Information warfare uncovered

Image: Presidential adviser Sergey Glazyev, news-front.info

The annexation of Crimea and related Russian activities were described by NATO’s military commander Philip Breedlove as “the most amazing information warfare blitzkrieg we have ever seen in the history of information warfare.”

Russian authorities including Vladimir Putin were denying any Russian interference in the matters of Ukraine for a long time, only to recently admit that there was quite some influence from the Russian side, including military support for “separatists” fighting against the Kyiv government.

Recordings show the Kremlin organising unrest in Ukraine
At the end of August, the Ukrainian authorities published further evidence of the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine in 2014. The Prosecutor General’s Office has published audio tapes of telephone conversations with top Kremlin advisor Sergei Glazyev, where the latter is heard organizing the illegitimate “referendum” in Crimea, or unrest in Donetsk, Odessa and Kharkiv as a pretext for Russian military intervention.

As independent Russian media Meduza summarized, according to Kyiv the recordings prove that the Kremlin is guilty of “encroaching on the territorial integrity of Ukraine and unleashing a war of aggression”. The recordings are available with English subtitles here.

The classic tactic of whataboutism
Mr Glazyev responded to the accusations of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General in a manner that reminds the well-known tactic of “whataboutism”. He did not respond to any of the claims, but accused the Ukrainian government of illegitimacy and of supporting fascism.

“We always suspected – and even assumed – that the hand of Moscow was behind the unrest in eastern Ukraine and that it hoped to seize what the Kremlin called Novorossiya. But it is one thing to suspect and assume this, and another entirely to hear a top Kremlin aide orchestrating the details to proxies on the ground,” reporter Brian Whitmore from Radio Free Europe commented.