Tag "Kremlin Watch Briefing"
Topics of the Week The Kremlin has introduced new economic sanctions against 322 Ukrainian citizens and 68 companies. RT and Sputnik, along with other foreign accounts, circulated disinformation on Brazilian social media to influence the presidential election. As part of its new Defending Democracy program, Microsoft is developing machine learning tools to help politicians and candidates thwart cyberattacks. The Pentagon and US intelligence community are bracing to execute a major cyber offensive against Russia should the latter systemically interfere in the…
Topics of the Week Facebook is responding to Russian interference in the United States, but continuously underestimates disinformation campaigns in other countries. The New York Times: US Cyber Command launched its first known digital campaign to target Russia’s cyber operatives. Special Focus: The Russian Orthodox Church vilifies the autocephaly developments in Ukraine. International Elections Study Center: Examining Russian election meddling through politics, the non-governmental sector, and media. Good Old Soviet Joke An advisor to the President…
NEW PUBLICATION Hybrid Analytica: Pro-Kremlin Expert Propaganda in Moscow, Europe and the U.S.: A Case Study on Think Tanks and Universities The Institute of Modern Russia (IMR) has published a new report by Dr. Kateryna Smagliy, with contributions by Ilya Zaslavskiy, that traces the insidious web of connections between Russian oligarchs and Western research institutions. Dr. Smagliy was a Special Fellow at the European Values Think-Tank during the summer of 2018. The report examines…
Topics of the Week Ruslan Boshirov, one of the two suspects in the Skripal poisoning, has been identified as a GRU colonel by investigators from Bellingcat. A new report shows that voting infrastructure in the US is highly vulnerable – remotely hackable voting tabulators are in use in 23 states. Russian state media are bashing the Dutch Ministry of Defence for inadequately dressing their soldiers for cold weather. STRATPOL report: Of the Visegrad 4 countries, Hungary…
Topics of the Week State-owned Russian news agency financed three seemingly-independent news sites in the Baltic countries that were instructed to produce pro-Kremlin content. Michael Carpenter: “Russia’s manipulation of fringe far-right groups is part of a deliberate strategy to undermine Western democratic institutions.” he Kremlin disinformation machine is churning at full speed to justify Russian advances into Syria’s Idlib region. Read about a new Swedish report on countering information influence activities in preparation of the upcoming…
Topics of the Week Ilya Zaslavskiy: Israel should acknowledge the threat of the Kremlin’s hostile influence and act accordingly. Are the US midterms already in jeopardy? RT is fond of Trump, but not so much the United States. Robotrolling: Russian-language messages about the Baltics and Poland mainly produced by humans for the first time Good Old Soviet Joke A foreign correspondent asks a Czech citizen: “What’s the situation after Prague Spring? Are the Russians your…
NEW PUBLICATION 2018 Ranking of Countermeasures by the EU28 to the Kremlin’s Subversion Operations. This report, which builds on the Overview of Countermeasures by the EU28 to the Kremlin’s Subversion Operations (published in May 2017), summarizes all the new initiatives, developments, and policies implemented in the last year, analyses the major trends, and provides a current ranking of the EU28 on the basis of their resistance against the Kremlin’s subversion efforts, from…
Topics of the Week The Night Wolves, a Russian biker gang, are a tool of Russian intelligence The US indicts 12 Russian intelligence officers in connection with the hacking of the DNC, while Maria Butina, a Russian gun-rights advocate, is arrested on charges of conspiracy against the United States The Kremlin’s current narrative: British authorities are blocking successful investigation of the Novichok attacks Study: 10% of Russian-speaking social media users in the Baltic states…
Topics of the Week he European Council’s conclusions call for a more coordinated and better resourced response to disinformation on part of the EU. Will the High Representative ever acknowledge the will of the Member States? U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, praising him for “courtesy and graciousness” and planning the bilateral meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders. New report by Marcel H. Van Herpen: Pro-Kremlin populism…
Topics of the Week In a public appeal published by the European Values Think-Tank, 50 security experts from 18 European countries outline the reasons why Nord Stream II is Germany’s biggest strategic mistake in a generation. The recent cyber-attack on Germany’s energy networks shows signs of Russian methods, according to the Chief of the BfV. According to a new investigation, 10 properties associated with the Trump Organization have been sold to buyers directly…
