Category: Eurasia

UK and Russia waging ‘fast and furious’ information warfare

     

Blogging platform Tumblr has deleted 84 accounts it says Russian propagandists used to spread disinformation during the 2016 US election, the BBC reports: The accounts are believed to have been… Read more »

Russia’s sham election shows many faces of Putin

     

Autocrats have a talent for producing impressive election results. It isn’t difficult to win when your opponents are not on the ballot, Russian democracy activist Vladimir Kara-Murza writes for the… Read more »

How Cambridge Analytica’s psychological warfare subverts democracy

     

A British TV station broadcast video Monday apparently showing the head of the data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica, talking about using bribes, traps involving sex workers and other unethical tactics to swing… Read more »

The ‘fascist’ philosopher inspiring Russia’s kleptocrats

     

An advocate of Russian fascism is having a profound influence on the discourse of the country’s politicians and kleptocrats,* including Vladimir Putin, according to a leading commentator. Because Ivan Ilyin (left)… Read more »

Will post-election Putin intensify conflict with the West?

     

If you want to know what might keep Vladimir Putin from a good night’s sleep after his expected landslide reelection as president of Russia on Sunday, there’s no better place… Read more »

A Brezhnev moment: ‘coronation’ takes Putin a step closer to leader-for-life

     

  With his reelection, Vladimir Putin took one step closer to becoming Russia’s leader for life.  On paper, Putin’s victory gave him a new six-year term as president. But some… Read more »

What do we know about the Russian cyber ops playbook?

     

  For Russia, cyber-operations are a subset of overall information warfare and a way to integrate hacking seamlessly into influence campaigns, according to Ryan C. Maness, an assistant professor in the Defense… Read more »

‘Londongrad’: spy attack shines spotlight on kleptocratic haven

     

“Kleptocracy at its worst” is how US Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently characterized dealings at 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a heavily indebted state development fund currently under investigation for fraud… Read more »

Defending democracy: best responses to weaponized information

     

  Russia is likely to adopt innovative active measures as it seeks to interfere in future elections. Instead of fighting the last war, we should expect a new Kremlin meddling… Read more »

Counter Disinformation Coalition – a democratic defense against active measures

     

The problem of disinformation is “broader than Russia” because other foreign powers are already planning to deploy digital disinformation tools, according to a new report. “The Russians and other purveyors… Read more »