Latest Articles about Influence Operations
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War in Ukraine Coming Home to Russia, Making It Harder for Moscow to Fill the Ranks
As Russian losses in Ukraine mount and resistance in the Russian army to being deployed there increases (Mediazona [1] [2], April 6), Moscow faces growing difficulties with mobilizing soldiers to fill the gaps. This problem is especially acute in places where the funerals of those... MORE
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Ukrainian Guerillas: Fighting Russians in Temporarily Occupied Territories
On April 22, General Rustam Minnekayev, the acting commander of the Central Military District, announced that one of the goals of the second phase of Russia’s “special military operation in Ukraine” is to gain full control of Donbas and Ukraine’s south. According to him, achieving... MORE
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Escalation of Lies and Threats Leaves Putin With Two Bad Choices
The deadlocked war with Ukraine has pushed Russia into an irreconcilable dilemma: it can neither accept reality nor keep denying it. This contradiction can be seen both in the official discourse on the unfolding disaster and the societal response to it. As one example, rampant... MORE
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Kremlin’s War Against Ukraine Divides Russians in the Baltics
Ethnic Russians today compose around a quarter of the population of Estonia and Latvia and about 5 percent in Lithuania. For the most part, these communities are made up of the descendants of migrants to the Baltics after the Second World War, whom the Soviet... MORE
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‘Accomplice’ No More? How the War in Ukraine Stokes Anxieties in Belarus
Both directly and indirectly, Russia’s ongoing “special military operation” in Ukraine (launched by the Kremlin on February 24) triggers anxieties across the border in Belarus. Thus, on March 30, the authorities apprehended a group of perpetrators of the so-called rail-track war (see EDM, April 6),... MORE
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Ukrainian Experts: Russian Use of Tactical Nuclear Weapons a Real Possibility
Following the March 29 round of Russian-Ukrainian peace negotiations, held in Istanbul, a cautious optimism crept into the rhetoric of the Russian delegation. However, this was swiftly followed by harshly negative criticism in the Russian media that negotiations are happening at all. That sharp public... MORE
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Russia’s Military Draft—Serious Problems That Go Beyond Ukraine
Today (March 31), President Vladimir Putin announced that the Russian Armed Forces will draft 134,500 men over the next three months and release a similar number of soldiers who have completed their service (Pravo.gov.ru, March 31). Russia has always faced problems with its twice-a-year draft:... MORE
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Kadyrov’s Fascism Especially Dangerous Because It Is Rooted in Religion, Zakayev Says
The fascism Ramzan Kadyrov has established in Chechnya has much in common with the fascism promoted by Vladimir Putin, says Akhmed Zakayev, head of the government in exile of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. But there is one critical difference that the international community must... MORE
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How Uzbekistan Views the Russian War Against Ukraine
Uzbekistan chose not to take sides in Russia’s war against Ukraine, as first announced by the Uzbekistan presidential administration when the war started and later demonstrated by Uzbekistan’s avoidance of voting on the United Nations’ resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine. A neutral posture was... MORE
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What Do Belarusians Think About the War?
Belarus’s President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his analysts supporting and protesting the war (the latter are mainly outside Belarus) contribute to our nuanced understanding of the situation. Thus, on March 15, speaking at a meeting with Belarusian national security officials, Lukashenka both denied and confirmed Belarus’s... MORE