The online media describes itself as independent, but the man behind it is a member of the FOR party, NORDIS partner Faktisk.no reports.
Towards the end of May, a Facebook post published by Fred og Rettferdighet (FOR) leader Marielle Leraand appeared. In it, she said that a new online newspaper called “Perspektiv” had been launched in Norway and that she was impressed by the articles she had read.
Vladimir Fedorov is behind the website, and confirms that he considers himself a member of the FOR party. According to Fedorov, it is coincidental that several people on the website’s editorial team are party members.
“They are simply people who share the same views, but it has nothing to do with the party. It just means that we are moving in the same direction as them,” says Fedorov.
FOR became known to the Norwegian public ahead of the 2025 parliamentary election, when it ran an advertising campaign against Norway providing financial support for Ukraine’s defence against Russia. Norwegian billionaire Atle Berge, who has business interests in Russia, confirmed that he supported the party financially.
The founder of Perspektiv says the website is funded entirely by its readers and that they receive no financial contributions from abroad.
Does not disclose party connections
The website states that it is independent and consists of a “small, independent editorial environment”. Both board members and several people on the editorial team are members and active participants in the FOR party.
This is not disclosed on Perspektiv’s website.
Faktisk.no has analysed the 172 articles on the website. The analysis shows that the content is primarily critical of Western institutions and is very rarely critical of Russia.
When party leader Leraand praised the website, she highlighted an article that, among other things, claimed that the Ukrainian military displays SS-related symbolism in some photographs.
The narrative that Ukrainian culture and authorities are permeated by Nazism is not a new one, but it gained significant momentum when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“An outright lie”
The website is operated by Perspective Media AS, which was established on 30 September 2025 and registered as an entity one month later.
Vladimir Petrovich Fedorov is chairman of the board and is listed as the founder and editorial director on Perspektiv’s website.
This is what Perspektiv’s website looks like. (Screenshot: Perspektiv.media)
Fedorov says the purpose is to make people aware of the actual events taking place, particularly in Ukraine.
“And to ensure that certain narrative positions circulating in the Norwegian press do not go unchallenged, because some of them are simply outright lies,” Fedorov tells Faktisk.no.
He was born in St Petersburg, Russia, but lives in Norway and has done so since he was a child. Fedorov also wrote two articles for the FOR party’s websites in the summer of 2025.
Same address
According to business register Proff.no, Perspective Media AS has an address in central Oslo. The address is shared with many other companies and businesses, as well as three branches of the party.
FOR, FOR Youth and FOR Oslo are all registered at the same address.
Fedorov confirms that this is the case, but says he does not physically use the address. He does not see it as problematic that the editorial team shares an address with the party.
FOR leader Marielle Leraand says that a Cuba Association rents office space from them, but that Perspektiv does not. She says she has no ties to the website.
“The main tendency in Norwegian media is that NATO talking points and official Norwegian policy are passed on completely uncritically, while critical voices are ignored or subjected to baseless suspicion,” Leraand tells Faktisk.no.
That is why she chose to share the website with her followers, she explains.
“It is rare for articles to appear that provide factual and relevant information, but it does happen. When it does, I am happy to comment on it, regardless of which outlet it comes from. The fact that we now have a new outlet that consistently takes a critical perspective on NATO talking points is an important step forward.”
Faktisk.no has used artificial intelligence to assess the framing of the articles on Perspektiv’s website. The 172 articles were categorised into seven different categories according to whom they are most critical of.
This is how Faktisk.no analysed the material
Faktisk.no scraped and collected 172 articles from Perspektiv’s category pages (war, Norway, EU, economy, culture, opinion, etc.).
The articles were first grouped thematically using automatic clustering and then analysed using the language model Claude Sonnet 5 to assess which party each article is primarily critical of:
– Norwegian authorities
– Western institutions (NATO/EU/USA)
– Russia
– Immigration
– The media
– No clear criticism
– Other/unclear target of criticism
Criticism of Ukraine was not included as a separate category because it applied to a very large number of articles and the criticism was most often combined as part of broader criticism.
