Understanding Russia’s Disinformation Narratives about Ukraine: A Ratio-Oriented Approach to Strategic Crisis Narratives
Understanding Russia’s Disinformation Narratives about Ukraine: A Ratio-Oriented Approach to Strategic Crisis Narratives

Summary/Abstract: Using a qualitative content analysis, this study examined 84 reports from the EUvsDisinfo website regarding Ukraine from April 8, 2021, to September 29, 2022, to explore changes and continuities in narrative ratios across different crisis phases. Using a ratio-oriented approach to political crisis narratives, this article demonstrates that Russia’s disinformation narratives strategically define its narrative ratios to easily exchange one adverse motive for another at the level of system narrative, identity narrative, and policy narrative. Specifically, to legitimize Russia’s adverse foreign policy posture, Russian disinformation narratives mostly develop agent-act, act-act, and scene-act ratios, while quickly exchanging the content of those rhetorical drivers as the crisis develops. This study advances ideas about political crisis narrative by introducing a framework for analyzing narrative elements as drivers and dependencies within strategic narratives. Finally, the article draws our attention to the importance of exploring motives during political crisis situations to reveal shifts in narrative strategies.

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