Russian information warfare on the crisis in Ukraine and its Visegrad implications

Project description:

The main aim of the project is to study the Russian strategic communication about the crisis in Ukraine both in Russia and in countries of the EU. The project is built on the methodological pre-assumption that by using an inductive approach from the results of the concrete country studies the Russian strategy in the background can be properly mapped out.

The main research questions to be answered are the following:

• What is the main policy objective of the Russian strategic communication inside Russia and in countries of the EU?
• What are the main narrative components or communication panels of the Russian strategic communication over Ukraine in Russia and in countries of the EU? Is there a difference in the agendas Russia is promoting at home and abroad?
• How coherent is the Russian strategic communication? If there are contradictions between certain elements of the Russian narrative, how are they handled?
• To what extent is the Russian strategic communication over Ukraine is tailored to the target countries? Does Russian strategic communication have a country-specific agenda, or is the narrative promoted in the West is generally the same?
• What are the layers of Russian strategic influencing?

In order to answer these research question, a number of country studies about the functioning of Russian information measures will be conducted.

The countries to be studied are Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Germany Poland, Slovak Republic, Hungary and Czech Republic.

The planned outcome of the research is an edited volume, in which the case studies are published together with the conclusions of the research, furthermore the research will be presented in Helsinki at a public seminar in March 2016.

Duration of project: October 1, 2015 – March 31, 2016

Project partners:

• Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Assocation (RC SFPA)
• Institute for European policy EUROPEUM
• The Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy (CEID)
• The Finnish Institute of International Affairs
• Bartłomiej Gajos

The project is financially supported by the International Visegrad Fund (IVF)

Source of foto: Background photo created by natanaelginting – www.freepik.com