{"id":133482,"date":"2022-05-02T08:13:40","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T06:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/?p=133482"},"modified":"2022-05-02T16:43:37","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T14:43:37","slug":"he-is-a-disinformation-expert-but-he-has-family-that-does-not-believe-that-kyiv-is-being-bombed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-is-a-disinformation-expert-but-he-has-family-that-does-not-believe-that-kyiv-is-being-bombed\/","title":{"rendered":"He is a disinformation expert. But he has family that does not believe Kyiv is being bombed"},"content":{"rendered":"

D<\/span>anish-Ukrainian disinformation researcher Yevgeniy Golovchenko usually sleeps like a log. But at five in the morning on 24 February he woke up with a jolt.<\/p>\n

\u00bbIt must have been intuition,\u00ab he says one month later.<\/p>\n

It was at the same time that tens of thousands of Russian troops, who had been at the Ukrainian border for several weeks, invaded Ukraine and thereby launched one of the biggest wars in Europe since the Second World War.<\/p>\n

Still half-asleep, Yevgeniy Golovchenko \u2014 like on every morning \u2014 checked the day’s news on Russian, Ukrainian and Western media while he was still in bed. War had broken out in the country where he had spent the first eleven years of his life. It started a month where his other research was temporarily put on hold as he focused on his role as an expert in disinformation. But, at the same time, he had to relate to friends in Ukraine wanting to take up arms, and family members who stubbornly maintain that Russia’s disinformation is the truth.<\/p>\n

Troubled sleep<\/h3>\n

It is now exactly one month after that fateful morning, and Yevgeniy Golovchenko is his office under the roof of the old municipal hospital at the CSS campus in Copenhagen. It is here, with a view over the yard’s gardens, that his daily coding of his programmes takes place. The programmes gather, and sort, large data sets from social media to clarify how disinformation works. During the past month however, codes and datasets have been replaced by media work. While he has been following the war via the media, he has also often spoken as an expert.<\/p>\n

Clad in a black turtleneck with grey trousers, he is clearly exhausted after a long month. Both his shoulders and eyelids hang.<\/p>\n

\u00bbI have had difficulty sleeping at night lately,\u00ab he admits.<\/p>\n

He had actually started working on a project on gender and diplomacy on social media \u2013 a break from constantly having to relate to the war and destruction which he has done for the last eight years of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. First as a student, when practically all his work was on the topic, and later as a researcher.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO:<\/strong> CNBC, Time Magazine and France24: Suddenly, everyone wanted to talk to Yevgeniy Golovchenko about his research<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

YEVGENIY GOLOVCHENKO<\/p>\n

Born in 1990 in Ukraine. Grew up in Crimea and in Kyiv before moving to Frederikssund as an eleven-year-old with his mother.<\/p>\n

Master\u2019s in sociology from the University of Copenhagen before becoming a PhD student in political science in 2017.<\/p>\n

PhD at the Department of Political Science on pro-Kremlin disinformation on social media.<\/p>\n

Postdoc at the Department of Political Science, where he is doing research on social media diplomacy as part of the DIPLOFACE research project which is led by Rebecca Adler-Nissen and funded by the European Research Council<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But since the start of the war, he has felt obligated to focus on the large-scale disinformation and censorship in connection with the conflict, and to answer media enquiries. Within hours of the invasion he had received the first ten media requests, and since then he has been busy answering questions from journalists affiliated with CNBC, Time Magazine, France24, and many more.<\/p>\n

\u00bbIt\u2019s been mentally draining to be on call at all times,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko.<\/p>\n

\u00bbBut I feel that it is my duty. I could spend time gathering in sleeping bags and clothes, which is extremely important as well. But I can also spend time contributing my expertise to a debate over what is going on in the Russian media landscape, and how the information war is being fought over Ukraine on social media. These are the things that I’ve been trained for over the past many years. And I feel it is my responsibility to step in and talk about it when needed.\u00ab<\/p>\n

Yevgeniy Golovchenko is used to being at the centre of media interest. When he started his PhD on disinformation in the beginning of 2017, the Oxford Dictionary had just named post-truth<\/em> as word of the year. Donald Trump popularized the term fake news<\/em>, and the US Senate was investigating a Russian influence campaign on the US presidential election with disinformation on social media. Disinformation has, in other words, been on everyone’s lips during the time period where Yevgeniy Golovchenko specialized in it.<\/p>\n

But he has never been through a time as intense as now, with Russia invading Ukraine, and the battle over disinformation between Russia, Ukraine and the West playing out like never before. An intensity that he already felt when he woke up with a start one month ago.<\/p>\n

Destroyed childhood home<\/h3>\n

My mind was racing on the invasion day morning, Yevgeniy Golovchenko remembers. His first thoughts lying in bed were grim: Thousands will die and millions will flee.<\/p>\n

\u00bbAnd then as a natural consequence of this, my second thought was to write to friends and family. I wrote to one of my best friends who lives in Kyiv. He is just a normal guy in the world of business. But he was ready to take up arms and kill as many Russian soldiers as possible. It was surreal to have to deal with this,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n

That morning it also became clear to him that the disinformation of his research was not just something abstract. He felt the impact of this personally. He contacted his family in Kyiv, but then refrained from contacting close family members in Crimea, who over the past many years have been influenced by the Russian disinformation that he is doing research on. False narratives like the one that Russia was only conducting a limited, pinpoint operation, and that this was not outright war.<\/p>\n

