It is in the occupied Crimea that many methods of information war have been applied and are being applied by the Russian Federation.
This was stated by Ms.Olha Skrypnyk, Chairperson of the Crimean Human Rights Group Board, when the outcomes of the First Black Sea Security Conference of the International Crimea Platform were being discussed at the Ukraine – Ukrinform Media Centre.
“We had a peer discussion of the issue that also makes a part of the war against us. This is the information war of the Russian Federation, though its scope is much wider. This war is being waged not only against our country, but also, I would say, against all the countries of the democratic world. There are just as many risks here, since today we are saying that the information war does not have a clearly marked front line. Therefore, the Russia’s information war is now being waged in almost all powers of the democratic world,” the human rights defender said.
According to Ms.Skrypnyk, while discussing, the experts were unanimous that Russian propaganda was functioning at this moment as weapon.
«We all have arrived at the same view: the Russian propaganda is also weapon. So, it is also killing the people”, the human rights defender emphasized.
In this context as well as in the context of global and regional security, Ms.Skrypnyk stated, Crimea is also one of key factors. The reason as she noted, is that the occupied Crimea specifically has become a training area where many methods of information war have been tested and are being tested by the Russian Federation.
At the same time, she emphasized that as to the information war waged by the Russian Federation, in particular in Crimea, it became possible to get the sincere support of many experts united around this subject at the security conference platform.
«The Crimean platform and Crimea remain on the agenda, and this is important. And even more than this. We see that more and more experts, more and more organizations want to join various analytical areas particularly related to Crimea. Because today everyone has a clear understanding that it is Crimea that THIS started with. Therefore, many people will now get involved in how to return Crimea, how to de-occupy it, what the reintegration processes will be, how to overcome all these consequences of the long-term occupation of our Crimea,” Olha Skrypnyk emphasized.
To remind, Ms Skrypnyk has recently declared a need to create an information platform about persons who have contributed or are contributing to the incitement to genocide, in order to counteract Russian propagandists.
According to Ms.Skrypnyk, many Russian journalists, bloggers, and other public opinion leaders competent and skilled in influencing purposefully public sentiments and creating a relevant content, have left for other countries. There they keep on creating an information space Russia needs.
“Thus, it is important to create a platform where one can find information and verification about people who have participated or are participating in the incitement to genocide. Russia has the experience and technologies to influence the sentiments and acts of society, the war against Ukraine and other conflicts in which Russia has been involved confirm that such technologies can be used in different regions. This is a threat both to individual countries and to the entire democratic world. Therefore, this issue should be considered today as one of the key challenges to the international security system,” the human rights activist pointed out.
