:format(webp)/nginx/o/2021/06/09/13835683t1hed14.jpg)
:format(webp)/nginx/o/2024/06/26/16182222t1h7b2c.jpg)
On paper, she appears to be publishing an African diplomacy journal from Mustamäe, but for years journalist Anna van Densky has been working in the corridors and press rooms of the European Union and NATO in Brussels. Her behavior and questions have bewildered EU officials and journalists so much that they keep their distance from her like the plague.
When former Foreign Minister Kristiina Ojuland worked in the European Parliament from 2009-2014, she developed such a trusting relationship with Anna van Densky (a pseudonym; her birth name is Anna Vvedenskaya) that she allowed her to use her office computer to write articles occasionally.
«This requires quite a bit of trust in a person, doesn't it?» Ojuland said, «I did trust her.»
At that time, Ojuland was focused on the so-called Magnitsky sanctions, and Van Densky conducted many interviews with her—Ojuland recalls some of them being for a TV channel in Narva—leading Ojuland to retrospectively consider van Densky as an unofficial employee of her office. Van Densky also collaborated with the Russian-language newspaper Postimees at the time.
Soon after Ojuland left European politics, she realized she had trusted the wrong person. According to Ojuland, van Densky, who had previously been critical of the Russian regime and supportive of the opposition, made a 180-degree turn in her views and article stances following the annexation of Crimea. «It was quite shocking. I have never spoken to her since,» Ojuland said.
Ojuland left, but van Densky, who had been covering EU developments since at least the mid-2000s, stayed in Brussels.
She became an overly eager journalist with a vague professional background and suspicious motives, often presenting an alternative perspective at press conferences regardless of the topic. Most Brussels media correspondents know her, but many avoid direct contact whenever possible. In response to emails from Postimees, van Densky wrote about many things but refused to comment on her worldview, saying only that everything about it is already visible online.
The assortment of publications for which van Densky has produced content over the years is varied, ranging from Russia Today, one of the Kremlin's most notorious media outlets, to EU Reporter, which has been criticized for doing little more than posting corporate press releases and content marketing articles. In recent years, her works have appeared on websites with backgrounds that are, to put it mildly, shady, or what could be called fake media created as a smokescreen, such as Europe Diplomatic and Brussel's Diplomatic. «Basically, like websites made with WordPress, not genuine online media with editors and their own editorial staff,» said Oliver Grimm, Brussels correspondent for the Austrian newspaper Die Presse.
For instance, a website called Africa Diplomatic is registered in Mustamäe on Ehitajate Road, and its owner is the Estonian business entity OÜ Stellaris Press (the sole representative of the company is van Densky). Using this connection, van Densky has recently marked Estonia as her country of origin on European Parliament accreditations.
When Grimm came to work in Brussels in 2017-2018, van Densky caught his eye with her surprisingly specific questions about Africa. The first incident that drew Grimm's attention to van Densky was after a press lunch with some MEPs. As the group was leaving the restaurant, she suddenly started praising Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch right-wing populists, to Grimm—talking about how Wilders had long known about the threat of Islam and what a visionary genius he was.
Grimm tried to investigate van Densky's background more closely at one point, but neither he nor Postimees could get a clear picture. As mentioned, she uses a pseudonym in her journalism. Recently, she has presented herself as an Estonian journalist on accreditations. However, in a comment to Postimees, she wrote that she is a journalist from the United Kingdom. She has a Dutch EU passport (though when Grimm spoke to his Dutch colleagues, none of them knew anything about her).
Ojuland told Postimees in passing that van Densky was once such a serious opponent of Putin's regime that she even tried to renounce her Russian citizenship. But van Densky herself says to Postimees that she has never been a Russian citizen. She adds that she was not born in Russia and has not published articles in Russian or on Russian topics. Her statements again scream contradictions: on her Facebook page, van Densky has listed Moscow as her place of birth, but in another place, the Ukrainian city of Lviv. She attended the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. Yet, on her LinkedIn profile, she does not mention Moscow State University, claiming only to have graduated from the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts (ABK) and the European Journalism Centre (EJC). And it is definitely not true that she does not write on Russian topics.
«She stands out from all others by always carrying a wheeled suitcase (in the EU and NATO headquarters), which is peculiar,» says Joosep Värk, Brussels correspondent for the Estonian Public Broadcasting. His only encounter with van Densky was at a background briefing, where Värk asked something critical about the local arrangements. «After the briefing, van Densky came to chat very friendly—who knows what kind of kindred spirit she felt. But since I knew her background, I've kept my distance.»
