In his timely study Andrii Demartino investigates the multitude of techniques how social media
can be used to advance an aggressive foreign policy as exemplified by the Russian Federation¿s
operation to annex Crimea in 2014. Drawing on a wide range of sources Demartino traces the
implementation of a series of Russian measures to create channels and organisations
manipulating public opinion in the Ukrainian segment of the internet and on platforms such as
Facebook VKontakte Odnoklassniki LiveJournal and Twitter. Addressing the pertinent question
of how much the operation to annex Crimea was either improvised or planned he draws attention
to Russiäs ad-hoc actions in the sphere of social media in 2014. Based on an in-depth analysis
of the methods of Russiäs influence operations the book proposes a number of counterstrategies
to prevent such ¿active measures.¿ These propositions can serve to improve Ukraine¿s national
information policy as well as help to develop adequate security concepts of other states.
