What is known about Yuriy Shvets
Shvets is probably 72 years old. We say "probably", because his entire biography is known only from his words and the autobiographical book "My Life in the USA as a KGB Spy". So, probably, he was born in the Ukrainian SSR, and graduated from high school in Kherson. Subsequently, he served in the army for two years — in the special forces of the GRU near Odesa, on the shores of the Black Sea.
Therefore, he probably moved to Moscow, where in the fall of 1973 he entered the Russian Peopleʼs Friendship University. He studied there for seven years and graduated with three honours degrees — international law, translation from English and French. Shvets did not show these diplomas in any video.
After graduating from the institute, he was probably recruited by the KGB. In the book, Shvets writes that he got into the American foreign intelligence department of the FMB of the KGB of the USSR in 1980. After working for several months, he entered the Red Banner Institute of the KGB. He studied there for two years, i.e. from approximately 1980 to 1982. Shvets also mentions in the book that he graduated from the institute with honors in 1982.
According to the Russian state news agency TASS, Vladimir Putin studied at the KGB institute for a year and graduated in 1985. That is, if Shvets studied at the same institute, he did not cross paths with Putin there.
Shvets writes that he came to the USA in the spring of 1985. Under the guise of a TASS journalist, he was supposed to recruit Americans and gather information about a possible US nuclear strike on the Soviet Union. In 1987, due to a conflict with the leadership, the Swede was allegedly prematurely recalled to the USSR.
As Shvets writes, in 1990 the KGB was preparing a coup dʼétat and ordered the shooting of "hordes of democrats" who were supposed to storm the intelligence building. He finally became disillusioned with Soviet intelligence and resigned.
In 1993, Shvets was banned from traveling abroad, so he illegally left Russia and moved to the United States. Since then, he says, he has "worked as an independent contractor on business security and risk assessment" for the worldʼs largest corporations, such as Boeing and Royal Dutch Shell, and the largest British and American banks and hedge funds. There is no confirmation of this information.
On the "Gordon" website, they write a little differently about Shvets — since 1997, he heads "an American firm for gathering information and assessing commercial risks of companies that plan to conduct multimillion-dollar business both in the territory of the former USSR and around the world, including Latin America, Africa and Asia". The name of the company "Gordon" is not indicated.
Yuriy Shvets against Vladimir Putin
In 2017, Dmitry Gordon revealed Shvets to the world as a fellow student of Putin. And although Shvets said that he did not remember Putin, the conversation gathered 2.4 million views. Since then, Shvets regularly says that Putin is a loser who didnʼt actually work in intelligence and had the nicknames "non-smoker", "pale mole" and "Botox". He also said that Putin in the 1990s laundered the money of the Colombian Cali drug cartel. Shvets regularly predicts that Putin will be removed from power. For example, in April 2020, he said that "the situation is fully ripe, everything is ready [for the removal of Putin]". The forecast did not come true and Shvets forgot about it.
Now, according to the pseudo-expert, Putin has colon cancer and suffers from a severe mental disorder. He is fed up with the West, "serious people in the leadership of the Russian Federation" and China, because "he is always walking around with an outstretched hand with idiotic ideas," says Shvets.
Forecasts regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war
On the eve of a full-scale invasion, Shvets estimated the chances of a Russian invasion as "well below 50%", because only a "crazy fanatic" would go for it, and Putin is not like that. Besides, Putin and his state are unable to fight, he said.
Subsequently, Shvets regularly predicted the date of victory and liberation of the occupied Ukrainian territories. And he was constantly wrong.
Military forecasts of Shvets
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"No one expects the war to end in weeks," the fighting may continue as long as Putin is in power.
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The active phase of the battle on the battlefield will end within a week.
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If Russia is destined to lose this war, it will do so in the late summer of 2023.
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The Armed Forces will liberate the south and east [autumn-winter 2022], and Crimea "can be left for spring [2023]."
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In 2023, there will be a "bloody battle" for Crimea with heavy losses for Ukraine.
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The hot stage of the war will end in 2024 — the Ukrainian Armed Forces will liberate the occupied territories and Crimea.
About embezzlement of aid from Western partners
The Swedeʼs favourite topic is that the Ukrainian government steals humanitarian and military aid from its Western partners, which is why they no longer trust it. He first stated this in April 2022, when his words were spread by Russian propaganda media and social media users. This statement was refuted at the briefing by Serhiy Leshchenko, a freelance adviser to the head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak.
