Features of Russian Propaganda in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Students Name: Dudok Yurii Volodymyrovych
Qualification Level: magister
Speciality: International Relations
Institute: Institute of the Humanities and Social Sciences
Mode of Study: part
Academic Year: 2020-2021 н.р.
Language of Defence: ukrainian
Abstract: One of the major security concerns for many decades has been propaganda. Technological progress opens up more and more opportunities for rapid and massive influence on the consciousness o f the population of both their country and foreign countries. In recent years, the most dangerous and destructive has not been physical warfare with weapons, but information warfare. After all, with careful and regular influence on the masses, people begin to believe in the information that is presented to them, even if it is absolutely absurd [1]. The most effective propaganda affects human emotions and, when successfully consolidated and confirmed by facts that are mostly completely untrue, changes people’s beliefs about a situation. The intervention of foreign propagandists has been noticed in almost all riots in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic has become a serious challenge to the world community and a huge field of propaganda for the state, which aims to shake world stability and raise its international prestige against the background of weakening other countries [5]. Study object – Russian propaganda as a global threat. Scope of research – the place and role of Russian propaganda in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Goal of research: to investigate the impact of Russian propaganda during the COVID-19 pandemic. The master’s qualification work describes the theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the research topic. It was determined that the topic is popular among foreign and domestic scholars. In particular, the revival of Russia’s disinformation campaign has only increased the interest of scientists, journalists, politicians and other groups in this issue. It was also considered how propaganda affects people, its features and methods, how the propaganda sphere developed, received its scientific justification, formed approaches, rules, certain algorithms. It is traced how the influence is carried out and what role information plays in this process. The purpose and narratives of Russian propaganda are analyzed, as the country actively uses the propaganda machine inherited from its predecessor - the USSR and complements existing knowledge and experience with new opportunities that open up with the development of technological progress [3]. The paper considers the peculiarities of Russian propaganda in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, how exactly pro-Kremlin sources provide information and why it is done. It was also discussed how Russian pandemic propaganda spreads to world countries. The Russian propaganda in the conditions of COVID-19 directed to Ukraine is analyzed [2, 4]. Key words - Russian propaganda, COVID-19, pandemic, world, Europe, Ukraine, USA, narratives. References. 1. Доценко Е. Л. Психология манипуляции: феномены, механизмы и защита / Е. Л. Доценко. – М., 1997. – 342 с. 2. Зеленін В. В. Основи міфодизайну: Психотехнології керування медіареальністю. Навчально-методичний посібник / Всеволод Володимирович Зеленін. – К.: «Гнозіс», 2017. – 168 с. – (Школа Медіа-Патріотів). 3. Ре-візія історії: російська історична пропаганда та Україна [Електронний ресурс] // Проект «Громадська синергія». – 2019. – Режим доступу до ресурсу: https://www.civic-synergy.org.ua/analytics/re-viziya-istoriyi-rosijska-istorychna-propaganda-ta-ukrayina/. 4. A guide to Russian propaganda [Електронний ресурс] // euromaidanpress.com. – 2020. – Режим доступу до ресурсу: http://euromaidanpress.com/guide-russian-propaganda/. 5. Coronavirus response [Електронний ресурс] // European Commission website. – 2020. – Режим доступу до ресурсу: https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/coronavirus-response_en.