The analysis therefore looked at rhetorical framing and how the stories are presented linguistically. The classification was carried out by an AI model, with spot checks conducted throughout the process. The analysis may contain errors in individual articles.
Critical of Western institutions and Norwegian authorities
The analysis shows that just under half of Perspektiv’s articles are critical of Western institutions, while almost a quarter of the stories are critical of Norwegian authorities or politicians.
The survey also looked at how many articles deal with Russia.
Russia is the main topic in 50 of the articles and is mentioned in a further 66 articles. Russia is not mentioned in the remaining 56 articles.
Of all the articles, only one was categorised as critical of Russia.
“Coincidental”
Perspective Media AS also has two registered board members, one of whom appeared on the FOR party’s electoral lists in the 2025 parliamentary election.
Two people on the editorial team also appeared on the party’s electoral lists in the previous election. One of them is writer and commentator Lars Birkelund.
He says he has no active role at Perspektiv, but has given them permission to publish his texts without payment.
Faktisk.no asked Birkelund how he views the website’s “independence” given its several connections to the FOR party.
“I have no knowledge of how Perspektiv is financed or whether money or other circumstances bind Perspektiv to write in one way or another. I simply think it is a matter of idealism on the part of the editor.”
Birkelund praises Fedorov and says he has produced “several completely unique analyses of the war about Ukraine”.
He has also written for the websites Steigan, Trønderrød, Uten Filter and the now-defunct Resett.
New organisation: “Independent and self-contained”
Perspektiv founder Vladimir Fedorov is also a board member of BRICS Norway, which describes itself as an “interest organisation for the BRICS organisation in Norway” and, according to its description, is to conduct information activities on geopolitical issues in Norway. Another person listed on Perspektiv’s editorial team is also involved.
Fedorov explains what this is about.
“BRICS Norway is primarily an information portal aimed at the Norwegian public and Norwegian industry, informing them about alternatives to the EU, for example.”
BRICS Norway has an associated website stating that a platform for knowledge, industry and diplomatic dialogue on BRICS will soon be launched. According to the Brønnøysund Register Centre, the association was established on 15 December 2025.
Another board member of BRICS Norway also has a central role in the FOR party and is linked to businessman Atle Berge through two companies. Berge financed the party’s controversial advertising campaign in May 2025.
Fedorov tells Faktisk.no that neither Perspektiv nor BRICS Norway has any connection to the FOR party.
“They are completely independent and self-contained projects,” says Fedorov.
YouTube channel removed
In addition to the website, Perspektiv also has an associated YouTube channel and Facebook page. Perspektiv.media previously linked to the latest published videos on YouTube, but the website now states that the channel was recently removed and that the videos are unavailable.
Faktisk.no saw the channel before it was removed. The channel was called “War, Peace, Religion and Politics and Such” and featured many podcast videos in which Fedorov, or occasionally others on the editorial team, interviewed various people. Among them, several prominent members of the FOR party appeared as guests on the channel, including party leader Marielle Leraand, Glenn Diesen, Atle Berge and Tore Nærland.
“FOR and I appear wherever we get the opportunity. Since appearing on Debatten on NRK in May last year, the mainstream media have consistently avoided giving us access,” Leraand says about the guest appearances.
Alternative voices such as Pål Steigan and Bjørn Nistad have appeared as guests on the podcast, while foreign figures have also been interviewed. Among them is Canadian Eva Bartlett, who is reportedly based in Russia and has, among other things, written opinion pieces for the Russian state-controlled channel RT.
Former CIA employee Ray McGovern has also appeared as a guest in a podcast interview on the channel. The political activist has been accused of being pro-Russian and has appeared several times as a commentator on the Russian channel RT. McGovern has also been a guest on Glenn Diesen’s YouTube podcast numerous times.
The American also appeared in a photo on Perspektiv founder Fedorov’s own Facebook profile last summer. The two are pictured together with FOR leader Leraand, and in the post Fedorov describes McGovern as a “legend” and “personal hero”.