Political Neo-Rusynism as an Element of the Russian Hybrid War Against Ukraine and the Countries of Eastern Europe

Abstract

The beginning of the 21st century supplemented the list of modern challenges and threats with a new concept of “hybrid war”. As stated by the author of the article, hybrid war uses all types of state power and tools available to it, including disinformation, to impose its will on another state, attacking the weakest points of society's development, and, accordingly, to achieve its results. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, and especially with the beginning of Russian aggression against the Ukrainian state, the issue of “political rusynism” as an element of hybrid war has today become an effective tool for Russia to blackmail many countries of Central and Eastern Europe. According to the author of the article, this applies not only to Ukraine, but also to Slovakia, Poland, Romania as well as Moldova, where a large Ukrainian-Rusyn community lives. The issue of countering modern challenges and threats, including political rusynism, requires a more careful study of this problem. The purpose of the presented article is to briefly highlight the main reasons for the revival of political rusynism on the territory of Ukraine, to clarify modern neo-rusynism movements and their leaders of thought, as well as to outline the main measures to institutionalize the basic ideas of neo-rusynism in Ukraine as elements of a massive Russian hybrid war. The author shows the historical connection between Russia's use of rusynism and the current situation in the region. The author's opinion is that deep understanding of the nature of political rusynism will allow various interested institutions of Ukraine, in particular state bodies, to effectively neutralize and prevent, including within the framework of multi-format international platforms, the attempts of certain neighboring states, primarily Russia, to destabilize the situation in Ukraine using this phenomenon as one of the effective tools of hybrid warfare