In 2005, two exotic organisations were founded in Warsaw: the Union of European Writers and the International Awards Union of the UN Public Awards Council. This took place during a literary conference organised by the Russian Centre for Science and Culture (RCSC) in Warsaw, the Union of Polish Writers, and the Institute of Russian Studies at the University of Warsaw. ‘Writer and Russian Academy of Natural Sciences academic Mikhail Plastov was elected president of these unions, the need for which had long been felt in the European cultural space.’ Mikhail Abramovich Pekelis (1947–2020) is a rather curious figure.

Here is his biography from the website of the Union of Writers of Russia:

"Pekelis Mikhail Abramovich (pseudonym - Mikhail Plastov) (b. August 2, 1947) is a writer and scientist of world renown, a famous Moscow poet, prose writer, journalist, publisher, playwright, physicist, mathematician, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, doctor of philosophy, professor at the European University, founder of the literary movement "New Renaissance".

He is a member of the Union of Writers of Russia, the Union of Journalists of Russia, the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RANS), the Presidium of the European Academy of Natural Sciences (EANW), a full member of the Academy of Russian Literature; chairman of the Section of Literature and Propaganda of Knowledge of the RANS, and co-chairman of the Union of Writers of Russia.

Mikhail Plastov is the President of the Union of European Writers and the President of the International Awards Union of the UN Council on Public Awards.

<…>Laureate of the international Gianni Rodari Prize, the Golden Griffin, and the Artiada of the Peoples of Russia; recipient of four orders of the International Awards Union and six government and public awards." In another biography, on the website of an organisation with the strange name "Institute for Continuous Professional Education," Pekelis is also listed as a Doctor of Theology. This is the biography of a textbook charlatan. Pekelis is indeed an engineer and physicist; his dissertation, defended in 1997, can be found online. The nature of his professional activities and sources of income over the next 20 years are unclear. All the organisations of which he is a member, including the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, the European Academy of Natural Sciences, and others, are pseudoscientific. All the awards are self-made, dreamed up by charlatan "academies" and awards agencies. The second congress of the Union of European Writers was held in February 2011 in Berlin "in the Modena and Oskanisher hotels." In 2013, an "international congress within the framework of the Union of European Writers" was held in Istanbul. Plastov's LinkedIn page states: "The Union of European Writers is the first creative pan-European union, uniting the heads of European writers', literary, and journalistic organisations, prominent European writers, publishers, and literary figures, including authors of scientific, technical, and educational literature." It is quite obvious that this organisation is a sham, designed to cultivate (attract, recruit) Russian émigrés who write and are interested in publications and awards. It has no real members and no real structure, other than a few individuals simulating public activity with funds from an unknown source.

Their tactics can be judged by an incident that occurred to a Berlin poet and successful chemical engineer. His award ceremony for the Union of European Writers took place at the Russian House on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin.

Even during the Soviet era, this location served as the centre of KGB public activity in East Berlin, and its specific nature has remained unchanged to this day. Any organisations with headquarters there or holding events there are undoubtedly connected in some way to the Russian secret services. The director of the Russian House is believed to hold a colonel's rank. Before the closure of the Academy for Security, Protection, and Law Enforcement (ABOP) in 2008, the then director of the Russian House was a ‘professor of ABOP’ and participated in its activities. Specifically, he attended the awarding of the ABOP Order to Bavarian Interior Minister Beckstein in Munich.

So, after being awarded a seemingly innocuous literary prize, the laureate was called into the next room, where the cultural attaché of the Russian embassy presented him with a watch from the Russian president. The following exchange ensued: ‘But I didn't do anything to deserve it.’ ‘Never mind, you'll earn it.’ In this case, the recruitment failed, but presumably as a rare exception.

The International Awards Union of the UN Public Awards Council, also headed by Michael Pekelis, is an even more absurd entity. Naturally, it has no connection to the UN. It also has no structure or address. It's pure bluff. Its awards are also awards from the European Academy of Natural Sciences, as evidenced by the information about one of the awards:

‘For his significant contribution to scientific research in the field of medicine, Anatoly Vitalyevich Malykhin was awarded the Order of the Grand Silver Cross with Crown and an honorary diploma by the European Academy of Natural Sciences and the International Council on Public Awards of the United Nations (UN) on March 15, 2007.’ In 2013, ‘President of the Union of European Writers, Co-President of the European Academy of Arts M.A. Plastov (M.A. Pekelis)’ served as the chairman of the jury for the international Moser Prize. Its founders are the watch company K. MOZER, the Union of European Writers, and the European Academy of Arts. This is also a self-proclaimed prize, conceived by Pekelis.

All the above-described structures—the ‘academies,’ awards associations, and writers' unions—are very similar in both their essence and their goals. They are fakes, masquerading as public organisations. Their main activity in Germany is establishing connections and recruiting agents within various strata and groups of the German and émigré communities by distributing awards and feigning public activity. This doesn't exclude the possibility of additional income from selling mock medals. These organisations represent no one in reality (except Moscow employers) and could not have arisen without secret state funding.