquidated in 2021.
In 2014, the Second International Forum of Foreign Media was held in Moscow. As reported on the website of the Foundation for the Protection and Support of Compatriots’ Rights (Pravfond), «Vladislav Drobkov — publisher and editor-in-chief of the Cyprus Quarterly Review — reminded the attendees of the phrase of a wise man: ‘The country that does not feed its own army feeds someone else’s’ — which is also applicable to the relationship between the metropolis and Russian-language foreign media. Russia needs to work with its like-minded people, to help informationally and financially those who live and work abroad, because there is a blatant war against Russia, and journalists, as always, are at the forefront.»
In other words, the foreign Russian press is seen as part of the Russian army, thrown into the rear of the enemy. This is the very blatantly expressed logic of the KGB and its successors.