\u00bbI simply did not have the mental capacity to call them and try to convince them that Kyiv has been bombed,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko, who has not talked to his family in Crimea since the invasion.<\/p>\n

I actually thought that I lived in the old Soviet Union until I started in primary school.<\/p>\n

Postdoc Yevgeniy Golovchenko<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He finds a video on his phone that illustrates his point about the two different realities between the family in Kyiv and the family in Crimea.<\/p>\n

The video shows the neighbourhood in Kyiv where Yevgeniy Golovchenko grew up. But it is no longer the same \u2013 ordinary blocks of flats have no sidewalls, so you can now look into the apartments where Ukrainians lived their daily lives only a few weeks ago. His own childhood home has had all the windows shattered after the bombings.<\/p>\n

\u00bbOne of my family members sent pictures of the bombings to the family in Crimea, but they just thought that it was fake, and that it hadn’t happened in reality,\u00ab he says with a subdued look.<\/p>\n

Yevgeniy Golovchenko exhales, and pauses his flow of speech.<\/p>\n

\u00bbI do my best to make a difference in this situation. Study disinformation and talk to as many journalists as possible, so people are better informed. But I’m not one of those brave people, who have the surplus of energy to convince a family member that Kyiv is actually being bombed,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n

\u2018Soviet\u2019 childhood in the 1990s<\/h3>\n

On Yevgeniy Golovchenko\u2019s office wall there is a Soviet propaganda poster from 1941. \u00bbDon\u2019t chatter!\u00ab it says in Russian, under a picture of a headscarfed female worker with her finger to her lips.<\/p>\n

He bought it for his office while he was a PhD student. Russian influence and covert influence campaigns are not a new phenomenon, he says.
\n
\n\u00bbWhat we’re seeing now on social media is in many ways just a newer version of the methods that have been used for many decades: You keep facts hidden, and spread lies. What is new about social media is that it is much cheaper to produce information, so there are more people who participate in these campaigns, and their reach is faster and wider.\u00ab<\/p>\n

Yevgeniy Golovchenko felt the Soviet propaganda during his own childhood in Ukraine. He grew up in Crimea and in Kyiv shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, where they had not taken down the Lenin posters from the schools, or replaced the Soviet textbooks with new ones.<\/p>\n

\u00bbI actually thought that I lived in the Soviet Union until I started in primary school,\u00ab he admits.<\/p>\n

A teacher kindly explained to him that we now lived in a different time.<\/p>\n

\u00bbAnd then, slowly, we started to get new textbooks that described the Soviet regime\u2019s oppression, and all the other things that were not in the old books. And clearly it was a confusing time \u2013 for me as a child, but I also think for Ukraine in general that had to find its identity.\u00ab<\/p>\n

At home, they had an old Soviet television set that barely worked. Here he saw Soviet films, which often focused on Nazi Germany, and he believed that Germans were still evil Nazis during his childhood.<\/p>\n

\u00bbSo I can, of course, relate to living in a country affected by propaganda. Many of the narratives that are presented on Russian TV nowadays also show Soviet nostalgia. Things like labelling Ukraine as Nazified, the fear of the dangerous West, and so on.\u00ab<\/p>\n

It started in Crimea<\/h3>\n

The language of war is full of clich\u00e9s about disinformation. The \u2018fog of war\u2019, the \u2018first casualty of war is the truth\u2019, and so on. But these are clich\u00e9s for a reason \u2013 because they fit this occasion too, Yevgeniy Golovchenko says.<\/p>\n

\u00bbIt’s not just a war with tanks and weapons. It is a war over information \u2013 and this information actually affects what happens on the ground,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n

He realised the power of disinformation when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. As a master’s student, Yevgeniy Golovchenko had a conversation over Skype with a close family member in Crimea. The person stubbornly insisted that the soldiers who were taking control of the peninsula were definitely not Russian. Instead, it was Berkut \u2013 a now dissolved Ukrainian unit of riot police \u2013 which was in the process of rebelling against the Ukrainian regime, so the person believed. Russia, which at the time denied that they were Russian soldiers, has since admitted that they were, in fact, Russian.<\/p>\n

\u00bbOf course this made a very big impression on me,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko.<\/p>\n

\u00bbWe have a person who is much closer to the events than me physically, but who is still trying to convince me that Russia’s disinformation is in fact correct. It dawned on me how strong disinformation can be,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n

He points out that the confusion about the Russian soldiers meant that it became harder to mobilize resistance to the annexation.<\/p>\n

\u00bbIf you don’t know who the soldiers are, it is also difficult to shoot at them,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n

The confusion over the invasion of Crimea is also one of the things that distinguishes the situation back then from today. It is clear to most people outside Russia, that the Russian invasion is actually taking place. And this has led to a significantly greater mobilisation against the Russian troops, which is also why Russia has met challenges in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, there is also disinformation at play this time \u2013 and in many ways to an even larger scale.<\/p>\n

A continuation of 2014<\/h3>\n

When Yevgeniy Golovchenko talks about the fight for truth during the current invasion, he once again draws parallels to the annexation of Crimea.<\/p>\n

\u00bbInformation plays a huge role \u2014 both then and today,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n

\u00bbBoth then and now, the two sides use disinformation to confuse things. Especially on the first day, there were many conflicting stories about whether the Russian soldiers had landed somewhere, whether a particular street in Kyiv had been attacked, and so on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 
\n
\nFor the Russians, disinformation is via the controlled Russian media system, where the authorities in practice have closed down independent media, blocked western social media, and have legislation in place that gives up to 15 years in prison for, say, calling the invasion a ‘war’.<\/p>\n

