Oksana Romaniuk: Russian propagandists are absolutely funded by the Kremlin as part of the war
The Institute of Mass Information is working to prove that the crimes of Russian propagandists, whose statements have direct impact on the crimes committed in real life, are systematic.
Oksana Romaniuk, the executive director of the Institute of Mass Information, said this on November 1 at the press conference "Disinformation and genocidal rhetoric: how is Russia fighting Ukrainians in the media space?" at the Ukraine-Ukrinform Media Center.
According to her, the IMI has collected a database with evidence of crimes committed by Russian propagandists and actively works with Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.
"Now we have two tasks ahead of us. The first one is to show that this crime is systematic. These are not individual reports of individual journalists – they are absolutely a deliberate part of the war financed by the Kremlin, a part of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. We are interested to see the moment when it started. I assume it has been going on the entire time. Perhaps we will be able to capture some turning point in the media space."
"The second task is proving a direct connection of these statements to their results in real life. We see this result in the polls, with Russians actively supporting the war in Ukraine. We see this result, say, when Russian POWs are asked why they came to Ukraine: they quote the speeches by Skabeyeva and Soloviev," said Oksana Romaniuk.
Russian propagandists must answer for the consequences of the massive, intense impact of their aggressive propaganda on the human consciousness and its transformation as a result, Oksana Romaniuk stressed.
She added that the IMI will help ensure that such actions are recognized as a crime under international law and properly interpreted and defined.
We remind that earlier, Oksana Romaniuk suggested using specific terms to refer to Russian propaganda: "aggressive propaganda" or "genocidal rhetoric".
The Institute of Mass Information is gathering evidence which will help prosecute Russian propagandists for endorsing a genocide of Ukrainians. Moreover, the IMI is working to help "cultural genocide" emerge as a concept in international law, as to date it is yet to be approved at the international level.
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