In 2023, he said that "the indignation of Americans and Europeans-NATO knew no bounds" because "Javelin missiles reach the front without computers." Therefore, Western suppliers are "actively discussing" the possibility of excluding the Ministry of Defense from humanitarian aid supplies.
According to Shvets, the inspectors general from the USA have already informed "the team of President Zelensky, in which there were probably known faces and surnames", that they are responsible for whether the aid is ordered correctly, according to the law. And if "aid pranks" happen, they will be prosecuted under the US law for "wasting American taxpayersʼ money".
To solve the problem of embezzlement of Western aid, Shvets advises the Zelenskyʼs government to hire politician Ihor Smeshko — he calls him "the most educated and smartest professional". Since December 2019, Shvets supported Smeshko as a presidential candidate. For example, he said that Smeshko is "the most worthy candidate and salvation for Ukraine, who will be able to clean out the agents of the Kremlin". At the same time, Dmitry Gordon was actively engaged in Smeshkoʼs PR.
A large network of anonymous Swedish sources (and these are just the ones weʼve heard of)
Retired Soviet air defense officers.
Sources from London and Washington, who closely deal with Ukraine.
Sources from military circles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Great American military leaders.
A four-star general.
American colonel.
Insiders among foreign partners of Ukraine.
Sources in Bulgaria.
People in the US House of Representatives.
Appropriate contacts at the Pentagon.
About how Yermak "merges Ukraine"
Shvets regularly spreads conspiracy theories about the head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak. He says that the Office "is plotting against Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky". He has another version: Zelensky is a puppet, and he is used as a cover.
The blogger also claims that Andriy Yermak personally manages the Ukrainian Armed Forces and manually distributes ammunition to units. He directs the projectiles to "where they could wait", and thus systematically destroys the best units of the Armed Forces. He does not name any of the destroyed units.
Shvets has no doubt that the dismissal of Valerii Zaluzhnyi from the post of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is Yermakʼs coup dʼétat. Instead, the new head Oleksandr Syrskyi is a "manual commander-in-chief who does not have his own opinion". "Now the country will be under the control of Yermak, his men, FSB, the Kremlin and Putin," the blogger concludes.
In June 2024, Shvets predicted that Syrskyi would soon be released in order to "obfuscate the traces of Yermakʼs stormy activities in the field of unofficial but effective leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces". The new commander-in-chief was to become the military Yevhen Moysyuk or the head of GUR Kyrylo Budanov.
5 more conspiracy theories of Yuriy Shvets
Thanks to their financial wealth, the "influential families of the world scale" influence the position of the ruling circles of virtually every Western country — thatʼs why they support Ukraine.
In Ukraine, there is a fifth column of power that can sabotage the support of the West.
Andriy Yermak was included in the list of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine, because his lobbyists paid for it $27 million, which was stolen from the US aid. And the punishment for this "sooner or later will catch up with Yermak".
Donald Trump is actually a puppet of businessmen Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.
KGB pushed Donald Trump to run for president of the United States, because it identified him as a potential candidate back in the 1980s. He told the American conspiracy theorist and journalist Craig Anger about this.
The war of pseudo-experts
In April 2024, Yuriy Shvets called the Bulgarian pseudo-expert Plamen Paskov "a full-fledged low-quality teapot, a dirty tank for draining all kinds of Russian conspiracy theories". Babel analyzed Paskovʼs biography, conspiracy theories and pro-Russian statements in detail.
In response, Paskov recorded the video "Shvets vs. Paskov. The Right of Reply". In it, he also called Shvets a pseudo-expert and "a pro-Kremlin, pro-Russian public enemy of all progressive humanity".
A similar conflict occurred in September 2024 between a Swede and Russian journalist Igor Yakovenko, who was allegedly close to the Kremlin and often comments on popular topics on YouTube. Shvets said that Yakovenko receives money from the head of the Presidentʼs Office Andriy Yermak. In response, Yakovenko accused Shvets of slander and said that Shvets is lying "about everything that happens in Ukraine".
Yuriy Shvets against the Ukrainian and American governments
In January 2023, former US diplomat and staff foreign intelligence officer at the US State Department Bart Marquana wrote that Shvets uses every opportunity to criticize the Ukrainian intelligence services and deliberately distorts the truth, probably to create a split between GUR and CIA.
In July 2024, the Head of the Center for Combating Disinformation Andriy Kovalenko called Shvets an employee of the Russian GRU who works undercover. He says that Shvets was one of the first to spread a fake about Russiaʼs peace plan — and this "Kolokoltsev plan", which allegedly reached Shvets, does not actually exist.
"No secret plans ever end up on bloggersʼ desks," he added.
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