Інформаційна політика президентів Російської Федерації і Республіки Польща щодо України

In 2013, Ukraine’s geopolitical choice was in the centre of attention of the whole world, began to take a significant part of the information space. For the authorities of the neighbouring states, it is important to know what is happening in Ukraine and, if possible, influence on situation. After the Revolution of Dignity, the annexation of the Crimea by the Russian Federation and the initiation armed conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukrainian society must understand the political stance of Russia towards Ukraine. Also no less important is the position of the Republic of Poland regarding Ukraine, since it was this state until recently was considered the main advocate of Ukraine in the European Union. Information component of the foreign policy of the states in the XXI century has a decisive influence on the formation of public opinion, the position of international institutions, international relations, the image of society and the state in the world. The purpose of this article is to find out the goals of the information policy of the presidents of Russia and Poland concerning Ukraine in the period 2014–2017. The article shows: the essence of the concept of «information policy»; the existing characteristics of the information policy of Russia and Poland concerning Ukraine; the positions of the presidents of Russia and Poland concerning Ukraine, which were published on their official sites; similarities and differences in the positions of the Russian and Polish presidents toward to Ukraine. Having analyzed the public statements of the presidents of Russia and Poland concerning Ukraine in 2014–2017, the author finds some similarities and differences. For example, the Russian president, as a rule, tell about Ukraine and Russia’s role in issues related to Ukraine, while Polish presidents usually speak about Poland and Ukraine, focusing on Polish-Ukrainian relations. The Russian authorities, in the person of its president, divide Ukraine into power and people (the power is bad, the people need help). For the Polish authorities, at least until recently, in the official speeches of the presidents it was about Ukraine as a single whole (the people and the power that this people elected). In addition to the geopolitical interest of Russia and Poland to Ukraine, Russian authorities often tell about their economic interests in Ukraine; Poland authorities – about security issues (the dependence of the security of Poland and Europe as a whole on the situation in Ukraine). Russian authorities call the Ukrainian nationalists guilty of worsening Russian-Ukrainian relations. The Polish authorities also lately actualized the discussion of the activities of Ukrainian nationalists in the first half of the twentieth century. This issue has recently been the basis of modern PolishUkrainian relations. The comparison of the theoretical definitions of the concept of «information policy», which was presented at the beginning of the report and the practical aspects elucidated in the process of analyzing the public statements of the presidents of the two states in 2014–2017, gives possibility to formulate another conclusion. The information policy of the Polish president is more in line with the definition – the promulgation of the official position of the president of the state, informing the society of the goals and plans of activity, and attempts to obtain public support. Instead, the information policy of the Russian president, or rather the information geopolitics, is more oriented towards the use of technologies of information and psychological influence on the individual and mass consciousness in order to form the necessary public opinion, behaviours that will meet the goals defined by the authorities.