\u00bbOne of the first things the Russians did in Crimea was to turn off Ukrainian television signals, so that people primarily got the Russian state-controlled narrative about what happened \u2013 just as we see the Kremlin do so in Russia today. On top of that, there were campaigns on social media, where people were told that Ukrainian Nazis were on their way to Crimea to kill everyone who spoke Russian. It is exactly the same narratives that are running right now,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n

But since 2014, the Ukrainians have stepped up their fight against this. As early as 2017, they blocked the Russian counterpart to Facebook \u2013 Vkontakte \u2013 just as they have blocked Russian TV. The European Union has also joined the fight against disinformation with funding that would have been unthinkable only a short time ago. The Russian state-controlled media Sputnik and Russia Today are blocked in the EU.<\/p>\n

As a kind of low-tech disinformation, Ukrainian authorities have set up guides on civil disobedience where they encourage citizens to lie about Ukrainian soldiers’ locations to the Russians. Signposts have been swapped to create confusion among Russian soldiers and Ukrainian citizens have put painted brown plates onto roads that resemble landmines. In this way, Russian tanks have to stop or deviate from roads so that their progress is impaired.<\/p>\n

\u00bbThe information war has really been stepped up \u2013 both in terms of the production of information, in the distribution of it, and in terms of the censorship of it,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko.<\/p>\n

Back to daily life<\/h3>\n

Back in the office, Yevgeniy Golovchenko sums up the situation. Even though this last month has been his own kind of state of emergency, where he has had to put his current project aside on gender and diplomacy on social media for a few weeks to focus on the war in Ukraine, he cannot continue he says.<\/p>\n

\u00bbIt is really important to shed light on the situation right now. But if the only thing I do is talk to journalists about what is going on right now, I might as well just quit the university and become a media commentator. It has taken years to build up the knowledge that I can use in a situation like this. I have to continue to build on this knowledge,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n

He expects soon to be able to return to his daily life as a researcher. Because even though it can seem straightforward to keep up this complete focus on Ukraine, he is very conscious of thinking in the longer term and not staying in this emergency and throwing out everything else.<\/p>\n

\u00bbIt is easier to think like this, as the war is not new to me. I have written papers about the dispute with Russia since 2014 and have done research on it ever since 2017,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko.<\/p>\n

He has started to sleep a bit better. He needs it.\u00a0 Later he is to have a meeting on a new research project that has the war as its starting point. Yevgeniy Golovchenko needs to get his daily life back, but his focus on the conflict between Ukraine and Russia continues.<\/p>\n

