Oh, the irony is almost poetic. A workshop on “detecting fakes” at PHDays—led by a cast of Russian cyber operatives and private sleuths—feels like the fox offering a TED Talk on henhouse security. It’s a spectacle where the world’s most prolific state sponsor of disinformation holds a mirror to its own handiwork and says, “Let us teach you how not to be fooled—by us.”
Let’s take a satirical scalpel to this festival of feigned virtue:
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Title: “Disinformation Theater: Moscow’s Masterclass in Misdirection”
On May 22nd, in the shadow of the Kremlin and under the blinking neon of state-sponsored gaslighting, a curious event unfolds: a workshop on detecting fakes—hosted not by independent watchdogs or hardened defenders of truth, but by cyber operatives, detectives-for-hire, and bank security wonks, most of whom exist in a cozy orbit around Russia’s own influence machinery.
The menu? A 3-hour deep dive into deception, in a hall named after Marconi—who might roll in his grave knowing his name now graces a stage of such twisted irony.
Let’s examine the headliners of this grand pantomime:
Ekaterina Tyuring, a YouTube sleuth and self-proclaimed digital detective, warns of “fashionable” digital crimes. One wonders if her runway includes the disinformation couture of the Kremlin’s Internet Research Agency.
Igor Bederov, of “T.Hunter,” waxes lyrical about spotting media fakes—perhaps drawing from a deep well of personal proximity to Russia’s own media manipulation playbook?
Dmitry Boroshchuk, proudly affiliated with “Beholderishere,” tackles the detection of fake text, audio, and video—while standing in the capital of state-run deepfake diplomacy.
Artemy Abyzov, Red Teamer from “T-Bank,” discusses fake identifiers—because nothing says “trust” like a financial institution in an oligarchic kleptocracy.
Mansur Safin, a fraud analyst from “Femida,” speaks on deepfakes in finance, possibly overlooking the trillion-ruble black hole left by Moscow’s sanctioned shell companies and crypto-laundering operations.
All this, of course, cloaked in the language of vigilance and cyber hygiene—while disinformation campaigns aimed at Ukraine, Europe, and the US are launched from the very networks that likely stream this workshop.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Bardin, an actual authority on disinformation warfare—who’s spent decades exposing the tactics of state actors like Russia—could teach them more in ten minutes than they’ll grasp in three hours of theatrical introspection.
The reality? This isn’t a workshop. It’s a performance—where the arsonists don firefighter uniforms and lecture the crowd on fire safety. It’s Orwellian satire brought to life, only without the self-awareness.
So attend if you must—but bring a grain of salt and a Geiger counter. The radioactive levels of hypocrisy might breach containment.
We See What Others Cannot
