Here are the top hybrid influences in Ukraine in our #HybridWeekly rubric:
- This week, Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Russian politician and media-oligarch, was issued the notice of suspicion of high treason, which we explored here. The pro-Russian propaganda set to portray this event as preliminary arranged to fail, thus discrediting the formal suspicion. Various messages are disseminated, from accusations in political repressions to destroy the only threat to Zelenskyi to claiming the motive of the case is to obtain money from the politician (in the form of deposit as a pre-trial restriction). However, the key message pro-Kremlin actors are trying to impose is that the measures against Medvedchuk are of no use, and it is all a “political game”.
- Pro-Kremlin actors used May 9 to push historical revisionism through information operations, the ground for which was laid in the previous week. Even though the Immortal Regiment march was not held due to coronavirus restrictions, a group of pro-Russian actors laid flowers to the monuments of the Soviet generals and/or soldiers. It was then promoted by the Russian and pro-Russian media as this year’s Immortal Regiment. The publications linked the act to Ukraine’s alleged historical predisposition to Nazism, thus reinforcing the narrative of Ukraine as a “fascist state”.
- The attack on the Center for Countering Disinformation is continuing: pro-Kremlin forces keep promoting the idea that the institution is merely an instrument of budget spending and is completely at the government’s disposal. Through such disinformation attacks, the pro-Russian forces aim to discredit the Center, attempting to militate its operation, as they are essentially the main target of the organization.
