Alla Yarova, associate professor of the department of journalism and philology of the FPSC of Sumy State University, won a scholarship from the Volkswagen Foundation. During the year, she will work as part of an international group of researchers at the Stuttgart Media School. This educational institution is a state university of applied sciences and prepares specialists of a broad profile to work in the modern media world.

The researchers set themselves the goal of researching trends in contemporary political discourse in Germany, studying disinformation in the media and on various media and social platforms. The research group is headed by professors Lars Riesendorf and Katarina Bader. They have been researching disinformation since 2017, studying its various manifestations within the framework of the DORIAN project. The DYNAMO project was launched in 2021. With the beginning of Russian aggression, a new thematic focus appeared in the media and messengers: allegedly true videos of alleged eyewitnesses from the combat zone, in which they distortedly told about the events in Ukraine. At the beginning of March, dozens of channels appeared in various messengers aimed at the Russian-speaking community of the Federal Republic of Germany, which deliberately misinformed their users.

The UN Human Rights Council recognized the manipulation of information as a violation of human rights and a direct threat to democracy and security in the world and called on states to unite to counter disinformation by creating an environment free from information abuse. The Russian information intervention that preceded the full-scale invasion of the sovereign Ukrainian state and now accompanies the aggression, trying to shape internal and external public opinion in the direction Russia needs, needs scrupulous attention.

A considerable number of Russian-speaking citizens live in Germany: data from open sources say about 4–4.5 million. They are mostly descendants of ethnic Germans who in the XVIII–XIX centuries. left German lands and emigrated to Russia, and during the 20th century the descendants of these German emigrants returned to Germany, forming one of the largest immigrant communities. Another part of the Russian-speaking community is made up of citizens of various nationalities who are natives of the former Soviet Union or the new states formed on its ruins.

– It is this audience that mainly consumes Russian information content in Germany, – says Alla Yarova. – And it is through this community that Russian disinformation tries to achieve its goals, namely: to ensure support for pro-Russian ideas, to change the perception of events that are actually happening to a perception that is beneficial for the aggressor, to cause distrust in the German authorities, which condemned Russian aggression and supported sanctions, to objective media, radicalize society, cause political and social chaos.

The study, in which a representative of the Department of Journalism and Philology of the Faculty of FPSC of Sumy State University participates, involves monitoring Russian-language Telegram channels, systematization and description of topics and narratives of Russian disinformation, as well as linguistic and non-linguistic means of its construction.

The struggle for the victory of Ukraine continues. And the cooperation of scientific media schools of Sumy and Stuttgart is a significant brick in its achievement.