Russian Media Perpetuates an Image of a “Terrible Ukraine” Ukraine" – YES Forum Participants

In an open and robust discussion about the role of Russian media in shaping the perception of Ukraine, Peter Pomeranzev, senior fellow of the Transitions Forum, Legatum Institute, described “Russian propaganda media” as perpetuating the image of a "terrible Ukraine," today at the 12th Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting in Kyiv.

"Information from Russia Today, in fact, does not seem truthful,” Pomeranzev stated. “But what is the goal here? To provide such information so that people are misled and just think 'Ukraine is terrible'? They have completely destroyed the line between truth and lie. That is the goal which guides the Russian propaganda."

Joining Pomeranzev on the panel, entitled “Who is Spreading Propaganda and Distorting the Truth?”, the poetess, writer, literature critic and publicist Oksana Zabuzhko said that Russia continued using the "technology of ideological sabotage," that was employed during the Cold War. "This is how the West has developed its perceptions of Ukraine for decades or more. I travel around the world and talk about Ukraine, and people say: 'We know everything: it's a country split into the east and the west.' It's a cliche, an information operation, which was the first stage of the war, and it has formed a distorted picture of our country. This is a propaganda trick," Zabuzhko said.

She added: "Last year, in March 2014, in those days, when the world's attention was riveted on the annexation of Crimea, on the day of the fake referendum, something happened. The Russian government issued a document that put the stamp 'secret' of Cheka's (Russia's state security organization) documents from the 20s. This means that they are using the same technology." 

The 12th Yalta European Strategy Annual Meeting is streamed live at yes-ukraine.org as well as web-sites of the Media Partners in English and Ukrainian.

The official Twitter of the 12^th YES Annual Meeting is @yes_ukraine, and participants and followers can include the hashtag: #YESUkraine2015.