The Menace of Unreality: How the Kremlin Weaponizes Information, Culture and Money [View all]

[Madam45for2923]

CONTENTS
Introductions...................................................................... 4
Executive Summary ........................................................... 6
Background......................................................................... 8
The Kremlin Tool Kit ........................................................ 14
The Weaponization of Information ...................................... 14
The Weaponization of Culture and Ideas ........................... 18
The Weaponization of Money ............................................... 22
The New, Non-Linear Internationale ............................. 24
Ukraine and the Advent of Non-Linear War.................. 29
Responses to 21st-Century Challenges......................... 34
Defining Western Weak Spots............................................... 34
Best Practices ........................................................................... 38
Recommendations ........................................................... 40
For Weaponization of Information....................................... 40
For Weaponization of Money ................................................ 42
For Weaponization of Ideas ................................................... 42

http://www.interpretermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/PW-31.pdf

Defining Western Weak
Spots
• The Kremlin applies different approaches to different
regions across the world, using local rivalries
and resentments to divide and conquer.
• The Kremlin exploits systemic weak spots in the
Western system, providing a sort of X-ray of the
underbelly of liberal democracy.
• The Kremlin successfully erodes the integrity of
investigative and political journalism, producing
a lack of faith in traditional media.
• Offshore zones and opaque shell companies help
sustain Kremlin corruption and aid its influence.
For journalists, the threat of libel means few publications
are ready to take on Kremlin-connected
figures.
• Lack of transparency in funding and the blurring of
distinctions between think tanks and lobbying
helps the Kremlin push its agendas forward without
due scrutiny.



Recommendations:
For the Weaponization of Information

• A Transparency International for Disinformation:
The creation of an NGO that would create
an internationally recognized ratings system for
disinformation and provide analytical tools with
which to define forms of communication.
• A “Disinformation Charter” for Media and Bloggers:
Top-down censorship should be avoided.
But rival media, from Al-Jazeera to the BBC, Fox
and beyond, need to get together to create a charter
of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Vigorous
debate and disagreement is of course to be
encouraged—but media organizations that practice
conscious deception should be excluded from the
community. A similar code can be accepted by
bloggers and other online influencers.
• Counter-Disinformation Editors: Many newspapers
now employ “public editors,” or ombudsmen,
who question their outlet’s reporting or
op-ed selections and address matters of public
controversy that these might entail. “Counter-propaganda
editors” would pick apart what might be
called all the news unfit to print.
• Tracking Kremlin Networks: We must ensure
that Kremlin-supported spokesmen, officials and
intellectuals are held to account. Employees of
think tanks, pundits or policy consultants with
vested financial interests in the countries they
cover need to disclose their affiliations in public
statements.
• Public Information Campaigns: Stopping all
disinformation at all times is impossible. Public
information campaigns are needed to show
how disinformation works and shift the public’s
behavior towards being more critical of messages
that are being “buzzed” at them.
• Targeted Online Work: Audiences exposed to
systemic and intensive disinformation campaigns,
such as the Russian-speaking communities in
the Baltic states, need to be worked with through
targeted online campaigns that include the equivalent
of person-to-person online social work.

For the Weaponization of Money

• Strategic Corruption Research and a Journalists’
Libel Fund: Financial and institutional support
needs to be made available so that deep research
can be carried out in the sensitive area where
politics, security and corruption meet; this needs
to be backed up by a fund for journalists who
face potential libel litigation for the offense of
doing their jobs. A non-profit organization, based
in Western capitals, modeled on Lawyers Without
Borders but dedicated exclusively to defending
journalists, is long overdue.
• Target: Offshore: A network of stringers in offshore
jurisdictions is needed to carry out deep
research into the financial holdings of Russian
oligarchs and officials.
• Crowd-sourced Investigations: It is in the interest
of NGOs to enlist experienced bloggers, citizen
journalists or adept social media users to collaborate
on specific events or news stories that adhere
to the same standards of empirical rigor used
by traditional journalists. A handful of analysts
armed with YouTube, Google Maps, Instagram,
or foreign company registration websites can
generate headlines.

For the Weaponization of Culture and Ideas

• Re-establishing Transparency and Integrity in
the Expert Community: Self-disclosure of funding
by think tanks and a charter identifying clear
lines between funders and research would be a
first step in helping the sector regulate itself and
re-establish faith in its output.
• The Valdai Alternative: A broad gathering should
be convened to bring together think tanks, experts
and policymakers to focus on:
- addressing fears around the erosion of tradition,
religion and national sovereignty;
- mainstreaming Russia’s neighbors such as Ukraine,
Georgia and Estonia in the debate about Russian
policy; and
- engaging with “swing states” such as the BRICs and
others in the Middle East, Asia and South America
that are being courted by the Kremlin to join
its anti-Western Internationale.

Overall, the struggle against disinformation, strategic
corruption and the need to reinvigorate the global
case for liberal democracy are not merely Russia-specific
issues: today’s Kremlin might perhaps
be best viewed as an avant-garde of malevolent
globalization. The methods it pursues will be taken
up by others, and these counter-measures could
and should be adopted worldwide


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