\u00bbJust like the war has not just started, neither will its relevance end this month\u00ab.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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On top of following the war, and offering his insight as an expert, he has had family members who have been the object of disinformation, and friends in Kyiv who have been on the verge of taking up arms.","og_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-is-a-disinformation-expert-but-he-has-family-that-does-not-believe-that-kyiv-is-being-bombed\/","og_site_name":"University Post","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uniavis","article_published_time":"2022-05-02T06:13:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-05-02T14:43:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2508,"height":1672,"url":"http:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gry Bartroff Gaihede","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor.jpg","twitter_creator":"@Uniavisen","twitter_site":"@Uniavisen","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gry Bartroff Gaihede","Est. reading time":"13 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-is-a-disinformation-expert-but-he-has-family-that-does-not-believe-that-kyiv-is-being-bombed\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-is-a-disinformation-expert-but-he-has-family-that-does-not-believe-that-kyiv-is-being-bombed\/"},"author":{"name":"Gry Bartroff Gaihede","@id":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/#\/schema\/person\/d2b932cb3c26d685292a221680e386fe"},"headline":"He is a disinformation expert. 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But he has family that does not believe Kyiv is being bombed \u2014 University Post","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-is-a-disinformation-expert-but-he-has-family-that-does-not-believe-that-kyiv-is-being-bombed\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-is-a-disinformation-expert-but-he-has-family-that-does-not-believe-that-kyiv-is-being-bombed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor.jpg","datePublished":"2022-05-02T06:13:40+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-02T14:43:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/#\/schema\/person\/d2b932cb3c26d685292a221680e386fe"},"description":"It has been pretty hectic for the Danish-Ukrainian researcher on disinformation Yevgeniy Golovchenko since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. On top of following the war, and offering his insight as an expert, he has had family members who have been the object of disinformation, and friends in Kyiv who have been on the verge of taking up arms.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-is-a-disinformation-expert-but-he-has-family-that-does-not-believe-that-kyiv-is-being-bombed\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-is-a-disinformation-expert-but-he-has-family-that-does-not-believe-that-kyiv-is-being-bombed\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-is-a-disinformation-expert-but-he-has-family-that-does-not-believe-that-kyiv-is-being-bombed\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor.jpg","width":2508,"height":1672},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-is-a-disinformation-expert-but-he-has-family-that-does-not-believe-that-kyiv-is-being-bombed\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"He is a disinformation expert. But he has family that does not believe Kyiv is being bombed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/","name":"University Post","description":"Independent of management","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/#\/schema\/person\/d2b932cb3c26d685292a221680e386fe","name":"Gry Bartroff Gaihede","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/772958c7278c6a2aa225a325594d9f297ad3aecc397eb592b61049c2bf57a3f8?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/772958c7278c6a2aa225a325594d9f297ad3aecc397eb592b61049c2bf57a3f8?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/772958c7278c6a2aa225a325594d9f297ad3aecc397eb592b61049c2bf57a3f8?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Gry Bartroff Gaihede"},"url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/author\/gry\/"}]}},"advancedCustomFields":{"expression":{"term_id":18,"name":"Feature Article","slug":"feature_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":18,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":1200,"filter":"raw"},"enable_comments":true,"align_content":"alignleft","feature_color":"","article_updated":"","layout_group":[{"acf_fc_layout":"Headline","use_post_title":true,"headline":"","style":"default","highlighted_words":"","text_size":"small"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Image","image":{"ID":132987,"id":132987,"title":"Yev stor","filename":"yevstor.jpg","filesize":245744,"url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor.jpg","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/cnbc-time-magazine-and-france24-suddenly-everyone-wanted-to-talk-to-yevgeniy-golovchenko-about-his-research\/yev-stor-2\/","alt":"","author":"87","description":"","caption":"","name":"yev-stor-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":133255,"date":"2022-04-11 12:36:39","modified":"2022-04-11 12:36:58","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2508,"height":1672,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor-480x320.jpg","medium-width":480,"medium-height":320,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor-1280x853.jpg","large-width":1280,"large-height":853,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor-1536x1024.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor-2048x1365.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1365,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor-290x193.jpg","featured-soft-width":290,"featured-soft-height":193,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor-290x180.jpg","featured-hard-width":290,"featured-hard-height":180,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor-700x467.jpg","narrow-width":700,"narrow-height":467,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor-990x660.jpg","extended-width":990,"extended-height":660}},"style":"full","text_placement":"metadata-below","image_link_url":"","image_link_title":"","caption_prefix":"","enable_alternative_caption":true,"alternative_caption":"Yevgeniy Golovchenko is doing research on diplomacy in social media as a postdoc at the Department of Political Science"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Standfirst","subject":"","text":"It has been pretty hectic for the Danish-Ukrainian researcher on disinformation Yevgeniy Golovchenko since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. On top of following the war, and offering his insight as an expert, he has had family members who have been the object of disinformation, and friends in Kyiv who have been on the verge of taking up arms.","use_post_excerpt":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":false,"contributors":[{"use_registered_user":true,"user":{"ID":87,"user_firstname":"Serge","user_lastname":"Savin","nickname":"vicki.therkildsen@uniavisen.dk","user_nicename":"vicki-therkildsenuniavisen-dk","display_name":"Serge Savin","user_email":"savin.serge@gmail.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2022-02-01 09:40:21","user_description":"","user_avatar":"<img alt='' src='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e5a8415205635c832b6ccb322b5aa36a40c136e73dee3ffb085e4d94c8f4afd?s=96&d=identicon&r=g' srcset='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e5a8415205635c832b6ccb322b5aa36a40c136e73dee3ffb085e4d94c8f4afd?s=192&d=identicon&r=g 2x' class='avatar avatar-96 photo' height='96' width='96' loading='lazy' decoding='async'\/>"},"contributor_name":"","contributor_title":"","contributor_image":false}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p><span class=\"dropcap\">D<\/span>anish-Ukrainian disinformation researcher Yevgeniy Golovchenko usually sleeps like a log. But at five in the morning on 24 February he woke up with a jolt.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIt must have been intuition,\u00ab he says one month later.