SOFT POWER І ПРОПАГАНДА У РОСІЙСЬКО-УКРАЇНСЬКІЙ ВІЙНІ: ЕПІСТЕМОЛОГІЧНИЙ АНАЛІЗ

Abstract

Soft power and propaganda are two different vectors in the information front of Russia's war against Ukraine. Depending on the target audience, the Russian authorities use narratives aimed at either the external world audience or the domestic one. The purpose of soft power means is to create a positive image of Russia through the promotion of Russian culture, the sacrificial image of Russian intellectuals, blurring the boundaries between the Russian and Ukrainian people through distortion of history, linguistic expansionism. The target audience of Russian soft power is the population of other countries and expats, while the target audience of propaganda is primarily the population of the Russian Federation. The means of propaganda aimed primarily at domestic consumers are more straightforward, harsh and devoid of ethical boundaries. Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, the hybridization of soft power and propaganda has taken place, becoming multi-vector and intertwined. The hybridization of instruments of influence reaches the greatest scale in the language question, where propaganda theses about discrimination of Russian speakers and denial of the existence of the Ukrainian language are mixed with soft power theses about the importance of protecting the language of the outstanding Russian culture. The condition of trust in propaganda is acceptance of its correctness and subordination to the moral goal. Therefore, decisions made under the influence of propaganda are not considered as immoral, even when they have grave immoral or inhumane effects. The epistemic basis for the acceptance of propaganda is the substitution of truth with post-truth, and the main symptom is the refusal to check undesirable information, because "not everything is so clear." The article demonstrates the existence of a common ideological basis between soft power and propaganda, reveals the epistemic means of manipulation of both instruments of Russian policy, as well as the hybrid nature of its application. The epistemological analysis of propaganda and soft power allows proving both personal and group responsibility for the acceptance and spread of its narratives.