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.
A Post-Merkel German Foreign Policy: A Look Into the Parties’ Election Agendas
Why It Matters After 16 years of government under Chancellor Angela Merkel and 8 years in a so-called “grand coalition” between the CDU/CSU and the SPD, it is all but certain that the federal elections in September will bring a change in government [...]
Hamilton Toplines: July 26-August 1, 2021
Russia As with most international media outlets, Russian state media outlets focused heavily on coverage of the Tokyo Olympics last week, a topic discussed in more detail in a recently published ASD blog post. They also continued to stoke vaccine sk [...]
Politics, Patriotism, and Propaganda: How Russia, China, and Iran Are Covering the Tokyo Olympics
Authoritarians have long used international sporting competitions as a platform for advancing political and geopolitical agendas, from using the successes of their athletes to boost national pride to opportunistically leveraging the global spotlight [...]
Hamilton Toplines: July 19-25, 2021
Russia The announcement of a U.S.-Germany deal on Nord Stream 2 last week provoked some criticism from Russian diplomats, who objected to the agreement’s “hostile” stance toward Russia. RIA Novosti also ran at least a couple of articles highlighting [...]
Top 5 German Election Dashboard Takeaways
Germany’s upcoming federal election in September is not only important for the German people but can be an alluring target for foreign and domestic actors seeking to influence the future trajectory of the country or seeking to undermine democratic p [...]
Dissidents: They Get the Job Done
Iranian operatives' attempt to kidnap Masih Alinejad highlights the critical role that dissidents and defectors play in combatting authoritarianism—as well as the risks autocrats will take to silence them. Earlier this month, federal prosecutors an [...]
Hamilton Toplines: July 12-18, 2021
Russia In coverage of the anti-government protests in Cuba, Russian state media amplified calls to end the U.S. embargo on the country and Cuban officials’ accusations that U.S.-funded mercenaries are fomenting the protests. The Russian Foreign Mini [...]
Between Messaging and Manipulation: How Russia, China, Turkey, and Iran Engaged in German Political Discourses in June 2021
What We’re Seeing on the 2021 German Elections Dashboard In June, as in previous months, foreign state-backed media and diplomatic accounts actively engaged in online German political discourses, at times manipulating information. Russian actors con [...]
The Illusion of a Russian Media Empire: How Anonymous Bloggers and Obfuscated Identities Power the Troll Factory’s Successor
What becomes of a Kremlin troll farm when its fake accounts are repeatedly taken down? It sheds its skin and morphs into something new, all while continuing its efforts to bend public opinion towards a Putinesque view of the world. Since its much-pu [...]
Maurice Turner Discusses the White House’s New Task Force to Curb Ransomware on CBS News
Federal officials are looking to crack down on ransomware attacks that are attacking critical U.S. infrastructure by implementing a new multi-agency task force. The announcement comes just days after the notorious Russian-linked ransomware group, RE [...]
Hamilton Toplines: July 5-11, 2021
Russian state media and diplomats extensively covered the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last week, with Afghanistan ranking as the third most mentioned country and “Taliban” as one of the top 10 key phrases by monitored accounts. Notable narrativ [...]
Maurice Turner Discusses the United States’ Ransomware Deterrent Strategy on CBS News
Our current ransomware deterrent strategy is "simply not working," Cybersecurity Fellow Maurice Turner said. President Biden says he will "deliver" a message to Russian President Putin over the massive global ransomware attack, believed to have or [...]