This writing is a kind of cross-section into
the public and to some extent private self of Konstantin Mikhailovich
Lebedev, aka Kosti Heiskanen. The person whom we have come to know
in Finland as Kosti Heiskanen, producing war propaganda and propaganda for
Russia. In my writing, I do not approach him through any single episode, but
rather this is a compilation – a cross-section – into his career. The exception
is individual excerpts from Heiskanen’s social media accounts, which can be
considered his more personal statements. However, I will not take a position on
whether they are true or just part of the story. For the sake of clarity, in
this article I will use the name Kosti Heiskanen, which is better known to
Finns, instead of Lebedev. The article is based on my Finnish-language blog “Propagandisti
Konstantin Mihailovitš Lebedev, tunnetaan myös nimellä Kosti Heiskanen”.
 |
| Konstantin Mikhailovich Lebedev, aka propagandist Kosti Heiskanen. |
In the weeks and months following Russia’s
major invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many “Kremlin echoes” spread
the Russian narrative and blatant lies on various social media platforms and in
other arenas as well. In the summer of 2022, Kosti Heiskanen appeared as the “Voice
of Finland” on the state-owned Rossiya-24 (Russian: Россия-24) “news channel”, accusing the
Finnish press of inciting hatred of Russia. (1) If he had previously appeared
in any major media in Russia, it had passed by the eyes and ears of many other
people who followed Russian war news or propaganda, including me. However, such
a person could not have appeared in the Russian media out of thin air: who
is Kosti Heiskanen?
He wasn’t exactly a “tabula rasa”.
Namely, a detail from Heiskanen’s past that touched us Finns was found in an
instant in 2009. In a Yleisradio news report on the kidnapping of Paavo
Salonen’s son Anton to Russia, it was reported that journalist Kosti
Heiskanen had helped Anton’s father, Paavo Salonen, in his search for his son
in Russia. (2)
At that time, child abductions were in the
headlines, and specifically the abduction of children to Russia. The previous
summer, Paavo Salonen’s son Anton had been secretly brought from Russia to
Finland. Anton’s mother, Rimma Salonen, had kidnapped her son to Russia
in March 2008. (3)
A certain Johan Bäckman also
participated in the activities, giving statements on behalf of Anton’s mother,
Rimma Salonen. Similarly, Anton’s father Paavo Salonen was assisted by Kosti
Heiskanen, who was introduced as a journalist. In this context, it is worth
noting that Heiskanen assisted Paavo Salonen in the search already during 2008.
In June 2008, Heiskanen, introduced as a journalist for Independent Press,
gave a statement to Ilta-Sanomat after Paavo’s son had been found. (4)
Independent Press Oy (the company has ceased operations)
was a publishing company in Lappeenranta that published a Russian and
Finnish-language magazine, which, among other things, published articles about
the alleged hardships faced by Russians in Finland. The magazine, Focus,
published by the company was edited by Kosti Heiskanen. (5)
In less than two decades, Heiskanen’s path has
taken him from being Bäckman’s opponent to being on the same side of the field,
with both of them participating in Russia’s propaganda war against the West
today. Or are the events of the past just a cleverly constructed theater? However,
it cannot be denied that Heiskanen’s own life also contains episodes that make
it possible to collect “incriminating material” and use it to kompromat.
But before I delve into Kosti Heiskanen’s current activities as a propagandist,
it is worth briefly reviewing Heiskanen’s background, even though it has been
reviewed in an article published in The Insider in June 2024. (6)
Kosti Heiskanen, also known as Konstantin
Mikhailovich Lebedev, is a descendant of Finnish communists who emigrated to
the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Heiskanen was born in April 1978. According to
leaked information from the Russian passport system published by Pointmedia
(Russian: Точка), he did not change his name until 2004. (7) Heiskanen’s
own story about his background is consistent with the above. In his VK
update (December 2024), he says the following:
“---I have never hidden this, and always
when giving interviews I explained that I am a descendant of Finnish
immigrants, Karelians, Vepsians and Germans. During the Soviet period, many had
Russian first and last names, including a large number of Russian Germans. This
bullying began when I posted a picture on social media of starting a family at
the age of 20 and how my children - - - asked me to take their last
names.---” (8 – note: text translated into English by the author of the
text.)
According to Heiskanen himself, he lived in
Finland from 1996 to 2012, in Lappeenranta and Helsinki, as well as in Sipoo.
In 2012, he mentions that he moved to Berlin, Germany.
Heiskanen has lived in Germany until spring
2022, working in the tourism industry. A company was registered in his name for
the tourism industry in Berlin in February 2012. The company (World Travel
Consulting Panorama Tours GmbH) has since ceased operations. Heiskanen’s
name can also be associated with another company, NORVISTA TRAVEL &
TRADE GmbH, which was registered in October 2018. (9) It is interesting to
note that the first-mentioned company also had an office in Finland – at
Tehtaankatu 12, Helsinki. Rustravel Oy, which was founded 23 years ago
by Oleg Gergalo, operates at the same address. Gergalo’s name came up a
couple of years ago when the Russian Rossiya24 channel, based on FSB
sources, claimed that he was providing information to the Finnish Security
and Intelligence Service, Suojelupoliisi in Finland. According to a
communications expert for the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service, this
is a case of Russian information influence.
