No. 177: Information Warfare

Author(s): Elizabeth Nelson, Robert Orttung, Anthony Livshen, Yelizaveta Layer, Oksana Ryjouk
Editor(s): Stephen Aris, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perović, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder, Aglaya Snetkov
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 177
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen; Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University
Publication Year: 2015

This edition looks at the question of information warfare. Firstly, Elizabeth Nelson, Robert Orttung, Anthony Livshen analyse Russia Today’s (RT) YouTube programming across several of its various language channels. They argue that while RT adapts it output to different audiences, it generally seeks to promote a particular Kremlin-dictated ideology, and counter the West by attacking it across the same criteria by which Western countries criticize Russia. Secondly, Yelizaveta Layer and Oksana Ryjouk analyse the content of the Ukrainian newspaper Vesti before and after its summer 2015 ownership change, asking whether the Ukrainian government is quashing critical media under the guise of fighting Russian propaganda? They conclude that after the change there was less critical reporting and analysis of government actions.

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