{"id":5131,"date":"2016-09-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/europeanvalues.cz\/kremlin-watch-monitor-september-5-2016\/"},"modified":"2021-12-16T12:22:24","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T10:22:24","slug":"kremlin-watch-monitor-september-5-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/europeanvalues.cz\/cs\/kremlin-watch-monitor-september-5-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Kremlin Watch Monitor September 5, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"
Weekly update on Kremlin disinformation efforts in Europe<\/b><\/p>\nNew publication!<\/h2>\n
European Values Think-Tank has just published a new analysis:\u00a0“Mechanisms of Influence of the Russian Federation into Internal Affairs of the Czech Republic<\/em>\u201d. You can find the executive summary here:<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.europeanvalues.net\/vyzkum\/mechanisms-of-influence\/<\/a><\/p>\n Key take-aways:<\/p>\n Czech Counter-Intelligence Service (BIS) says in its Annual Report: “The infrastructure created for achieving these goals will not disappear with the end of the two conflicts. It can be used to destabilize or manipulate Czech society or political environment at any time, if Russia wishes to do so.”<\/em><\/p>\n Czech CounterIntelligence Service (BIS) has just published a new Annual Report (https:\/\/www.bis.cz\/vyrocni-zpravaEN890a.html?ArticleID=1104<\/a>) which is alarming in connection to Russian influence. Our analysis of it is here:<\/p>\n https:\/\/euobserver.com\/opinion\/134890<\/a><\/p>\n DefenseOne<\/strong>\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0last Monday that the same group of hackers called Cozy Bear which targeted the DNC and the US State Department now attacked several US think-tanks based in Washington and focusing on Russian policy. Several cyber security experts believe that the group is connected to the Russian intelligence services. The investigation which linked the group to all the attacks has been conducted by CrowdStrike; a computer-security firm. It is not yet known how many organizations exactly have been attacked or what are their specific identities; with the exception of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Its Senior Vice President for External Relations H. Andrew Schwarts admitted they came under attack last week.<\/p>\n Retweet this!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n One of the organizations also hacked by the groups with possible ties to the Russian intelligence was the Open Society Foundation, led by George Soros; the Hungarian billionaire. The documents were released on the CyberBerkut website and according to the\u00a0Foreign Policy<\/strong>\u00a0reports<\/a>, several parts of them have apparently been altered. The aim of the alteration should have been to suggest that the foundation is connected to the Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, and provides him with finances. Both Navalny and the Open Society deny the authenticity of the specific parts of the released documents which mention Navalny.<\/p>\n Do you like our work?<\/strong><\/p>\n Our effort to protect liberal democracy across Europe is\u00a0dependent on private donations.<\/p>\n Podpo\u0159te n\u00e1s<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n We use this weekly opportunity to award the Putinversteher of the Week to highlight the most obvious attempts, intentional or not, to go on Kremlin’s hand and assist it with spreading its view all over Europe. We believe it is necessary to appreciate in this ceremonial way that without these little helpers, Russian disinformation campaign could never reach its present lengths.<\/em><\/p>\n French\u00a0StreetPress<\/strong>\u00a0(English translation by\u00a0Euromaidan<\/strong><\/a>) recently\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0the leak of several hundreds emails and attachments from the email account of Tatyana Egorova; a member of the press service of the governing body of the self-proclaimed \u201cDonetsk People’s Republic\u201d. The emails were shared by Tatyana Egorova’s Twitter account but it is highly possible that she personally was not the one who leaked them.<\/p>\n The documents show the extent to which the French citizens connected to the extreme-right groups are involved in the conflict in Donbas. Several dozen volunteers coming from extreme right groups like La Troisi\u00e8me voie, Bloc Identitaire, and strong supporters of Marine Le Pen, have come to Donetsk to join the separatists and fight side by side with them. Twenty-three people were identified in the emails but it is probable that there are more of them in Donbas; perhaps even twice as many. Some of them were contacted by StreetPress and confirmed that they received a salary of 15,000 roubles per month for their services.<\/p>\n Source:<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Rykov.ru<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n A clear connection between the extreme-right groups and parties to the pro-Russian separatists and Russia itself becomes clearer all over Europe. We have already mentioned French politicians who visited the self-proclaimed separatist republics against Ukrainian law. It seems more than fair that we appreciate these \u201cvolunteers\u201d in the same manner, which is why we have decided to name them\u00a0Putinverstehers of the week<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Follow us on<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Facebook<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>or<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Twitter<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHow to stop disinformation: Lessons from Ukraine for the wider world<\/a>\u201d; byMarina Pesenti and Peter Pomerantsev from the Legatum Institute<\/strong><\/p>\n Annexation of Crimea and the war in the Eastern Ukraine has provided us with a good reflection on what can be done better when it comes to countering Russian disinformation campaign.<\/p>\n One of the key short-term goals is certainly to maintain a better and bigger cooperation between governments and NGOs in their efforts to effectively respond to Russian propaganda. There is also a need to create an international network of analytics and experts, which will for example conduct public opinion polls or monitor the effect of Russian disinformation campaign on their target audience. A wider cooperation between international scene of journalist is also desired since joint collaboration on international level can be more trustworthy and effective.<\/p>\n From a long-term view, it is necessary for public broadcasting to focus on edge-social groups such as Russian minorities in western states and pay attention to their problems and interests for they are one of the biggest target audiences of Russian propaganda. Dana Milibank<\/a>\u00a0argues in\u00a0The Washington Post<\/strong>\u00a0that the editing of hacked documents is a novelty in cyber warfare; and that the Russian operatives may want to release edited DNC documents in the Eve of the presidential elections.<\/p>\n Juris Ka\u017ea and David Gauthier-Villars<\/a>\u00a0point out in\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/strong>\u00a0that the Latvian legislation which aims to counter Russian disinformation campaign raises questions about civil rights and prosecution of people without breaching freedom of speech and other important principles.<\/p>\n\n
Weekly update on Kremlin disinformation efforts<\/h1>\n
American Think-tanks under attack<\/h2>\n
Hacked documents not interesting enough? Edit them!<\/h2>\n
Tweet of the Week<\/h1>\n
<\/p>\nPutinversteher of the Week<\/h1>\n
<\/p>\nKremlin Watch reading suggestion<\/h1>\n
\nLast but not least, public broadcasters should use entertaining narratives and methods to address other social groups and aim their topics on social themes, corruption or other negative aspects which form a fertile ground for the Kremlin and its disinformation campaign.<\/p>\nEuroatlantic experts on disinformation warfare<\/h1>\n