The Kremlin's new propaganda and the Ukrainian crisis

Abstract

In November 2013 tens of thousands of people took to the streets in central Kyiv to protest the
government’s last minute decision not to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union. It
was widely believed that the Ukrainian government had been pressured into their decision by
Russia. The situation escalated quickly leading to the tragic deaths of at least 77 protestors and
several Berkut1 members when violence broke out on Maidan square in Kyiv in events that are now
widely regarded as the beginning of the Ukrainian Crisis.
The situation continued to worsen following the Maidan protests leading to Russia’s annexation of
the Crimean peninsula, the Odesa trade union fire, storming of police stations in both the East and
West of the country by pro-Maidan activists and later by an anti-Maidan movements mainly in the
Donbas, which thereafter transformed into a separatist movement eventually declaring
independence in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
Unsurprisingly, the Ukrainian Crisis has been widely covered in the international media, however in
extremely different ways. Russia’s largely state-owned and state-controlled media has been
vehemently critical of the protest movement and the Ukrainian government while supporting and
justifying Russia’s annexation of the Crimea leading to accusations that the Kremlin is leading a
propaganda war against Ukraine by targeting various demographics in Russia, Eastern Europe and
the West.
This research paper will analyse the Russian media’s approach to the Ukrainian Crisis and the
weaponisation of the media by the Kremlin. To do so it will cover the development of Russian war
coverage from the Afghan War to the present, it will focus on the way the media has been used to
garner support in Russia proper, to increase support for Russian actions in the near abroad and sow
discord in the West. Focus groups were held in Russia as part of this research to gauge the
effectiveness of the Kremlin’s approach at home.
This research deals with a new phenomena applicable to media and propaganda studies that has
only recently been recognised in the West as such it will cover largely untouched ground and
therefore will represent a necessary addition to this new area of research.