VENEMAA ERITEENISTUSTE ROLLIST INFORMATSIOONILISES MÕJUTUSTEGEVUSES: MIS ON TEADA, MIDA ON ALUST ARVATA JA MIDA VÕIB OLETADA?

The Role of Russia’s Intelligence Agencies in Influence Operations of Information Warfare: What is Known and What Can be Assumed

Abstract

Due to limited access to relevant sources, the infl uence activities of the secret services of authoritarian countries are a complicated subject to study. However, as the article shows, it is not impossible in the light of new materials made available to the researchers only recently and especially with the application of cross-temporal comparison. In the case of Russia, we can use the legal regulations governing its Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and Federal Security Service (FSB) that mention ‘support measures’ as one of their core activities. The analysis shows the connection, if not equivalence, between these measures and Soviet ‘active measures’ of the Cold War era, on which there are volumes of primary and secondary source material. The recent legal measures taken against Russia’s infl uence activities in the West provide researchers with long-awaited additional material, as does the opening of Western security services that provide more information for the public domain than they used to do. The analysis presented in this article off ers not only an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the infl uence operations of Russia’s intelligence agencies – which is, of course, academically interesting as well – but also insights on how to design countermeasures.