Andrew Wilson: Russia's War Against Ukraine — Lecture 1. Political Technology in Russia

This is the opening lecture in a series "Russia's War Against Ukraine", a course by Andrew Wilson. This first lecture focuses on Political technology in Russia.

Course author: Andrew Wilson, Professor of Ukrainian Studies at UCL SSEES @UCLSSEES
Video production and design: Antoine Korchagin, UCL Ukrainian Society President @UCLUA
Music: Hryhorii Pozdniakov

[UCLUA]

Don't forget to use this comment section as an opportunity to address your questions about the course to Andrew Wilson! We will make sure that he finds some time to respond to you ;)

[nextstop]

Hi from Ukraine. Thanks for telling the truth

[kirilloleynik]

It' s good to know, that there are professionals in western countries, who clearly understand how post soviet 'democracy' runs. I agry with every word. Thank you!

[bhaashatepe]

from my point of view, he was explaining what the US had been doing in the last two decades in the middle east and Eastern Europe for example Weaponization of fear.

[LemwasRight]

Very enlightening lecture, thank you, and can't wait for the next one!

[zsofiafodor]

Thank you for the lecture. Looking forward to the next one. Our government unfortunatly has been very studious of the mentioned technological elements. This is why unfortunatley my interest in russia started a few years ago…

[The.Elk.of.Antioch]

I see this series is finished, but my feedback for the future includes purchasing a noise cancelling microphone, I can hear every time the speaker smacks his lips and swallows, which is a lot.

I am completely new to observing Ukrainian politics except for the 1990's Sienfeld episode in which a Ukrainian on the New York City subway upsets a Risk board because Kramer claims, "The Ukraine is weak ⁉️"

The speaker flips through the power point slides faster than they can be read, and doesn't appear to read them himself, often making statements not obviously related to the slides displayed.

Being new to Russian & post Solviet politics I heard the speaker repeat what he claimed was instance after instance after example of "political technology" but doesn't seem to flesh out what is meant by that except in passing.

[AndrewWilson-xmft]

Many thanks for all your comments. Answers follow individually

[MsMagdalena]

Super interesting (though also slightly depressing) overview. Any list of suggested reading to go deeper into these themes (apart from Vitrual Politics)?
Two questions: Why has Surkov fallen from grace? He seems to have delivered in spades to consolidate virtual politics in Russia. And how reliable the Professor thinks are Putin popularity polls? Particularly the uprise after Feb. 2022, indicating high support for the war in Ukraine among the Russian population.

[anmichae]

Thank you for sharing. The slides don't stay up long enough to be read.

[andraskertai]

Thank you for this lecture, it was very meaningful and useful, in my opinion. Unfortunately, in our country (Hungary) the government also adopts these methods of Russian propaganda to a large extent, and takes it to manipulate mass of quite uninformed people.

[KiskaJudit]

Political Technology in Russia = Orban's Hungary Copy/paste method

[pettahify]

Very interesting. I do however feel that you seem to make use of information pieces that are completely out of context to make your point. Please take these two comments to your heart:
1. You pose that the fact that they countered "fabricated" color-revolutions with their own "fabrication", and that that's inherently negative. How about posing it differently, no "fabrication" should exist. If there was no "fabricated" color-revolutions, then there would be no need to "counter fabricate".

2. There is no way that the entire anti-maidan movement was filled with "special tourists". Your way of saying that there was some "special-tourists" made it sound like the entire anti-maidan movement was filled with these "tourists".
Please do also note, around that time, a lot Ukrainians were putting themselves on trains and buses going too different cities to protest.

[dkudlay]

Ok lets hear about political manipulation from a guy who lives under a monarchy without even a constitution who still believes he lives in a “free democratic” society.