Abstract:

The article applies the concept of "controlled chaos" to the context of the hybrid aggression of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, reconstructing the main elements of the processes of delegitimizing the Presidents of Ukraine in the period 1991-2014. The search for adequate responses to the hybrid threats to democracy and self-organization of the political nation in Ukraine was initiated. It was proven that the phenomena of artificial delegitimization of the Presidents of Ukraine with the help of the controlled chaos technology influenced the national security. Methodologically, the study was based on a complex interdisciplinary combination of logical, historical methods with scenario analysis grounded on induction, abduction and hypothetical-deductive method. The study was driven by current geopolitical challenges to national security. The content and direction of operations to destabilize democracy and social self-organization in Ukraine were comprehensively studied, and the use of updated tools to intensify hybrid aggression against Ukraine were analysed. Since recently, some politicians in the West have seen Ukraine as a problem for Europe. But actually, today Ukraine is rather an integral part of solving many problems, including relations between Europe and Russia. First of all, the West should stop de facto treating the Russian Federation as a democratic and civilized state. The Russian Federation has traditionally responded only to specific manifestations of its opponents’ strength, not to declarations and diplomatic démarches. Western partners should realize that Russia views Ukraine as its existential enemy, denying the very right of Ukraine to exist as an independent state and pursuing the ultimate goal - the total destruction of Ukraine as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality. Russia’s tactics and strategies for producing controlled chaos proved to be modernized and adapted to the realities of the socio-political development of the EU and NATO with subsequent implementation of the Russian Federation’s vested interests on the territory of other nation-states.