Ukrainian ex-journalist and writer of Buryat origin, Dorzh Batu (real name - Andrii Vasiliev), who currently lives in the States, was accused of lying.

Journalist and blogger Viktor Tregubov stated that Batu completely invented his biography.

TSN.ua found out why the scandal broke out and what both sides of the conflict think about it.

Tregubov's accusation

The journalist claims that Vasiliev never worked at NASA and invented this fact of the biography for his own credibility.

"I already had the opportunity to check with NASA through a competent acquaintance. The check took several months. As it turned out, Andriy never worked at NASA. For the acquaintance, this became a good explanation why Andriy made mistakes in some of his stories, quite strange for a person, at least somehow related to the space sphere. This is what happens when you simply copy the news without any expertise

," the journalist noted.

According to him, NASA started its own investigation and warned Vasiliev about a possible lawsuit.

After that, the writer began to claim that he was working on a private project.

"Service at NASA" has suddenly changed to "work on a top-secret project", and Andriy carefully corrects those who still refer to NASA.

Because that's how you can go from the USA

," Tregubov writes.

He expressed doubt that it is unlikely that a Russian with a diploma from the Buryat State University in the discipline "Oriental Studies" and long experience of working on Russian federal channels could work in the space industry.

In addition, the journalist told the writer that the prototypes of the heroes of his books never existed in reality, although Batu regularly quotes them, the commander of the 103rd Air Regiment of the US National Guard (also known as the Flying Yankees) Colonel Wescott, who is the hero of the author's books.

According to Tregubov, Wescott is a completely fictional literary character.

"

I used the photo search. It was a photo from the Flying Yankees' visit to Australia in 2013. But the description of the visit did not mention the presence of this commander, which should have been there. In joint photos, the commander would be in the center, not on the edge, and "Wescott" had something on his shoulder that looked suspiciously like a senior pilot's chevron. Went to the site and page of the Flying Yankees themselves. There was no mention of such an officer. Nickname? Neither the commander nor the second-in-command there looked like the "Wescott" photo. neither the image described by Dorzh, nor the uncle in the photo provided by him. Well, absolutely. So, the spy did not let me down - Veskot did not exist. I asked Andrii what it was. Andrii assured me that he would soon prove everything - and in a few days I suddenly found myself in his bathhouse

," writes Tregubov.

The journalist explains that he respects the author's right to fiction, but the writer often assures that his characters are real people.

"In all those cases when Andriy refers to their real existence - for example, selling a "flower from Wescott's beret", as he is doing now - he is cheating,"

Tregubov adds.

The third accusation against Dorzh Batu is his journalistic past.

Tregubov claims that while working in the Russian editorial office of "Voice of America", Vasiliev allegedly completely invented an interview with the Russian oppositionist Oleksii Navalny.

"Andriy said that he left journalism because of 'personal reasons'. These 'personal reasons' - he was kicked out with a wolf ticket because he invented an interview with Navalny from scratch for the Voice of America, where he worked,"

Tregubov claims.

How Dorzh Batu reacted

The writer called the criticism directed at him "absolute delusion."

He stated that he last communicated with Tregubov in 2019 and never banned him after that.

The motives of the criticism against Batu are not clear.

Commenting on the accusations against NASA, Vasilyeva explained that he had never been a civil servant.

"I worked and still work under the terms of a contract for private companies that fulfill orders of state bodies. These private companies do not disclose information about their full-time employees,

" he said.

Regarding the person of the American Colonel Wescott, the writer says that he never reveals the real names of the prototypes of his literary characters.

"I don't write documentaries. I carefully work with facts, but my books are, first of all, fun and good stories. If my characters don't mind me revealing them, I do it. If not, they remain literary characters,"

- he says

Regarding the scandal with Navalny's interview, Vasiliev explained that the fake interview allegedly appeared due to a mistake.

Dorzh took a comment on a social network from a bot with the nickname Navalny.

Vasiliev assures that no one kicked him out of the Voice of America Russian service with a "wolf ticket".

"After the incident with Navalny, I worked there for another year and a half and resigned at the beginning of the summer of 2013,"

says the writer.

In conclusion, Dorzh Batu promised to

"transfer the discussion to the legal plane".

How the Network reacts

It should be noted that immediately after the scandal in the Ukrainian version of Wikipedia, in the article about Dorzh Bata, any mention of his work at NASA was deleted.

Stary Lev Publishing House, which publishes Dorzh Batu's books, stated that it currently has no facts that would make one doubt the words of the writer.

The social network drew attention to the fact that this scandal only drew attention to Batu's books.

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