Zerohedge

Screenshot of Zero Hedge Article by the Strategic Culture Foundation

Zerohedge is a pro-Russia news organization founded by Daniel Ivandjiiski, who was born in Bulgaria.

Daniel Ivandjiiski's father is Krassimir Ivandjiiski, who became a member of the Soviet front International Organization of Journalists in 1974.,,

Response to Unveiling

Although the founder of Zerohedge was revealed years prior,, Business Insider reported in 2016 that Zerohedge was founded by Daniel Ivandjiiski, a Bulgarian former hedge fund analyst, and Tim Backshall, a 45-year-old credit derivatives strategist, according to former Zerohedge reporter Colin Lokey.

After being outed as the reporters behind Zerohedge, the website responded in part:

"It started years ago with a NY Magazine article published in September 2009 which first 'unmasked' the people behind Zero Hedge with the 'The Dow Zero Insurgency: The nothing-can-be-believed chaos of the financial crisis created a golden opportunity for a blog run by a mysterious ex-hedge-funder with a dodgy past and conspiracy theories to burn' in which we were presented as a bunch of 'conspiracy theory' tin foil hat paranoid loons.

[...]

"Others, such as 'academics who defend Wall Street to reap rewards' had taken on a different approach, accusing the website of being a 'Russian information operation', supporting pro-Russian interests, which allegedly involved KGB and even Putin ties, simply because we refused to follow the pro-US script. We are certainly ok with being the object of other's conspiracy theories, in this case completely false ones since we have never been in contact with anyone in Russia, or the US, or any government for that matter. We have also never accepted a dollar of outside funding from either public or private organization - we have prided ourselves in our financial independence because we have been profitable since inception.

[...]

"Zero Hedge hired Colin when he approached us over a year ago begging for a job after he was fired with cause from Seeking Alpha following a fight with a coworker. This should have set off alarm flags but we ignored it.

[...]

More importantly, and unfortunately, Colin also was revealed to be an emotionally unstable, psychologically troubled alcoholic with a drug dealer past, as per his own disclosures.

All of these revelations were made clear to us long after we hired Colin, and unfortunately they were the catalyst that precipitated his full emotional collapse and ultimately led to his abrupt departure. All of these facts were also made clear to Bloomberg as part of its source "fact-checking." Surprisingly to us, Bloomberg had no problems running a sole-sourced piece by a disgruntled former employee who not only admitted he had major psychological problems, a checkered past, was unstable, but had also made clear his motive to "out" this website with hopes of crushing it and even issued death threats to Zero Hedge workers.

Strategic Culture Foundation

Example of Zerohedge articles that initiated from the Strategic Culture Foundation.

Zerohedge has published hundreds of articles that originated from Pepe Escobar of the Strategic Culture Foundation, a Moscow-based "online journal registered in Russia that is directed by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and closely affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

The Associated Press asked Zerohedge about their connection to the Strategic Culture Foundation:

Zero Hedge has denied any wrongdoing and said it publishes a variety of opinions on its site.

Zero Hedge told the AP there “is no relationship between Strategic Cultural Foundation (or the SVR) and Zero Hedge, and furthermore this is the first time we hear someone allege that the Foundation is linked to Russian propaganda.”