Russian propaganda has become efficient in Ukraine and elsewhere by sowing confusion and destroying the border between facts and fiction, Peter Pomerantsev, a Kyiv-born media expert at the Legatum Institute, a British think-tank, said late on Sept. 11.
“Back in the 20th century we had a very clear perception of what propaganda was,” Pomerantsev said at the Yalta European Strategy forum in Kyiv, adding that back then propaganda stemmed from the absence of information. “It was about getting the truth through the Iron Curtain.”
But since then the nature of Kremlin propaganda has drastically changed, Pomerantsev said. He cited his research among Russian-speaking communities in the Baltic states.
Now they have access to local, Russian and Western media.
“Instead of a lack of information, they almost have too much,” Pomerantsev said. “The reaction is not to believe anyone but they said: we go with the Russians because they are more emotional and the stories they tell are more exciting. They are more objective because they are more like the cinema.”
Pomerantsev believes that the “essence of disinformation has always been to muddy the waters and sow confusion.”
“So people would say ‘I don’t really know what’s going on. Ukraine is far away. Why should I care?’,” he said. “The point of Russian propaganda is that they’ve destroyed any border that was remaining – and it was really pretty damn shaky – between facts and fiction.”
The Kremlin narrative now is that “there is no truth out there, and you’ll never find it but go with us because our emotional content is more vital,” Pomerantsev said.
“Cynicism breaks down critical thinking, at the root of cynicism is something quite medieval and emotional – a world of myths and storytelling,” he said. “When you don’t believe in facts, you are just left with that.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected]m.
