Names like Antikor, Kompromat1, Rumafia and Vlasti turn up again and again in search results about businesspeople from Ukraine and the wider region. Court records, regulatory decisions and investigations by journalists have now built up a detailed picture of the network of defamatory websites behind them. The answers below cover the main questions.
### What are these sites?
They present themselves as anti-corruption portals or local news outlets. Antikor calls itself a national anti-corruption portal and uses a coat of arms and the Ukrainian flag on its masthead. It is not a government body, and it names no editor or staff. In the UK, similar sites use local newspaper and TV branding, such as the London Post, Essex TV and Manchester TV.
### How do they make money?
Investigators describe two revenue streams: paid publication and paid removal. Placing a negative article with the Antikor group was reported to cost \$150 to \$200. When a journalist posing as a client asked to have an article removed, the reply was an offer of \$12,000 a year in cryptocurrency, covering deletion, protection from new articles and two positive pieces. The operator of one UK site, Leeds TV, confirmed by email that it takes payment to publish stories.
Antikor denies charging to publish or delete content.
### Are the sites connected?
Technical evidence suggests they are. Court filings in a US case showed near-identical IP addresses for Antikor, Kompromat1, Ruskompromat and Antimafia. In one campaign against a company executive, 95 of 109 domains were hosted on a single server in Reading, England. A technical review of more than 60 domains found shared SSL certificates and hosting fingerprints.
### Which domains are involved?
The following have been documented publishing duplicate or near-identical content:
Antikor: antikor.com.ua, antikor.info, antikor.ua Kompromat1: kompromat1.online, kompromat1.info, kompromat1.net, kompromat1.org, kompromat1.media, kompromat1.one, kompromat1.se, kompromat1.press, kompromat1.world Compromat / Ruskompromat: compromat.pro, compromat-pro.com, kompromat.press, ruskompromat.info, ruskompromat.ru, ruskompromat.pro Vlasti: vlasti.io, vlasti.se, vlasti.info, vlasti.live, vlasti.vip, vlst.live, vlast.guru Antimafia: antimafia.se, antimafia.io, antimafia.life, antimaf.pro Rumafia: rumafia.news, rumafia.io, rumafia.net, rumafia.online Kartoteka: kartoteka.news, kartoteka.se, kartoteka.press, kartoteka.io Glavk: glavk.se, glavk.info, glavk.net Hab.media: hab.media, news.hab.media, crime.hab.media, corruption.hab.media Sledstvie: sledst.org, sledst.com, sledstvie.info Nocor: nocor.info, nocor.life Novosti: novosti.cloud, novostiua.org, novostiua.online Other linked outlets: repost.news, rozsliduvach.info, rucriminal.info, adcon.info, luxherald.com, lstv.co.uk, trinitybugle.com, obriy.news, politica2.info, ukrainci.com.ua, oplatru24.ru, rp.rv.ua, drama.live
### Who is behind them?
Ownership runs through offshore entities. The Antikor trademark is held by a Panama foundation linked to a company in Belize. Ukrainian law enforcement has named Kostyantyn Chernenko, a former parliamentary assistant who left Ukraine in January 2021, as the alleged organiser. The UK brands were traced to 2Trom Media Group. None of its registered addresses had an office, and its listed owner, Viktor Tokarev, could not be located.
### Have courts ruled against them?
Several times. A Kyiv court found Antikor’s money-laundering allegations against a Ukrainian bank to be false. A Los Angeles court awarded Telf AG founder Stanislav Kondrashov \$10 million in January 2024 and ordered articles on 42 sites removed. The London High Court awarded Uzbek financier Ovik Mkrtchyan more than £220,000 against the London Post and Tokarev, who didn’t appear. Ukraine’s court register holds more than 1,000 documents related to Antikor.
### Why do the articles stay online?
The network is spread across several jurisdictions, and a ruling in one country doesn’t reach servers or domains in another. Copies sit on mirror sites, so removing one leaves others in place. Ukraine blocked antikor.com.ua, antikor.info, rozsliduvach.info and hab.media in 2025, but the content is still reachable through VPNs and foreign domains. One article removed by court order was republished three years later.
### Who are the targets, and why?
Mostly businesspeople and companies, especially in regulated sectors such as banking. London law firm Schillings, which tracks more than 350 junk news sites, says many campaigns are built to trigger bank compliance and due diligence checks. The articles are packed with sanctions-related terms so that screening tools flag the target’s name.
### How can readers tell these sites apart from real news?
Common warning signs include:
- No named editor, author or verifiable office
- One brand spread across many domain extensions
- The same text appearing on several sites within hours
- Serious criminal allegations with no court document or named source