<\/p>\n<p>It was at the same time that tens of thousands of Russian troops, who had been at the Ukrainian border for several weeks, invaded Ukraine and thereby launched one of the biggest wars in Europe since the Second World War.<\/p>\n<p>Still half-asleep, Yevgeniy Golovchenko \u2014 like on every morning \u2014 checked the day’s news on Russian, Ukrainian and Western media while he was still in bed. War had broken out in the country where he had spent the first eleven years of his life. It started a month where his other research was temporarily put on hold as he focused on his role as an expert in disinformation. But, at the same time, he had to relate to friends in Ukraine wanting to take up arms, and family members who stubbornly maintain that Russia’s disinformation is the truth.<\/p>\n<h3>Troubled sleep<\/h3>\n<p>It is now exactly one month after that fateful morning, and Yevgeniy Golovchenko is his office under the roof of the old municipal hospital at the CSS campus in Copenhagen. It is here, with a view over the yard’s gardens, that his daily coding of his programmes takes place. The programmes gather, and sort, large data sets from social media to clarify how disinformation works. During the past month however, codes and datasets have been replaced by media work. While he has been following the war via the media, he has also often spoken as an expert.<\/p>\n<p>Clad in a black turtleneck with grey trousers, he is clearly exhausted after a long month. Both his shoulders and eyelids hang.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI have had difficulty sleeping at night lately,\u00ab he admits.<\/p>\n<p>He had actually started working on a project on gender and diplomacy on social media \u2013 a break from constantly having to relate to the war and destruction which he has done for the last eight years of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. First as a student, when practically all his work was on the topic, and later as a researcher.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ ALSO:<\/strong> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/cnbc-time-magazine-and-france24-suddenly-everyone-wanted-to-talk-to-yevgeniy-golovchenko-about-his-research\/\">CNBC, Time Magazine and France24: Suddenly, everyone wanted to talk to Yevgeniy Golovchenko about his research<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">YEVGENIY GOLOVCHENKO<\/p>\n<p>Born in 1990 in Ukraine. Grew up in Crimea and in Kyiv before moving to Frederikssund as an eleven-year-old with his mother.<\/p>\n<p>Master\u2019s in sociology from the University of Copenhagen before becoming a PhD student in political science in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>PhD at the Department of Political Science on pro-Kremlin disinformation on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Postdoc at the Department of Political Science, where he is doing research on social media diplomacy as part of the DIPLOFACE research project which is led by Rebecca Adler-Nissen and funded by the European Research Council<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>But since the start of the war, he has felt obligated to focus on the large-scale disinformation and censorship in connection with the conflict, and to answer media enquiries. Within hours of the invasion he had received the first ten media requests, and since then he has been busy answering questions from journalists affiliated with CNBC, Time Magazine, France24, and many more.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIt\u2019s been mentally draining to be on call at all times,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbBut I feel that it is my duty. I could spend time gathering in sleeping bags and clothes, which is extremely important as well. But I can also spend time contributing my expertise to a debate over what is going on in the Russian media landscape, and how the information war is being fought over Ukraine on social media. These are the things that I’ve been trained for over the past many years. And I feel it is my responsibility to step in and talk about it when needed.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Yevgeniy Golovchenko is used to being at the centre of media interest. When he started his PhD on disinformation in the beginning of 2017, the Oxford Dictionary had just named <em>post-truth<\/em> as word of the year. Donald Trump popularized the term <em>fake news<\/em>, and the US Senate was investigating a Russian influence campaign on the US presidential election with disinformation on social media. Disinformation has, in other words, been on everyone’s lips during the time period where Yevgeniy Golovchenko specialized in it.<\/p>\n<p>But he has never been through a time as intense as now, with Russia invading Ukraine, and the battle over disinformation between Russia, Ukraine and the West playing out like never before. An intensity that he already felt when he woke up with a start one month ago.<\/p>\n<h3>Destroyed childhood home<\/h3>\n<p>My mind was racing on the invasion day morning, Yevgeniy Golovchenko remembers. His first thoughts lying in bed were grim: Thousands will die and millions will flee.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbAnd then as a natural consequence of this, my second thought was to write to friends and family. I wrote to one of my best friends who lives in Kyiv. He is just a normal guy in the world of business. But he was ready to take up arms and kill as many Russian soldiers as possible. It was surreal to have to deal with this,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>That morning it also became clear to him that the disinformation of his research was not just something abstract. He felt the impact of this personally. He contacted his family in Kyiv, but then refrained from contacting close family members in Crimea, who over the past many years have been influenced by the Russian disinformation that he is doing research on. False narratives like the one that Russia was only conducting a limited, pinpoint operation, and that this was not outright war.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI simply did not have the mental capacity to call them and try to convince them that Kyiv has been bombed,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko, who has not talked to his family in Crimea since the invasion.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I actually thought that I lived in the old Soviet Union until I started in primary school.<\/p>\n<p class=\"quotee\">Postdoc Yevgeniy Golovchenko<\/p>\n<p> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He finds a video on his phone that illustrates his point about the two different realities between the family in Kyiv and the family in Crimea.<\/p>\n<p>The video shows the neighbourhood in Kyiv where Yevgeniy Golovchenko grew up. But it is no longer the same \u2013 ordinary blocks of flats have no sidewalls, so you can now look into the apartments where Ukrainians lived their daily lives only a few weeks ago. His own childhood home has had all the windows shattered after the bombings.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbOne of my family members sent pictures of the bombings to the family in Crimea, but they just thought that it was fake, and that it hadn’t happened in reality,\u00ab he says with a subdued look.<\/p>\n<p>Yevgeniy Golovchenko exhales, and pauses his flow of speech.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI do my best to make a difference in this situation. Study disinformation and talk to as many journalists as possible, so people are better informed. But I’m not one of those brave people, who have the surplus of energy to convince a family member that Kyiv is actually being bombed,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018Soviet\u2019 childhood in the 1990s<\/h3>\n<p>On Yevgeniy Golovchenko\u2019s office wall there is a Soviet propaganda poster from 1941. \u00bbDon\u2019t chatter!\u00ab it says in Russian, under a picture of a headscarfed female worker with her finger to her lips.<\/p>\n<p>He bought it for his office while he was a PhD student. Russian influence and covert influence campaigns are not a new phenomenon, he says.