RUSSIA’S 2022 INVASION OF UKRAINE: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT ON KREMLIN-CONTROLLED DOMESTIC TELEVISION
RUSSIA’S 2022 INVASION OF UKRAINE: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT ON KREMLIN-CONTROLLED DOMESTIC TELEVISION

Author(s): Max Levin
Subject(s): Media studies, Government/Political systems, Political behavior, Politics and communication, Peace and Conflict Studies, Russian Aggression against Ukraine
Published by: NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence
Keywords: Russia; War in Ukraine; Media control; Kremlin; information space;
Summary/Abstract: This report is focused on the relation-ship between Russia’s actions in the physical environment and its behaviour in the information environment (with a particular focus on Kremlin-aligned television) in the period leading up to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In the months before the invasion, many reports appeared in the media of Western countries claiming that Russia intended to invade Ukraine. Such reports were typically based on briefings from government sources (which were in turn ostensibly based on assessments made by intelligence agencies) or on open-source intelligence analyses. In either case, assessments were primarily founded on Russia’s behaviour in the physical domain3, such as movements of its troops and military equipment to areas adjacent to the Ukrainian border. This report is based on a desire to better understand how the information domain ought to fit into this dynamic of intelligence interpretation. It attempts to answer the following two questions...

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