Russian culture and management of meaning in introduction of political influence in Ukraine

Mykhailo Sazhniev,Joanna Sułkowska

doi:10.14254/2071-8330.2020/13-1/20

Abstract

This paper investigates narratives and ideology of disinformation campaign which Russian Federation launched into information space since February 2014 when undisguised occupation of Ukraine started. At the same time world liberal democracies were also targeted. In this study we examine the role of the national history and people’s cultural self-identification in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Moscow claimed they started the disguised war against Ukraine to protect ‘people who feels a connection to Russian culture’. And this narrative was not just a casus belli, but also the important factor of country’s socio-political destabilization. Russian Federation used Russian culture affinity to raise hostilities between people. Disinformation campaign was simultaneously inciting hostility against Ukrainians at the same time portraying ‘people who feels a connection to Russian culture’ as victims. Common spoken language in Ukraine was used to incite violence and disinformation convinced that those who speak Russian are in peril. While in fact Ukrainian language and culture are country-wide suppressed after Russification period, Russian propaganda stated otherwise. Disinformation campaign was inventing new reality, distorting history and denied Ukrainian ethnocide in 20th century. This campaign brought a number of mercenaries as combatants to the east-Ukrainian battlefield and also turned a number of Russia's propaganda consumers around the world into ‘viral carriers’ of conspiracy theories.

Highlights

Alain Besancon said that “the art of lie is as old as Russia itself”, stating that the Russian state and it’s ideologies were based on distorting reality and disinformation
Authors witnessed acts of aggression in social media, studied previous disinformation campaigns of USSR and Russian Federation and role of ideological motivation, society atomization and people alienation in igniting the conflict and covering up the aggressive intentions
As we see on the example of Ukraine, tactics was based on bringing Russian culture to society, spreading nihilistic ideas, creating own representatives and officially claiming a political threat to ‘people who feels a connection to Russian culture’ and the necessity to protect people with all means including military

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Alain Besancon said that “the art of lie is as old as Russia itself”, stating that the Russian state and it’s ideologies were based on distorting reality and disinformation. The objectives of creating, shaping and disseminating false information could be political, and commercial Both should be criticized with use of concepts and methods taken out from media studies, sociology and management (for example Critical Management Studies) (Sulkowski, 2019). The study aims to analyze the cultural influence on subjected society, reveals the ideological level of disinformation beyond deliberately misleading ideas and fictional events launched against Ukraine in mass and social media in 2013-2015. Authors witnessed acts of aggression in social media, studied previous disinformation campaigns of USSR and Russian Federation and role of ideological motivation, society atomization and people alienation in igniting the conflict and covering up the aggressive intentions. Author shares the opinion on this topic with (Herpen, 2015) and (Brzezinski, 2000), he believes that democracies in 21 century face the dangerous challenges of authoritarian regimes that use the cultural challenges of postmodernism in modern democracies to weaken and emotionally divide society, create conflict between people

IDEOLOGICAL BASIS OF RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION IN WARFARE CAMPAIGN

CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL PREREQUISITES TO ASYMMETRIC WARFARE IN UKRAINE

Findings

CONCLUSION