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Image","image":{"ID":133069,"id":133069,"title":"Yev profil","filename":"yevprofil.jpg","filesize":205097,"url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevprofil.jpg","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/yevgeniy-golovchenko-er-ekspert-i-desinformation-men-kan-ikke-overbevise-familien-om-at-kyiv-bliver-bombet\/yev-profil\/","alt":"","author":"5","description":"","caption":"","name":"yev-profil","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":133063,"date":"2022-04-12 12:00:33","modified":"2022-04-12 12:00:43","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1200,"height":800,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevprofil-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevprofil-480x320.jpg","medium-width":480,"medium-height":320,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevprofil-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevprofil.jpg","large-width":1200,"large-height":800,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevprofil.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":800,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevprofil.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":800,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevprofil-290x193.jpg","featured-soft-width":290,"featured-soft-height":193,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevprofil-290x180.jpg","featured-hard-width":290,"featured-hard-height":180,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevprofil-700x467.jpg","narrow-width":700,"narrow-height":467,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevprofil-990x660.jpg","extended-width":990,"extended-height":660}},"style":"extended","text_placement":"metadata-below","image_link_url":"","image_link_title":"","caption_prefix":"","enable_alternative_caption":false,"alternative_caption":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>\u00bbWhat we’re seeing now on social media is in many ways just a newer version of the methods that have been used for many decades: You keep facts hidden, and spread lies. What is new about social media is that it is much cheaper to produce information, so there are more people who participate in these campaigns, and their reach is faster and wider.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Yevgeniy Golovchenko felt the Soviet propaganda during his own childhood in Ukraine. He grew up in Crimea and in Kyiv shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, where they had not taken down the Lenin posters from the schools, or replaced the Soviet textbooks with new ones.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI actually thought that I lived in the Soviet Union until I started in primary school,\u00ab he admits.<\/p>\n<p>A teacher kindly explained to him that we now lived in a different time.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbAnd then, slowly, we started to get new textbooks that described the Soviet regime\u2019s oppression, and all the other things that were not in the old books. And clearly it was a confusing time \u2013 for me as a child, but I also think for Ukraine in general that had to find its identity.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>At home, they had an old Soviet television set that barely worked. Here he saw Soviet films, which often focused on Nazi Germany, and he believed that Germans were still evil Nazis during his childhood.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbSo I can, of course, relate to living in a country affected by propaganda. Many of the narratives that are presented on Russian TV nowadays also show Soviet nostalgia. Things like labelling Ukraine as Nazified, the fear of the dangerous West, and so on.\u00ab<\/p>\n<h3>It started in Crimea<\/h3>\n<p>The language of war is full of clich\u00e9s about disinformation. The \u2018fog of war\u2019, the \u2018first casualty of war is the truth\u2019, and so on. But these are clich\u00e9s for a reason \u2013 because they fit this occasion too, Yevgeniy Golovchenko says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIt’s not just a war with tanks and weapons. It is a war over information \u2013 and this information actually affects what happens on the ground,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>He realised the power of disinformation when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. As a master’s student, Yevgeniy Golovchenko had a conversation over Skype with a close family member in Crimea. The person stubbornly insisted that the soldiers who were taking control of the peninsula were definitely not Russian. Instead, it was Berkut \u2013 a now dissolved Ukrainian unit of riot police \u2013 which was in the process of rebelling against the Ukrainian regime, so the person believed. Russia, which at the time denied that they were Russian soldiers, has since admitted that they were, in fact, Russian.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbOf course this made a very big impression on me,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe have a person who is much closer to the events than me physically, but who is still trying to convince me that Russia’s disinformation is in fact correct. It dawned on me how strong disinformation can be,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>He points out that the confusion about the Russian soldiers meant that it became harder to mobilize resistance to the annexation.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIf you don’t know who the soldiers are, it is also difficult to shoot at them,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>The confusion over the invasion of Crimea is also one of the things that distinguishes the situation back then from today. It is clear to most people outside Russia, that the Russian invasion is actually taking place. And this has led to a significantly greater mobilisation against the Russian troops, which is also why Russia has met challenges in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, there is also disinformation at play this time \u2013 and in many ways to an even larger scale.<\/p>\n<h3>A continuation of 2014<\/h3>\n<p>When Yevgeniy Golovchenko talks about the fight for truth during the current invasion, he once again draws parallels to the annexation of Crimea.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbInformation plays a huge role \u2014 both then and today,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbBoth then and now, the two sides use disinformation to confuse things. Especially on the first day, there were many conflicting stories about whether the Russian soldiers had landed somewhere, whether a particular street in Kyiv had been attacked, and so on.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Quote","quote":"It's not just a war with tanks and weapons. It is a war over information \u2013 and this information actually affects what happens on the ground.\r\n","quotee":"Postdoc Yevgeniy Golovchenko","style":"extended"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>For the Russians, disinformation is via the controlled Russian media system, where the authorities in practice have closed down independent media, blocked western social media, and have legislation in place that gives up to 15 years in prison for, say, calling the invasion a ‘war’.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbOne of the first things the Russians did in Crimea was to turn off Ukrainian television signals, so that people primarily got the Russian state-controlled narrative about what happened \u2013 just as we see the Kremlin do so in Russia today. On top of that, there were campaigns on social media, where people were told that Ukrainian Nazis were on their way to Crimea to kill everyone who spoke Russian. It is exactly the same narratives that are running right now,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>But since 2014, the Ukrainians have stepped up their fight against this. As early as 2017, they blocked the Russian counterpart to Facebook \u2013 Vkontakte \u2013 just as they have blocked Russian TV. The European Union has also joined the fight against disinformation with funding that would have been unthinkable only a short time ago. The Russian state-controlled media Sputnik and Russia Today are blocked in the EU.