How Bellingcat documents Russian war crimes in Ukraine | Conflict Zone

If you really want to know about war, who’s murdering and torturing, who’s giving the orders and which weapons are being used, much of it is out there on the internet. There is still cause for hope, at least that's what Eliot Higgins the founder of the open-cource research orgnization, Bellingcat, believes. Speaking to DW's Tim Sebastian, Higgins said Ukraine might be the best hope of achieving accountability and the internet is providing the means to build the case files. Bellingcat has exposed Russian spies and assassins, now it is collecting the evidence of war crimes in Ukraine. The British founder of the group has been mining that raw data and incriminating the brutal and powerful. In Ukraine his investigators are poring over evidence of Russian war crimes but he’s not averse to looking at Western actions elsewhere. "While I think we do have a reputation for focussing a lot on Russia….it gives us a lot more to write about.” Higgins doesn’t flinch from naming names, but he fights on an information battlefield – where facts – however detailed– are routinely contested and dismissed as fake news. Is truth already a devalued currency? Let us know what you think in the comments. Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:02 Welcome to Eliot Higgins 01:09 Poking the Bear 01:29 Russian disinformation & cyberattacks 02:45 What is Bellingcat becoming? 03:15 Sued by Yevgeniy Prigozhin for Wagner PMC allegations (SLAPP) 04:15 Intercept reporting on EU sanctions 05:40 Investigating war crimes in Ukraine with OSINT 05:50 Saudi airstrikes in Yemen 06:05 Bellingcat's process of data verification & ICC 06:27 Human rights violations in Bucha under Russian occupation 07:05 Azov Battalion allegations 07:35 Executions by Russian forces 08:29 Ukraine is the best hope for accountability 08:59 Russian operational security 09:50 Mutilation of Ukrainian POW 12:25 Origins of Bellingcat in Arab Spring & Libya 13:20 CIA and conspiracy theorists 14:20 Using Geolocation and MH-17 14:45 Bellingcat's relationship with Western intelligence services 15:00 CIA, MI5, MI6 and transparency 16:05 "Maria Adela" GRU spy near NATO headquarters in Naples 16:45 Russia is corrupt from top to bottom 17:14 Hunting Kremlin assassins throgh phone records, pasenger lists, & travel documents. 17:35 Skripal, Navalny poisonings 19:01 Buying data on the Dark Web; Afghanistan 19:45 US airstrikes in Syria 20:30 Freedom House and internet freedom 21:20 Russian convoys & Tik Tok 22:40 Do facts matter still in age of Donald Trump? 24:00 Chemical weapon attacks in Syria & invasion of Iraq 24:32 Coronavirus, COVID19 and mistrust of elites Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/deutschewelleenglish?sub_confirmation=1 For more news go to: http://www.dw.com/en/ Follow DW on social media: ►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deutschewellenews/ ►Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwnews ►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwnews ►Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dwnews_hangout Für Videos in deutscher Sprache besuchen Sie: https://www.youtube.com/dwdeutsch