Russia has long been waging operations against democracies using all of the asymmetric tools ASD tracks—information manipulation, cyberattacks, malign finance, civil society subversion, and state economic coercion. The Kremlin’s geographic scope in conducting operations to undermine democracy continues to expand and its tactics continue to evolve. Find ASD’s work on Russia’s attempts to interfere in democracies on this page.
Interference Matters
Catch Me If EU Can: How RT and Sputnik Evade EU Content Bans
David Salvo Discusses How to Strengthen Transatlantic Relations in Response to Russia and China with EUROPEUM
After the first 100 days of the US President Biden in the office and in expectation of the upcoming NATO summit in June 2021, it is the right time to assess where the transatlantic relationship stands and especially in regard to countering two of it [...]
Belarus Is Part of Europe’s Russia Problem
For years, Alexander Lukashenko has been a problem frequently discussed but easily forgotten. When Belarus forced Ryanair flight FR4978 to land in Minsk and arrested Raman Pratasevich and Sofia Sapega, it took away the freedom and security not only [...]
Hamilton Toplines: May 24-30, 2021
After Belarusian authorities forced a Ryanair plane to land in Minsk on May 23 and arrested opposition journalist Roman Protasevich, who was a passenger on the flight, Russian state media and diplomats strongly criticized Western responses to the in [...]
Etienne Soula Discusses Russia’s Covid Vaccine Disinformation Operations in L’Express
A suspicious agency offered European influencers money to spread negative publicity about the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. Research Assistant Etienne Soula spoke to L'Express about the similarities between this information manipulation attempt and Ru [...]
Hamilton Toplines: May 17-23, 2021
Last week, Russian state media continued to highlight incidents of police brutality during the protests in Colombia and related human rights concerns, though the volume of such content continued to taper off from its peak the first week of May. (On [...]
Kristine Berzina and Josh Rudolph Talk the Geopolitics of Nord Stream 2 on ‘The Power Vertical’
It was always going to be a difficult needle to thread. The Biden administration clearly views Russia’s Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline as a geopolitical project that threatens European energy security and that of Ukraine and eastern flank NATO a [...]
The Good Web: Is There an Authoritarian Model for the Internet?
What Countries Buy Into When They Buy Authoritarian Technologies In February 2021, ASD held a security and geopolitics workshop as part of the Good Web project entitled “Authoritarian Models, Practices, and Threats,” in which participants discussed [...]
Hamilton Toplines: May 10-16, 2021
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a major story for Russian state media last week, with #Palestine the most frequently used topical hashtag by Russia’s Twitter accounts tracked on Hamilton, and Israel tied with Russia for the most-mentioned count [...]
Bret Schafer Discusses Russia’s Covid-19 Vaccine Disinformation on ‘The Inoculation’
Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer joined "The Inoculation" to discuss Russia's disinformation and mal-information campaign around Western Covid-19 vaccines. Bret, the hosts, and other guests take a look at how the Russian governm [...]
Hamilton Toplines: May 3-9, 2021
Russian state media predictably used the Facebook Oversight Board’s ruling to uphold the company’s previous decision to ban former President Trump from the platform to advance its usual Big Tech censorship narrative and amplify Trump’s anti-Big Tech [...]
Jessica Brandt and Bret Schafer: Using the Truth to Tell A Lie: Authoritarian Covid-19 Vaccine Mal-Information Strategies
Over the past year, the regimes in Russia, China, and Iran have used a combination of public diplomacy, propaganda, and overt and covert disinformation campaigns to portray their respective responses to the pandemic as superior to those of the West. [...]
Hamilton Toplines: April 26-May 2, 2021
In the wake of the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency’s (Anvisa) decision not to authorize Sputnik V for import to Brazil, the Sputnik V Twitter account slammed the choice as the result of political pressure from the United States, criticized Anvisa [...]