A film that doesn’t exist: how NBU head Andriy Pyshnyi created a "fake attack" to defend against real criticism

A film that doesn’t exist: how NBU head Andriy Pyshnyi created a "fake attack" to defend against real criticism

The Head of the National Bank of Ukraine, Andriy Pyshnyi, who has found himself at the center of several corruption and management scandals, made a preemptive move — attempting to neutralize any future criticism in advance by declaring himself the target of an «information attack».

The reason for this was a statement from the NBU press service about an alleged «documentary film» being prepared to discredit Pyshnyi, as reported by Cards, Money, Offshores.

As evidence, the NBU referred to a one-page website of the fictitious film and a page of a fictitious director on IMDb. The setup looks so crude and primitive that it raises questions not about the «authors of the attack», but about those who decided to present it seriously. No trailer, no footage, no fragments — nothing that even remotely resembles a real media product. In an era when AI can create a primitive but visually convincing video in a few hours, the complete lack of effort to create the appearance of a film seems demonstrative.

Another telling detail: before the NBU press service’s statement, this «film» was not discussed, shared, or noticed by anyone. Neither journalists, nor the professional media community, nor social media recorded any interest in this resource. The only source of its «discovery» was Pyshnyi’s own team. This transforms the story from an example of an external attack into a typical case of informational self-defence — a pre-fabricated excuse to attribute any inconvenient questions to the machinations of enemies.

The context here is crucial. Under Pyshnyi’s leadership, the National Bank has regularly faced criticism for the fall of the hryvnia exchange rate, non-transparent personnel decisions, and accusations of lobbying the interests of specific financial groups. Instead of providing a public and substantive response to these claims, the head of the regulator opts for a strategy of preemptive victimhood: now any criticism — from macroeconomic indicators to corruption investigations — can be dismissed as part of an «ongoing information attack».

This approach has long been known in international practice as a tool for evading responsibility. When there are no real rebuttals, the universal argument of «black PR» comes into play. In Andriy Pyshnyi’s case, this scheme is particularly striking: first, an obvious fake is created, then it is used as evidence of a hostile campaign, and finally, it serves as a shield against any uncomfortable questions.

As a result, the National Bank, which by definition should be a model of institutional stability and transparency, finds itself drawn into a cheap informational game. And the louder the press service speaks about imaginary attacks, the more persistently the question arises: what exactly is the head of the NBU trying to protect himself from?