Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "ANNA News" in English language version.
The existence of at least one Russian PMC seems to have been completely fabricated, for unknown reasons. Ruslan Leviev of the Conflict Intelligence Team (a group that describes itself as conducting open-source, devil's advocate, big-data intelligence on Russia's wars in Ukraine and Syria), demonstrated through comparative photographic evidence that the group, "Turan," a supposed Muslim Russian PMC in Syria, was fake. A different "journalist," Oleg Blokhin of two pro-Russian-state news organizations (the Abkhazian Network News Agency, http://anna-news.info/about/, and Russian Spring, http://rusvesna.su/about), who "broke" the news about Turan, actually created an elaborate photo-shopped hoax, starring himself and a colleague in combat fatigues. Several Russian newspapers had written about Turan as if it were real (Bukkvoll and Østensen 2018).
Soon after the publication of the CIT investigation, ANNA News began removing Oleg Blokhin's materials from its website. Meanwhile, Znak.com contacted Blokhin, and he called the investigation into the Turan PMC "fake and delusional." "Why, in principle, the appearance of Turan was associated with me, I do not know. The investigation is based only on some gossip and guesswork ... I would advise those people who are engaged in such investigations to carefully check the information and not speculate on assumptions. Because the output may turn out to be such a fake, nonsense, "he said.
Among the Russian accounts promoting the idea that Ms. Psaki had lost her job was that of ANNA, an obscure news agency based in Abkhazia ...
Ни от меня, ни от ANNA News никогда в жизни не выходила информация о «Туране». Я не комментирую вообще [информацию, которая] касается каких-либо российских подразделений в Сирии. Что касается фотографии с Калашниковым, непонятно, о чем она говорит и при чем здесь ЧВК «Туран» ...
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)The existence of at least one Russian PMC seems to have been completely fabricated, for unknown reasons. Ruslan Leviev of the Conflict Intelligence Team (a group that describes itself as conducting open-source, devil's advocate, big-data intelligence on Russia's wars in Ukraine and Syria), demonstrated through comparative photographic evidence that the group, "Turan," a supposed Muslim Russian PMC in Syria, was fake. A different "journalist," Oleg Blokhin of two pro-Russian-state news organizations (the Abkhazian Network News Agency, http://anna-news.info/about/, and Russian Spring, http://rusvesna.su/about), who "broke" the news about Turan, actually created an elaborate photo-shopped hoax, starring himself and a colleague in combat fatigues. Several Russian newspapers had written about Turan as if it were real (Bukkvoll and Østensen 2018).
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)Among the Russian accounts promoting the idea that Ms. Psaki had lost her job was that of ANNA, an obscure news agency based in Abkhazia ...
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)... Расследование [CIT] основано только на каких-то сплетнях и догадках. Якобы я похож на человека в униформе с шевроном этой ЧВК. Ну и что? Потом там показан неизвестный человек возле БТРа, у которого замазано лицо. И по этому фото тоже делаются какие-то выводы, но не представлено никаких более-менее конкретных фактов. А то, что якобы проводимые операции „ЧВК Туран" проходили в тех местах Сирии, где был я… Ну что ж, я могу сказать только одно: я был в Сирии везде.