European Union leaders remain idle in the face of Russia’s information warfare, which is increasing the Kremlin’s influence on public opinion in the West, reports suggest.
“Russians know the art of disinformation like no one else and use it also in peace time,” said Julien Nocetti of the French Institute of International Relations think-tank, and “with no appropriate reaction from Europe, they are winning the war for now.”
The Kremlin has steadily increased funded for information warfare believing it could shift the middle ground of debate in Europe towards the Russia point of view, experts suggest.
“The Kremlin has a propaganda unit, it has an information unit,” said Chatham House analyst James Nixey. “They believe that information warfare is warfare. It’s just another tool in the tool box.”
The challenge posed by Russian active measures includes propaganda, disinformation and brazen interference in the internal affairs of other countries, the Institute of World Politics adds, highlighting the First Annual Herb Romerstein Memorial Propaganda and Deception Lecture by Todd Leventhal, a Research Analytics Officer at the Global Engagement Center at the U.S. Department of State. He has 20 years of experience in analyzing and countering Soviet, Russian, Iraqi and other disinformation, conspiracy theories and urban legends at the State Department, the U.S. Information Agency, and the Department of Defense. Mr. Leventhal wrote the 1992 report to Congress Soviet Active Measures in the “Post-Cold War” Era, which analyzed the conciliatory influence techniques of Gorbachev’s “new political thinking,” and the 1988 report Soviet Active Measures in the Era of Glasnost.
Tue, March 14, 2017
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM EDT
The Institute of World Politics
1521 16th St. NW
Washington DC, DC 20036
