Hybrid Lecture: The Ukraine War: Causes, Authoritarian-State Collusion and Secret Intelligence as Public Press Knowledge

The hybrid lecture took place on 10 May 2022 at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, Sofia University, which was part of Dr. Rumena Filipova’s IVLP Impact Award supported by the U.S Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs with Meridian International Center as the implementing partner. The overall topic of the project is related to raising awareness of foreign authoritarian-state influence activities among students and the wider expert and journalist community in Bulgaria.

Professor Mark Katz of George Mason University acquainted the students with the historical root causes of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the contemporary motivations of Vladimir Putin’s foreign policies as well as the extent to which authoritarian states have supported the Kremlin’s military aggression. Dr. Christopher Nehring, visiting lecturer at Sofia University/KAS Media Programme South East Europe, discussed the historically unprecedented changes taking place in intelligence services, including the trend towards sharing secret information with the press before and during the Ukraine war as a way to counter disinformation.