Caucusus Colonels’ Fable in Dublin’s Phoenix magazine – real journalism versus pro-Putin deliberate misinformation
“Down the rabbit hole” is an English-language idiom or trope which refers to getting deep into something, or ending up somewhere strange. Lewis Carroll introduced the phrase as the title for chapter one of his 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, after which the term slowly entered the English vernacular. The term is usually used as a metaphor for distraction.[1] In the 21st century, the term has come to describe a person who gets lost in research or loses track of time while using the internet.
Down the Rabbit Hole
Fact check: Fake claim British Colonels were ‘captured’ in Ukraine
The fable spread among all usual tankie publications – that is, organs which uncritically peddle pro-Putin propaganda – and influencers (for example the former British Westminster MP George Galloway). It fitted in with The Phoenix magazine’s pro-Putin takes on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The magazine has form :
The story surfaced in the first week of August 2025. It is a media disinformation classic – 2.78 million views, spread in 53 countries, 17,800 posts, spread in 16 different languages.
A quick internet check revealed the story was not appearing on reputable news sites, and that it was spreading like wildfire on pro-Putin conspiracy organs.
I co-operated with reliable researchers, and we unearthed a number of facts which quickly convinced us the story was a hoax.
There was no evidence the alleged colonels existed. Colonels Edward Blake and Richard Carroll are fictional characters in online video games.
Colonels Edward Blake and Joseph Carroll, Video Game Characters
After a few days reputable news organisations – for example Deutsche Welle and Euronews, published well researched demolitions of the bullshit story. We found other sites which did similar competent jobs.
Deutsche Welle Demolishes British Colonels in the Caucasus Story
No evidence Russia Captured NATO Officers in Ukraine
False Claim of the Week – Newsguard
False claim of British Colonels Captured in Ukraine Spreads
A friend sent the fake story to me in early August. Tell-tale signs of misinformation screamed at the reader. Basic journalistic fact-checking means contacting an organisation highlighted in a story suggested for publication – in this case the British Ministry of Defence. Real journalists would check if it confirmed, denied, or commented on the claims. Reputable news organisations do this routinely.
Let’s take one example from Britain’s Financial Times. It is currently running a great story about US Vice-President JD Vance holidaying in the English Cotswolds with the assistance of prominent right-wing wing personalities including the racist anti-Ukraine Reform party boss Nigel Farage; Vance is discovering, that even in this quiet rural hideaway, he is a likely target of protesters disgusted by White House support for Russia’s genocide boss, Vladimir Putin.
In a quiet corner of the English countryside, local residents have been disrupted by the presence of an unusual holiday-maker: US vice-president JD Vance. “It’s a safe place to be for an American nutter,” said Ian License, who lives just outside Chipping Norton — a stone’s throw from where the Vance family are staying in the village of Dean — when asked why he thought the VP had chosen the ambient Oxfordshire location for his summer vacation. Vance’s holiday, which began on Sunday, was preceded by a bilateral meeting with UK foreign secretary David Lammy at his country residence of Chevening, to discuss issues such as ending the war in Ukraine. License, a retiree who has travelled to Ukraine to deliver aid to struggling families, described Vance’s treatment of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at their stormy White House meeting in February as “appalling”, and “couldn’t understand” why an “American with an ‘America First’ policy would want to holiday in Blighty”.
Financial Times, August 11 2025
Vance was “approached for comment” and his holiday organiser Osborne “declined to comment”.
Some conclusions
The Phoenix magazine is a source of pro-Putin misinformation. It apologised for the Caucasus Colonels stories online but the hard copy version still circulates. As shown above, It has form on this issue. The only reason it offered an apology was widespread global derision.
A related source is the journalist Eoin Ó Murchú
Vatnik Soup – Eoin Ó Murchú
Why did so many people fall into this misinformation black hole? There is a simple reason. They operate within a fictional analysis of Russia’s genocidal war against Ukraine, which states that the USA, Britain, and other NATO powers are invading Russia. In the real world the only foreign soldiers invading Ukraine are from Putin’s imperialist army, assisted by North Korea, Belarus, and others.
It is very difficult to maintain the fairy tale describing a NATO invasion of Russia without concrete evidence. Facts do not exist to back up this conspiratorial fairy tale. So, the pro-Putin anti-Ukraine brigade desperately clutches at straws – and does not let the facts get in the way of a good story.
John Meehan August 14 2025
I wish to acknowledge assistance from Des Derwin and Connor Beaton.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 
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