Rustravel Oy has been mentioned numerous times
over the past decade, including by Johan Bäckman, when he recommended using a
travel agency for visa matters when traveling to Russia, or to the territories
occupied by Russia from Ukraine, or when enlisting in Russian proxy forces in
the war in eastern Ukraine that began in 2014. My text ”Fennomatkat Pietarissa – viihdettä sivustaseuraajille” also contains observations about
Rustravel’s activities. However, let’s return to Heiskanen’s “tourism-filled”
ramble.
According to Heiskanen, he fled Germany to
Russia in April 2022 and already on June 1, 2022, he appeared on the
state-owned Rossiya-24 news channel accusing the Finnish press of inciting
hatred against Russia: “THIS IS HOW THE FINNISH PRESS IS WHIP UP HATE
AGAINST RUSSIA.”
From being unknown to being on a state-owned
television news channel in a few weeks – now someone might say that “there’s
something rotten here…”.
Since then, we have had to watch Kosti
Heiskanen’s appearances on social media platforms, as well as in various
Russian or pro-Russian media outlets, spreading propaganda with excessive
force. Heiskanen has visited the areas occupied by Russia from Ukraine several
times. He has also visited cities destroyed by the Russians, such as Mariupol
and Avdiivka. In Avdiivka, he accused Finnish and Swedish volunteers of looting
the city without providing any evidence. (10) At this very moment, he is
touring Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, making accusations and repeating the
propaganda story that Russia has been cultivating for over a decade about
atrocities committed by Ukrainians and continuous bombings by Ukraine, which have
been shown to be disinformation and lies multiple times. (11)
Unfortunately, it is likely that some Finns
will also believe these stories, but the real target audience for Heiskanen's
reports is in Russia. Since the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula, Russia has
resorted to various foreign commentators, experts (or people presented as
such), as well as observers and activists, whose primary task is to bring
credibility to the message conveyed by Russia. Kosti Heiskanen is also
presented to the Russian public not only as a journalist but as a well-known
journalist and civic activist, which he is not.
If we ignore his own media projects, Kosti
Heiskanen’s most visible journalistic activity is connected to Russian media
and Finnish counter-media. He has commented on the situation in Finland for a
very diverse group of Russian media. Among these media are Tsargrad TV,
founded by the Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev (12), and Patriot Media Group, which was part of the “empire” of the late Yevgeny
Prigozhin. According to Novaya Gazeta, Malofeyev was involved in
creating Russia’s Ukraine memorandum in the last decade. (13) He was also a
financier and supporter of Igor Girkin during the “Russian Spring”
when the war in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014, when troops led by Girkin
began a military operation in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
 |
Kosti Heiskanen as a guest on the Tsargrad tv-channel. |
 |
| Kosti Heiskanen performing at the funeral of PMC Wagner militant Dmitry Menshikov, who liquidated in Ukraine, at the Beloostrovskaya cemetery in St. Petersburg with the Finnish flag in December 2022.(14) |
Based on Heiskanen’s activities, I would
conclude that unless he was an operator for some Russian security agency, he
has good contacts in such an organization. When a man of Russian background who
had fought in Ukraine in the ranks of PMC Wagner “defected” to Finland last
summer (2025), (15, 16) Heiskanen was able to tell the names of the fighter in
question, Zaslan Mustahanov aka Yevgeny Shpartun, and that he had
a long criminal record already at the end of June. (17)
At that time, the Finnish Border Guard
had only announced that a person had illegally crossed the border into Finland
from Russia. Heiskanen did not get the name of the PMC Wagner militant from
Finland, as I understand he was the original source of the militant’s names in
Russia as well.
Heiskanen’s other activities, such as moving
around the territories occupied by Russia from Ukraine, visiting military
units, and appearances in Russian media, also indirectly prove that he is
acting “on behalf of someone.”
In Heiskanen’s “play” we seem to have
progressed to the “Death Threats” act, which he has told Ria Novosti
about, and which are now being spread in the Russian propaganda media. (18)
This may be just one episode among the episodes that are being fed to the
media. Similar to the years-long conflict between him and Janus Putkonen, where
harsh words are used to bark and threaten, but words are not followed by
action. “There is another side to every story” to this story, i.e. there
may be a dispute between individuals in the background, which goes back to the
events of the Fennomatkat trip to St. Petersburg, but I am very wary of
everything that is being said and done in public now. We will have to wait for
the end of the play!
Marko
Sources:
1. https://x.com/HeiskanenKosti/status/1532050301955497986
3. https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000000123744.html
4. https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000000134240.html
5. https://www.hs.fi/ihmisia/art-2000004252179.html
6. The Insider: Heiskanen outed as Lebedev: the fake Finn who serves Russian propaganda.
7. https://pointmedia.io/story/65fa9170b126bc7ae0c3dc2c
8. https://vk.com/wall747478706_2907
9. https://www.northdata.de/Heiskanen,+Kosti+Mikael,+Berlin/kgr
10. https://istories.media/en/stories/2024/05/15/rossotrudnichestvo/
11. https://x.com/HeiskanenKosti/status/1982837828699722232
14. https://www.is.fi/ulkomaat/art-2000009323533.html
15. https://raja.fi/-/laiton-rajanylitys-17.6.2025-venajalta-suomeen-kiteella
16. https://yle.fi/a/74-20171865
17. https://x.com/HeiskanenKosti/status/1939386634006327501
Heiskanen’s Facebook profile update on June 29,
2025, is more detailed than his update in X.
18. https://riamediabank.ru/media/9028133.html
The text itself contains links to background
material. In the text, I have also utilized Kosti Heiskanen’s personal social
media accounts on VK and Facebook.
