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
Congress Should Follow the Money Like the British Parliament
This article was originally published as a GMF Transatlantic Take on July 31, 2020. After the United Kingdom’s parliament released its recent report on Russian interference in British democracy, front-page headlines howled that it damns the governme [...]
Defend Democracy the Australian Way
This article was originally published as a GMF Transatlantic Take on July 23, 2020. With mounting evidence that Russia regularly interferes in British democracy while the U.K. government “actively avoids” investigating, the country needs a proven pl [...]
Hamilton Weekly Report: July 4-July 10, 2020
Overview The United States and its allies were, once again, the primary targets of negative messaging from Russia, China, and Iran’s diplomats and state media last week. Kremlin-funded media hammered the Baltic states for a second straight week afte [...]
Hamilton Weekly Report: June 27-July 3, 2020
Overview Besides the ubiquitous coverage of the coronavirus, Russia, China, and Iran’s state media and government messengers last week hit on familiar themes for each of their respective countries. For Russia, that meant elevating claims of “Russoph [...]
Kristine Berzina on the Open Skies Treaty on Al Jazeera
Senior Fellow Kristine Berzina explained that the Open Skies Treaty matters for U.S.-Russia bilateral relations, but the security concerns that the treaty was set up to address are also European concerns. [...]
A Note on Coming Updates to the Authoritarian Interference Tracker
The Alliance for Securing Democracy’s Authoritarian Interference Tracker maps and catalogs over 400 instances of Russian state-sponsored efforts to undermine democracy in over 40 countries. The Tracker documents five tools authoritarian regimes use [...]
Nad’a Kovalčíková Joins a Panel Discussion on Disinformation in Europe after Coronavirus on the Europe After Coronavirus Podcast
Program Manager and Fellow Nad’a Kovalčíková joined Jorge Tuñón of University Carlos III of Madrid and Emma Briant of Bard College to discuss disinformation in Europe after the Coronavirus "infodemic" on El País’ Agenda Pública and OpenEUDebate's Eu [...]
Laura Rosenberger on Countering Chinese and Russian Digital Influence Operations with CNAS
Director Laura Rosenberger joined a panel of experts convened by the Center for a New American Security for a webinar discussion entitled "Countering China and Russian Influence Operations." [...]
Russian Coronavirus Aid to Italy: The Mask Falls Off
Since February of this year, as the coronavirus pandemic has swept the globe, China has been engaging in what media commentators are calling “mask diplomacy”—the sale or donation of medical supplies to countries battling the terrible disease. Russia [...]
Laura Rosenberger on China’s Adoption of Russian Disinformation Tactics in Axios
Director Laura Rosenberger explained that the Chinese party-state's information manipulation tactics in the past few weeks have diverged from what we've seen in the past in Axios. She pointed out three main tactics that Beijing has applied in its co [...]
Chinese and Russian State-Owned Media on the Coronavirus: United Against the West?
Beginning in late January, when news emerged of a “novel coronavirus” spreading through China, Beijing’s propaganda apparatus shifted into overdrive. The epidemic has also been heavily covered in externally-directed Russian state-backed media outlet [...]
Jessica Brandt on Russian Election Interference in Wired
Russia has amplified conspiracy theories suggesting that delays in reporting Iowa caucus results were part of an effort to deny Senator Bernie Sanders a win, as well as theories purporting murky ties between other candidates and the company that cre [...]