The Telegram channels Baltic Bridge, Narva_News_TG, and Vana Toomase Teataja frequently share posts by blogger Klaudia Sipsikova. Sipsikova’s channel was created on May 6, 2021 — just before May 9 — and its first topics were Victory Day and the Immortal Regiment march. As of now, Sipsikova’s channel has 2,829 subscribers, and over four years, more than 5,000 posts have been made.
On the Vana Toomase Teataja Telegram channel, Sipsikova is introduced as follows: “… born in Tallinn, speaks both Russian and Estonian, and knows the Baltic states not just from stories.”
But let’s start by introducing Sipsikova’s activities. Among her recent seemingly innocent yet Russia-promoting comments are, for example, the note that on composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s birthday, the ballet Swan Lake was shown on a large screen at Helsinki Airport. Or that one of Russia’s largest diamonds, a 468-carat gem, was discovered and named “80 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.” Sipsikova took a negative tone when commenting on Estonia’s decision to close its airspace to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was travelling to Moscow for the parade and a meeting with Vladimir Putin.
On May 9 this year, Sipsikova posted a video from the banks of the Narva River with the caption: “Today, many people are gathered both in the Russian border town of Ivangorod and in the Estonian town of Narva across the river, and the Russian anthem is playing ❤️.” She also published a short video of people laying flowers at the Bronze Soldier monument in Tallinn.
Sipsikova’s blog followers are not particularly active. For example, on May 5, she invited people to join a virtual Immortal Regiment march and asked them to share stories about their ancestors from World War II in the comments. However, only two people responded to the call.
Sipsikova’s own posts tend to have a moderate tone, but the well-known Russian propagandists she shares harshly criticize Estonia, the other Baltic states, and the entire Western world in vividly worded, characteristically Russian style. She most frequently shares content from Armen Gasparyan, a TV and radio host sanctioned by the West.
To reinforce the image of an innocent and trustworthy blonde, Sipsikova alternates her propaganda-tinged posts with cute pictures of bunnies and kittens.
Sipsikova or Fyodorova?
Klaudia Sipsikova (Клавдия Сипсикова) has said about herself that she graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in journalism, defended a thesis in audiovisual publicist, and has worked in radio for many years. One source even claims that Sipsikova has earned a doctoral degree from Moscow State University.
It has also been said about Klaudia Sipsikova that she was born in Tallinn and speaks fluent Estonian. Sipsikova may indeed be originally from Tallinn, as one shared photo shows her standing as an exemplary young person in an honor guard next to the Bronze Soldier monument in Tallinn.
If one searches for a person named Klaudia Sipsikova — a name reminiscent of the character Sipsik from Estonian author Eno Raud — it turns out that no such person exists. However, we did find someone strikingly similar to Sipsikova in the shared photos: Viktoria Fyodorova, who has been conducting interviews and live broadcasts as a host on the propaganda channel Sputnik since October 2018.
For example, on January 9, 2020, Sputnik organised a televised bridge between Moscow, Sevastopol, Chișinău, and Tallinn on information and hybrid warfare. The event was hosted by Fyodorova (in the bottom photo) and featured two then-contributors from Sputnik Estonia.
Unfortunately, Sputnik does not disclose the names of the journalists appearing in its broadcasts. After a long and painstaking search, Propastop managed to find a webpage where the notorious propaganda channel had slipped up, revealing that Sipsikova’s real (or possibly journalistic) name is Виктория Федорова (Viktoria Fyodorova).
The strange pseudonym does not attract readers
Since there are hundreds, if not thousands, of women named Viktoria Fyodorova in Russia, searching for more specific biographical information is a very time-consuming task — and it’s uncertain whether the potential outcome is worth the effort. It is likely that Viktoria Fyodorova, also known as Sipsikova, has received an award from the Eurasian Development Bank for organising and conducting video conferences on current topics related to Eurasian integration with the countries of the Eurasian Union.
In conclusion, Sipsikova’s Telegram blog is a good example of how Russia does not limit itself to anonymous trolling online but has also created seemingly authentic profiles and networks with the help of professional journalists to spread propaganda.
The case of Sipsikova demonstrates that such profiles, where a real person appears with their face but under a false name—do not attract much engagement. It isn’t easy to assess to what extent the unrealistic-sounding pseudonym has reduced interest among Russian-speaking internet users, and how many simply find Sipsikova not talented or charismatic enough as a presenter. Propastop aims to uncover the background of such bloggers as well, so our readers can better understand how Russian propaganda mechanisms operate.
Screenshots from Telegram and Sputnik websites have been used to illustrate the article.