<\/p>\n<p>As a kind of low-tech disinformation, Ukrainian authorities have set up guides on civil disobedience where they encourage citizens to lie about Ukrainian soldiers’ locations to the Russians. Signposts have been swapped to create confusion among Russian soldiers and Ukrainian citizens have put painted brown plates onto roads that resemble landmines. In this way, Russian tanks have to stop or deviate from roads so that their progress is impaired.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThe information war has really been stepped up \u2013 both in terms of the production of information, in the distribution of it, and in terms of the censorship of it,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko.<\/p>\n<h3>Back to daily life<\/h3>\n<p>Back in the office, Yevgeniy Golovchenko sums up the situation. Even though this last month has been his own kind of state of emergency, where he has had to put his current project aside on gender and diplomacy on social media for a few weeks to focus on the war in Ukraine, he cannot continue he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIt is really important to shed light on the situation right now. But if the only thing I do is talk to journalists about what is going on right now, I might as well just quit the university and become a media commentator. It has taken years to build up the knowledge that I can use in a situation like this. I have to continue to build on this knowledge,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>He expects soon to be able to return to his daily life as a researcher. Because even though it can seem straightforward to keep up this complete focus on Ukraine, he is very conscious of thinking in the longer term and not staying in this emergency and throwing out everything else.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIt is easier to think like this, as the war is not new to me. I have written papers about the dispute with Russia since 2014 and have done research on it ever since 2017,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko.<\/p>\n<p>He has started to sleep a bit better. He needs it.\u00a0 Later he is to have a meeting on a new research project that has the war as its starting point. Yevgeniy Golovchenko needs to get his daily life back, but his focus on the conflict between Ukraine and Russia continues.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbJust like the war has not just started, neither will its relevance end this month\u00ab.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Newsletter","lang_select":"en","identifier":"Newsletter","headline":"Get an email with our top stories","button_text":"Sign up here","class":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":true,"references":[{"reference":{"ID":133255,"post_author":"87","post_date":"2022-04-21 08:01:37","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-21 06:01:37","post_content":"Yevgeniy Golovchenko is used to being at the centre of media interest.\r\n\r\nDeliberate manipulation of the truth was widely talked about when he started his PhD on Russian disinformation at the beginning of 2017. The Oxford Dictionary had named <em>post-truth<\/em> as the word of the year in 2016. Donald Trump put the term <em>fake news<\/em> into everyday language. And at the same time, the US Senate began its investigation into the Russian impact on the US election result.\r\n\r\n\u00bbWhen I started working on disinformation, it was about to become the new black,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko.\r\n<div class=\"factbox\">\r\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">YEVGENIY GOLOVCHENKO<\/p>\r\nBorn in 1990 in Ukraine. Grew up in Crimea and in Kyiv until he moved to Frederikssund as an eleven-year-old with his mother.\r\n\r\nMaster\u2019s in sociology from the University of Copenhagen before becoming a PhD student in the field of political Science in 2017.\r\n\r\nPhD at the Department of Political Science on pro-Kremlin disinformation on social media.\r\n\r\nNow a postdoc at the Department of Political Science, where he is looking at social media diplomacy as part of the DIPLOFACE research project.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nHe has seen how \u2018disinformation\u2019 as a field of research has become more and more prominent at scientific conferences on international affairs, and even the main focus. And the media started calling the young researcher.\r\n\r\n<strong>READ ALSO:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/he-is-a-disinformation-expert-but-he-has-family-that-does-not-believe-that-kyiv-is-being-bombed\/\"><em>He is a disinformation expert. But he has family that does not believe Kyiv is being bombed<\/em><\/a>\r\n\r\n\u00bbIt has been a topic that has interested people ever since I started. But it has never been as intense as after the Russian invasion,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko with reference to the 24 February attack on Ukraine.\r\n\r\nWithin hours of the invasion he had received the first ten media enquiries, and since then he has been busy answering questions from journalists affiliated with CNBC, Time Magazine, France24 and many more.\r\n<h3>Intense month<\/h3>\r\nThis has had Yevgeniy Golovchenko putting most of his research on hold, so that his expertise is made available to the general public.\r\n\r\n\u00bbIt's been mentally draining to be on call at all times,\u00ab says Yevgeniy Golovchenko. And he has also had to deal with the war personally as a Danish-Ukrainian.\r\n\r\nWhen the University Post meets up with him one month after the invasion, he is clearly exhausted after an intense period. But this does not hold him back, he explains. He sees his work as a duty.\r\n\r\n\u00bbI could spend time gathering sleeping bags and clothes, something that is extremely important. But I can also spend time contributing my expertise to a debate over what is going on in the Russian media landscape, and how the information war is being fought over Ukraine on social media. These are things that I've been trained for over many years. And I feel it is my responsibility to step in and talk about it when needed.\u00ab\n<!-- end of module 1 -->\n","post_title":"CNBC, Time Magazine and France24: Suddenly, everyone wanted to talk to Yevgeniy Golovchenko about his research","post_excerpt":"Yevgeniy Golovchenko has done research on Russian trolls and fake news since he started his PhD In 2017. When Russia invaded Ukraine, there was a sudden upsurge in demand for his expertise.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"cnbc-time-magazine-and-france24-suddenly-everyone-wanted-to-talk-to-yevgeniy-golovchenko-about-his-research","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-05-02 16:44:53","post_modified_gmt":"2022-05-02 14:44:53","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/cnbc-time-magazine-og-france24-pludselig-ville-alle-hoere-om-yevgeniy-golovchenkos-forskning\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}},{"reference":{"ID":133300,"post_author":"79","post_date":"2022-04-22 08:08:04","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-22 06:08:04","post_content":"The world of physics must stand together to support Ukraine during Russia's occupation. This was the message when two Ukrainian researchers went up to the rostrum during the celebration of the Niels Bohr Institute's birthday at the beginning of March.\r\n\r\nRussian troops had invaded Ukraine a few days before, and two Ukrainian PhD students used the opportunity to address their peers. The message: Science can lead to peace.\r\n\r\n\u00bbWe are a community without borders, and it is in our power to stop the war and save our colleagues in Ukraine and Russia,\u00ab Mykhailo Flaks says in the speech. Tetiana Kozynets, a PhD student at the Niels Bohr Institute added:\r\n\r\n\u00bbWe would like to emphasise that, among all the other terrible things, the Russian attack on Ukraine is also an attack on science,\u00ab she says.\r\n\r\nYou can see the full video with Tetiana Kozynets and Mykhailo Flaks' speech at the bottom of this article.