On 7 March, Congress Hotel in Yerevan hosted the launch of the Bellingcat closed seminar. During the seminar, the participants will share skills in verifying the place and time of photo and video testimonies and present how one can search for appropriate satellite photos of certain events with the help of several providers, as well as introduce crowdsourcing platforms for verification of data.

According to the summary for presses distributed to the participants of the event held in Russian, the seminar will ensure hands-on instruction, as well as provide tools for the revelation of corruption with the help of open source data investigation. Most of the methods for open source data investigations can be applied for the revelation of corruption crimes committed by officials.

The seminar will feature hands-on activities for analysis of complicated events for the purpose of examining video recordings from different angles.

Active members of the Communist Party of Armenia held a protest in front of the hotel with signs reading “No to Anti-Russian Provocations” and “Soros go home!”

Acting First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia Yerjanik Ghazaryan told NEWS.am that they are against this seminar organized by Western foundations. Ghazaryan added that the representatives of those foundations are among Armenia’s top government officials and are having a negative impact on the development of Armenia’s relations with Russia.

NEWS.am’s attempts to ask the seminar’s organizers for their comments on the protest and the allegations failed.