Positive Russia Foundation

In June 2013, Lewin and Burnside alongside Shestakov, founded the Positive Russia Foundation, with its office address located on Battle High Street, in East Sussex. Despite the limited company with Lewin as a director being dissolved in 2016, its social media presence on Facebook continues to promote "sambo". The Positive Russia Foundation was "an organisation designed to improve Russia's image in the UK. Lewin insists the foundation was his idea. According to Russian press reports, however, Shestakov was closely involved in setting up Positive Russia. Its purpose was to combat "anti-Russian propaganda" in the British media, Shestakov said." The soft power project is the latest in a series of initiatives by the Russian government, which include the Kremlin propaganda channel Russia Today (RT). RT vehemently criticises the west, while ignoring the Russian state's authoritarianism. The St Petersburg news website Fontanka.ru – which interviewed Shestakov – described Positive Russia "as a new variant of RT, but under the patronage of English aristocrats."