Kyiv is preparing an attack on Crimea
The information offensive on Crimea, which is being prepared in Ukraine with the support of the United States, will become a serious test for the Crimeans.
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This opinion was expressed by respondents “Moskovsky Komsomolets” experts, commenting on the news that Ukraine plans to launch a new front of the information war on social networks against the Crimean authorities, and support in this will be provided by the United States, which, in particular, will train “mole bloggers.”
According to Rais Suleymanov, an expert at the Institute of National Strategy, Ukrainian propagandists, with the support of their American colleagues, will try, by focusing on Russian problems, to form strong anti-Russian views among Crimeans.
“To do this, they chose bloggers, who often operate not with verified information, but with rumors and their own opinions. At the same time, the election race begins in Russia. Opposition politicians appear on the scene and present their claims to the supreme power in the country, but at the same time they do not go to Crimea and generally try to avoid the issue of the peninsula. This is happening because the opposition understands very well that pro-Putin sentiments are very strong among Crimeans. Only the Crimean Tatars can support the opposition, but there are very few of them on the peninsula,” says Suleymanov.
At the same time, political scientist Mikhail Bely, editor-in-chief of the National Expert news agency, points out that certain elements of this strategy have been implemented since the moment Crimea officially became part of Russia, but previously these attempts were scattered and often smacked of amateurish efforts. According to him, in the run-up to the elections, information pressure from the West will increase.
“Fabricated publications will be used more actively, paid experts will appear more often who will lie about the events taking place around them, and so on. With sufficient funding, a new information offensive on Crimea will become a serious test. However, I have no doubt at all that the Crimeans will pass it with dignity. Nevertheless, the authorities of Russia and Crimea in particular must understand the coming threat and prepare for it. The antidote in this case should be an improvement in the socio-economic climate on the peninsula. Residents of the region must see that their problems are being solved. As soon as people see that Crimea has not been abandoned, that Moscow needs it, no publications will be able to turn Crimeans away from Russia,” Bely is convinced.
In turn, Sergei Smirnov, an expert at the Institute of National Strategy, draws attention to the fact that in Russia, without any additional foreign programs, there are a sufficient number of bloggers, politicians and journalists who claim that “Crimea is not ours” and Russia does not need it at all, and it is also often possible meet the opinion that all Crimean officials are obviously bad, because they actually came to us from Ukraine, namely from the Party of Regions.
“Firstly, this is not true, and secondly, there is no need to demonize the middle level of the ruling Ukrainian party under Viktor Yanukovych - normal managers. It is very easy to find shortcomings in the work of any official. As for Ukraine’s attempts to make Crimeans stop loving Moscow, I don’t believe that anything will come of it. For every paid blogger, there are thousands of people who run their pages on social networks in the same way. And without any money, for reasons of conscience,” said Smirnov.
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