Van Densky is also remarkably active for a typical Brussels journalist. Once a month, the European Parliament holds a week-long session in Strasbourg, France, and van Densky is one of the few journalists who almost always attends. She is a regular at the European Commission's daily press briefings, which have a poor reputation among journalists, as they have become useless ritual events where substantial answers are not expected. Van Densky stands out there with spontaneous and strange questions that seem to come out of nowhere.
Officials and journalists Postimees spoke with unanimously marvel at the passion with which van Densky fights her mainstream-deviating battles, from anti-vaccine speeches and questions during the pandemic to other topics.
For instance, at a recent commission briefing that lasted about ten minutes, van Densky spent the first five minutes questioning about Ukraine and Moldova's accession talks. She asked how it fits with the Copenhagen criteria (conditions a candidate country must meet to join the EU) that men in Ukraine are not allowed to leave the country, thus not being treated equally to women. When the commission spokesperson mentioned the war and mobilization order in response, van Densky continued to hammer away with follow-up questions on the topic. «Completely grotesque. It was clear where it was coming from,» is Grimm's impression.
In March last year, Lithuanian MEP Rasa Juknevičienė, the Lithuanian Permanent Representation to the EU, and French journalist Raphaël Glucksmann organized a seminar on Russian culture in the context of the war of aggression against Ukraine. When one panelist, Edward Lucas, asked if there was anyone in the room who was truly ethnically Russian and from Russia, van Densky spoke up, accusing the panelists of bias, abandoning Russian civil society, and not inviting any Russians to participate in the seminar.
Van Densky is also active on her YouTube channel, where she regularly posts video blogs. Among other things, she has recently expressed the opinion that Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (RE) is effectively the deputy ruler of the United States in Estonia. «She has no independent policy or role, just as Estonian representatives of power have never had. Remember, former president [Toomas Hendrik] Ilves, you could say, was essentially an American citizen.»
Speaking about NATO countries sending military forces to Ukraine, she asks for serious attention to Kallas's words, as Estonia has never been independent in its political initiatives and serves American interests. «Why are they doing this? Because they consider it a worthwhile investment—if they defeat Russia in this conflict, Russia's resources will open up to them just as they did during [former Russian president Boris] Yeltsin's time.»
In December, she said that Chinese authorities are using the U.S. proxy war against Russia to topple the Americans from the position of world hegemon and make China the leader of the world order.
By the way, in her videos, she collects donations for buying food for dogs in shelters in Berdyansk and Donbass, occupied by Russia.
When it comes to journalists covering the European Councils, Belgian police always thoroughly check the background of accredited individuals. Grimm often asks them how it is possible for «journalists» like van Densky or, for example, Chinese state media employees to be accredited, even though they are clearly not journalists. «They say that otherwise, we would make them martyrs of press freedom,» says Grimm, but adds that the local authorities are very well aware of van Densky's peculiarities.
If van Densky had maliciously used the opportunity to access Ojuland's computer, it would have come to light long ago, Ojuland believes. «What could she have done there? At the time, there were no major secrets in the European Parliament. The area I was working on was completely public.»
Ojuland and van Densky also share one common trait: sympathy for Azerbaijan. As a member of the European Parliament, Ojuland, who had previously been active in relations with this country, observed the presidential elections in Azerbaijan, praising their transparency and fairness. The travel expenses were covered by the Azerbaijani government. In van Densky's journalistic work, Azerbaijan has become especially dear to her over the years. As early as 2015, van Densky spoke of her interest in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. «Azerbaijan is a member of the European family,» she declared at the time.
Ojuland told Postimees that she was surprised by van Densky's sympathy for Azerbaijan and only learned about it from the journalist.
When Postimees corresponded with van Densky and inquired whether she had any other connections to Estonia besides the shelf company in Mustamäe, she expressed her gratitude to Estonia for inviting her to join the digital state project during the EU presidency. What project she was referring to and what van Densky's exact role was, Postimees couldn't ascertain. None of the key officials and organizers involved in the presidency had heard of van Densky's name. Maris Hellrand, who dealt with foreign journalists during the presidency, still has a list of 1,514 press contacts from the presidency, which does not include van Densky's name.
When asked to clarify her connection to Estonia's presidency, van Densky only mentioned a four-minute video interview with longtime Estonian civil servant Taavi Kotka at an Azerbaijan-EU digital cooperation meeting from ten years ago. The interview, published on the EU Reporter's YouTube channel, has received 86 views in ten years.
According to van Densky, this interview marked the beginning of her involvement in the digital state project. However, the nature of the project remains unclear, as no officials from the presidency recall any projects with such vague names.
Van Densky's response only added to the confusion, as she began talking about some inter-journalistic working format. «Perhaps it seems quite ordinary, even normal, to you and many others of your generation, as today similar formats can be found in many other EU countries that adopted this digital era initiative. But back then, a decade ago, it was a complete breakthrough to create a journalistic center using online communities.»