\r\n\r\n<strong>READ ALSO:<\/strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/cnbc-time-magazine-and-france24-suddenly-everyone-wanted-to-talk-to-yevgeniy-golovchenko-about-his-research\/\"> CNBC, Time Magazine and France24: Suddenly, everyone wanted to talk to Yevgeniy Golovchenko about his research<\/a><\/em>\r\n\r\nIn the speech, the two scientists called on their international physicist colleagues to act in the fight against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.\r\n\r\n\u00bbWe need to raise awareness about what is happening. We need to sign open letters and to make common cause in our contacts with our governments. And we must suspend, not discontinue, the publication of scientific articles from Russian state institutions,\u00ab Tetiana Kozynets says.\n<!-- end of module 1 -->\n","post_title":"VIDEO: Ukrainian PhDs at physicists' celebration: \u00bbRussia's attack is also an attack on science\u00ab","post_excerpt":"Two Ukrainian PhD students called on scientists throughout the world to stand with the Ukrainian people at the celebration of the Niels Bohr Institute's birthday. See their speech here.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"video-ukrainian-phds-at-physicists-celebration-russias-attack-is-also-an-attack-on-science","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-04-22 08:44:04","post_modified_gmt":"2022-04-22 06:44:04","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/video-ukrainske-forskere-talte-til-fysikkens-spidser-ruslands-angreb-er-ogsaa-et-angreb-paa-videnskaben\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}},{"reference":{"ID":130998,"post_author":"87","post_date":"2022-03-03 08:13:36","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-03 07:13:36","post_content":"<em>Article updated 4 March with a comment from University of Copenhagen rector Henrik C. Wegener.<\/em>\r\n\r\nThe rectors from all eight Danish universities, including the rector of the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) Henrik C. Wegener, signed a declaration Tuesday to stop all bilateral, institutional collaboration with government-linked institutions in Russia and Belarus. It follows a government request of Danish universities that they put the partnerships on hold.\r\n\r\nThe declaration means, specifically, that students and academics from Danish universities will no longer be to able to study abroad in the countries, and that researchers from Danish universities will not attend conferences or other scientific meetings on Russian and Belarusian soil. The release does not state specifically how the decision will affect Russian and Belarussian students and scientists currently in Denmark.\r\n\r\nRector of Aarhus University, Brian Bech Nielsen, is pleased that the Danish universities are standing together:\r\n\r\n\u00bbThe management team at Aarhus University strongly condemns Russia's acts of war, and Belarus' support of them. For this reason, I am pleased that all eight Danish universities are united in coming to this decision and stopping institutional collaborations on research and education with government-linked stakeholders in Russia and Belarus,\u00ab he says.\r\n\r\nThe University of Copenhagen will discontinue exchange agreements, but currently enrolled students will not be sent home.\r\n\r\nRector of the University of Copenhagen, Henrik C. Wegener, calls Russia's invasion an absolutely unacceptable attack on a peaceful democratic nation.\r\n\r\n\u00bbThe purpose is to send a clear signal that we find the completely outrageous aggression towards Ukraine completely unacceptable. Now we are in the midst of a conflict. It is important to send the strongest possible signal that this behaviour has consequences,\u00ab he says.\r\n\r\nThe decision means that active contracts and agreements on research collaboration will, to the greatest possible extent, be terminated or suspended. But the rector emphasises that the decision does not mean that researchers, for example, need to halt the publication of a scientific article if they have collaborated with a Russian co-author.\r\n<h3>Distinguishes between Russians and the state<\/h3>\r\nIn the joint press release, the universities call the invasion an \u00bbunprovoked attack on Western democracy and the basic values that are the foundation for modern European states,\u00ab while also expressing support for the Ukrainian people, including researchers and students.\r\n\r\nThe universities stress that they will \u00bbprotect individuals who are affected by the current war\u00ab, and that they will therefore reach out to Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian students and employees.\r\n\r\n\u00bbAt Danish universities, we distinguish between the Russian state and Russian citizens,\u00ab they write.\r\n\r\nAt the same time, the Danish universities will seek support among other European universities to collaborate on initiatives that can help Ukrainian university staff and students.\n<!-- end of module 1 -->\n","post_title":"Danish universities to cut ties with Russia and Belarus","post_excerpt":"Following a Danish government request, all Danish universities have stopped their collaboration with state-linked institutions in Russia and Belarus. This will mean that researchers and students at Danish universities will no longer be able to go on exchange or study abroad there.","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"danish-universities-to-cut-ties-with-russia-and-belarus","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-03-04 10:34:54","post_modified_gmt":"2022-03-04 09:34:54","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/danske-universiteter-indstiller-samarbejde-med-rusland-og-belarus\/","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}}],"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":"4","style":"default"}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":45,"name":"International","slug":"international","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":45,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":315,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":46,"name":"Science","slug":"science","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":46,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":831,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[{"term_id":5405,"name":"desinformation","slug":"desinformation-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5405,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":5408,"name":"disinformation","slug":"disinformation","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5408,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":615,"name":"fake news","slug":"fake-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":615,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":5406,"name":"fake news","slug":"fake-news-2-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5406,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":3493,"name":"institut for statskundskab","slug":"institut-for-statskundskab-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3493,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":5409,"name":"krig i ukraine","slug":"krig-i-ukraine-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5409,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":5271,"name":"rusland","slug":"rusland-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5271,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":5293,"name":"Russia","slug":"russia","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5293,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":7,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":5272,"name":"ukraine","slug":"ukraine-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5272,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":11,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":5427,"name":"Yevgeniy Golovchenko","slug":"yevgeniy-golovchenko-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5427,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":18,"name":"Feature Article","slug":"feature_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":18,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":1200,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yevstor-1280x853.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133482"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133821,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133482\/revisions\/133821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}