Vestnik RUDN. International Relations (Dec 2015)
Nature and Key Elements of the Ukrainian Think Tanks
Abstract
The article is devoted to the activities of the Ukrainian think tanks in the context of studying “the Center of it. A. Razumkov” activity, which is supposed to be the leading Ukrainian think tank. The authors examined in detail the mechanisms and principles of the center’s work, analyzed the activity of key experts including A. Gritsenko, G. Sherr, P. Rozenko, A. Melnyk, I. Zhdanov, V. Chaly, Yu. Mostovaya, N. Martynenko, A. Rachok and sources of funding. The researchers highlighted a number of issues of the Ukrainian system of analytical centers, including the closed system of decision making at the state and local authorities level, the lack of demand for the services of independent analytical structures by public authorities, weak financial, material and technical base, the absence of staff training, poor communication between the centers, insufficient use of the Internet, software and hardware, information-analytical systems, and so on. While analyzing their activities the author comes to the conclusion that they have mostly been funded by various agencies (including foreign ones) and used in opposition between the local political and financial elites. As a result their expert assessments and analytics very often did not reflect the real situation. Within the civil war in Ukraine in 2013-2014’s these think tanks finally turned into an instrument of information and psychological war, being discredited by their actual support to the actors which had staged a coup and started a struggle against their own nation.
