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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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." [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Overview In a year featuring a presidential impeachment, Brexit, mass protests in Hong Kong, and widespread geopolitical turmoil, few topics dominated the Russian government-funded media landscape quite like the arrest and subsequent suicide of bil [...]
Media and Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer joined David Rabin on WPFW - Pacifica to discuss how Russia has interfered in African American activist movements and how Russia will continue to try to increase polarization throughout the U.S. ahead of [...]
There is an emerging recognition in Western capitals that Russian strategic economic coercion and malign financial activity threaten to undermine the rule of law, weaken democracy, and meaningfully affect American and European politics. This underst [...]
When authentic domestic voices pick up Moscow’s narratives and spread them across the information space, they hand the Kremlin a victory, Head of Policy and Research Jessica Brandt argues in The Hill. [...]
Russian influence campaigns that falsely accuse Ukraine of interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election have successfully furthered Russia's yearslong geopolitical battle against its largest European neighbor, Head of Research and Policy Jess [...]
Transatlantic sanctions from the United States and Europe put real pressure on Russia to curb its aggression. American political leaders should urge Europe to refrain from lifting economic sanctions on Russia at this point in time and should signal [...]
Overview The Russian government under Vladimir Putin has engaged in a prolonged effort to create a version of Russian history free “from internal contradictions and ambiguities.” But attempts to airbrush Russian history have recently become a messa [...]
How to Interpret Hamilton 2.0 Hamilton 2.0 displays outputs from sources that we can directly attribute to the Russian, Chinese, or Iranian governments or their various news and information channels. These channels and accounts often engage with t [...]
ASD Director Laura Rosenberger appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show to discuss Russian economic coercion and malign financial influence. [...]
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified before congressional committees last week on the contents of his office’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, making the case that foreign interference is “among the most serious” thre [...]
This article was originally published as a German Marshall Fund Transatlantic Take on July 26, 2019. In 2014 the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed a staggering Russian money-laundering operation perpetrated through [...]
ASD Director Laura Rosenberger joined Lawfare’s The Report podcast to discuss the Russian government’s hack-and-leak operation in the lead-up to the 2016 election. She describes how Russian intelligence timed the release of stolen emails and data to [...]
ASD Director Laura Rosenberger joined Lawfare's The Report podcast to discuss the Russian government's hack-and-leak operation in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Rosenberger describes how Russian intelligence timed the release of stolen emails and [...]
In his testimony this week, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller III reiterated that foreign interference is “among the most serious” challenges to democracy, and that it “deserves the attention of every American.” The Alliance for Securing Democr [...]
On July 7, Greeks voted in national elections to replace Alexis Tsipras and his ruling left-wing Syriza party with Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ right-wing New Democracy. Mitsotakis’ party platform promises to re-energize the Greek economy and attract new in [...]
ASD Head of Policy and Research Jessica Brandt was interviewed by Public Radio International, where she spoke about the two-pronged nature of Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. elections: disinformation and cyberattacks. Brandt also praised the [...]
ASD Non-resident Fellow Clint Watts discusses Russian cyber interference and the Internet Research Agency on the first episode of Lawfare's new Active Measures podcast. [...]
ASD Head of Policy and Research Jessica Brandt writes about the unfolding scandal of Russian financing of Italy's major far-right party La Lega in Axios. [...]
In February 2019, two Italian investigative journalists made an explosive revelation: Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right party La Lega and Italian interior minister, had sought financing from the Kremlin to the tune of millions of euros. That c [...]
ASD Senior Fellow Joshua Kirschenbaum and GWU's Jennifer DeNardis discuss the recent Financial Action Task Force evaluation of Russia with the Program on Compliance and Enforcement at the NYU School of Law. "Russia in recent years has been the most [...]
Introduction In the spring of 2016, as the Russian-domiciled First Czech Russian Bank (FCRB) approached insolvency, staff worked feverishly to erase ledgers, destroy documents, and conceal evidence of the bank’s activity over the previous 9 years. [...]
Summary The Russian government’s active measures campaign during the 2016 U.S. presidential election was a watershed moment in the study of modern information operations. Revelations that the Kremlin had purchased divisive political ads on social [...]
Government officials and tech titans could be excused for breathing a huge, collective sigh of relief if next week’s midterms come to pass without evidence of widespread foreign manipulation. But if recent U.S. elections are any indication, the thre [...]
On October 19, the Department of Justice announced charges against Elena Khusyaynova, a St. Petersburg-based accountant, for working as part of a conspiracy to wage “information warfare against the United States of America.” According to the FBI, Kh [...]
On October 4, officials in the Netherlands and U.K. revealed a joint counterintelligence operation that led to the arrest and expulsion of four Russian military intelligence (GRU) officers in April for attempting to hack the Organization for the Pro [...]
WASHINGTON, DC — In The Federalist 68, Alexander Hamilton described “the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils,” as “one of the most deadly adversaries of republican government.” As President Trump meets with Russian [...]
On June 18, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee releasedaround 1,100 names of Twitter accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), which is the official name of the Russian troll farm indictedby Special Counsel Robert Mueller for [...]
On May 24, an international team of investigators from the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, and Ukraine announced that a Russian anti-aircraft missile was directly responsible for the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17). The following da [...]
As the United States, Britain, and France launched targeted airstrikes against suspected chemical weapons sites in Syria on April 13, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis predicted that there would be “a significant disinformation campaign over th [...]