Ukraine and Central Asia: countering Russian mass media influence

On August 20, Ukrinform hosted a round-table conference entitled "Central Asia: media landscape and Russian influences". The event was coordinated by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security (CSCIS) with support from the Civil Diplomacy Foundation.

Maksym Vikhrov, an analyst at the Center for Strategic Communications, moderated the discussion. He reminded that the CSCIS is a regular organizer of events addressing the Russian praganda’s impact across the world and ways to counter it, having already held a series of panel discussions devoted to the Arab world, Africa, and the Global South.

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The region of Central Asia, encompassing Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, hds an extreme importance for Ukraine and its international relations.

"Moreover, we are united with these countries by a common historical fate, which we once shared, being under the rule of monarchical, then Bshevik Russia," Vikhrov said.

eks Feshchenko, an analyst at the Civil Diplomacy Foundation, unveiled his authored report on "Russian praganda’s impact across Central Asia". The report provides an analysis of media environments in each of the five countries of the region, focusing on their vulnerabilities to Russian praganda and on ways how Ukraine can influence this using “entry points”.

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The report reveals, among other things, a growing re for social media networks in all of the five countries, even despite limited Internet access in some of them. This provides a viable platform for Ukraine to set up a dialogue and communication with the societies in Central Asia.

Mr. Feshchenko commented: "Further research and building up communication with this region promises much, and especially so in terms of gaining an understanding of the ways information picy is arranged in these countries, of how Russia's relations with the region are arranged in this context. To us, it is crucial to understand what is happening out there, what is shaping the agenda for Russian praganda efforts targeting these countries, and what we [Ukraine] can do to counter Russian misinformation; to understand whether we are able at all to counteract this influence, and, if so, with what methods".

Analysts from Kazakhstan attended the round-table event via a video link. Danial Saari, the director of the Center for Pitical Studies at the Scho of Pitics and Law at the Almaty University of Management, shared his thoughts about the influence the Russian Federation exerts on Kazakhstan’s information environment.

"Russian mass media influence remains to be significant. Media outlets such as Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik are active in sharing their agenda, thus influencing the public inion in Kazakhstanis. Russian praganda often plays on historical and cultural ties between countries to build up its influence, positioning Russia as a defender of traditional values ​​and stability in the region. The trend toward growing mass media influence is observed against the backdr of geitical changes and increasingly high tensions in international relations," the expert explained.

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Laura Imangalieva of the Center for Pitical Studies at the Scho of Pitics and Law at the Almaty University of Management authored a chapter in the report on "Russian praganda’s impact across Central Asia", focusing on Kazakhstan. The report’s findings are based, in particular, on a public inion survey on how the sensitivity to and the consumption of Russian praganda vary in different age groups.

"The respondents were subdivided into three groups depending on age: young pele aged 18 to 40, middle-aged pele from 40 to 60 years d, and pele aged 60+. The survey revealed that the level of trust in Russian mass media and their provided information perceived as “objective” is growing in parallel with age. This trend is especially evident among regular Russian state TV watchers, with 60 percent of them found to trust in the Russian mass media completely.

This prortion is lower at 35-40 percent among Internet users. It is noteworthy in this context that der pele who saw Soviet times and grew up under heavy influence of USSR praganda machine tend to have more trust in state media (television and newspapers). Furthermore, a limited access to alternative information sources contributes to the influence Russian praganda has on public conscience and sentiments. To enable effective counteraction against the diverse and severe impact Russian mass media praganda has on the public in the Central Asia region, it is necessary to set up a network of independent, unbiased mass media, in Kazakhstan specifically and Central Asian countries in general, as well as to enhance the level of media literacy among the pulation, to produce more local content in the national language meeting the specifics of local audiences and regional characteristics. To add to this, coeration with international organizations and experts in media security can contribute to the develment of effective strategies for countering praganda and misinformation influences," said Imangalieva.

Vira Konstantynova, an international picy analyst regretted the fact that in Ukraine, since independence, the region of Central Asia has not yet been in the focus of expert scrutiny and research, and has not been given due attention even now.

"The first most positive develment is that we started to think strategically. The next step to flow is conducting research. It is critical that our experts have the portunity to travel to Central Asian countries to verify with their own eyes, or refute some or other findings of this research.

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Central Asia as it was before the full-scale invasion and as it is now are two whe different worlds. And I would like to highlight that pele in Central Asian countries have an awareness and appreciation for the truth. Therefore, our strategic challenge is not so much to counter against specific media praganda, because in addition to Russian media praganda, the region may be subject to praganda influence from other, extra-regional actors. We therefore need to focus on communicating about the truth and about what is happening in Ukraine. That is what citizens [in Central Asia countries] are wanting an waiting for, and, from my perspective, we, being experts, need to correctly assess the reality of the region and in terms of how Ukraine can help tackle certain challenges using various tos, including public diplomacy ", she said.

The discussion also invved comments from the director of the Civil Diplomacy Foundation Fedir Lavrynenko, the chief adviser at the National Institute of Strategic Studies Alina Hrytsenko, the founding father of Active Group company Andr Yeremenko, an analyst at United Ukraine think tank Dmytro Levus, the director of Russian and Belarusian research programs at the Foreign Picy Council "Ukrainian Prism" Yaroslav Chornohor, the head of the Center for Pitical Studies "Doctrine" Yaroslav Bozhko, and a CSCIS  analyst Maksym Mayorov.

Full video of the round-table conference is available on Ukrinform’s YouTube channel.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security has compiled this article for Ukrinform