Russians launch discrediting campaign against Budanov - Hladkykh

The wave of critical publications that appeared online after the appointment of Kyrylo Budanov as the head of the President's Office has signs of a coordinated information campaign by the russian federation. Political expert Valentyn Hladkykh has expressed this opinion on his page on Facebook, as he sees it as another attempt by moscow to discredit the former head of the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

According to Hladkykh, this campaign uses a typical set of manipulative techniques, including appeals to anonymous "officers," generalized wording such as "they say" or "everyone confirms," as well as creating the image of a conditional collective witness without specific names and responsibility for the statements made.

"They have been inventing various conspiracies for a week. No evidence, no facts, only estimates, assumptions, interpretations and appeals to their own feelings. The post of a certain Smith is illustrative, which bot farms have provided with thousands of likes and comments as if it were a copycat. Not a single piece of evidence. Just "they say", "everyone confirms", "I heard". Of course, without documents, names and verification," Hladkykh said.

The expert believes that such approaches have no signs of professional criticism. "A good illustration of cognitive distortions and manipulation techniques," he added. Valentyn Hladkykh also asserts that the intensification of such an information wave occurs in a sensitive period for the state - against the backdrop of complex negotiation processes.

According to him, in such circumstances, russia traditionally tries to influence the internal situation in Ukraine, using both external and internal players.

According to the expert, the executors of this information campaign are a number of commentators and pseudo-experts associated with Petro Poroshenko. The purpose of such actions is to destabilize the situation in the country, which, in his opinion, is not unexpected given the previous political and business ties between Petro Poroshenko and vladimir putin's godfather Viktor Medvedchuk.

"In principle, there is nothing surprising. Petro Poroshenko and Viktor Medvedchuk have been working and earning well after 2014. So why not continue on? Everyone is their own, right?" Hladkykh summarized with irony, arguing that the political interests of Poroshenko's team in this situation clearly prevail over ensuring state security and social stability.