Hybrid Analytica: Pro-Kremlin Expert Propaganda in Moscow, Europe and the U.S. A Case Study on Think Tanks and Universities

Written by Dr. Kateryna Smagliy with a contribution by Ilya Zaslavskiy.

External editing: Peter Dickinson, Ariana Gic, Monika Richter, Roman Sohn.

Infographic by Roman Sohn.

Brave research paper by Dr. Kateryna Smagliy on Russia’s influence campaign in the West exposes the network of Kremlin influence in EU & USA research institutions.

The co-optation of Western experts into the pool of Kremlin proxy communicators is an important element of Russian hybrid warfare on the West. This report reveals the scope of Moscow’s influence network in the EU and USA and various actors corrupted by #Putin’s regime.

Information warfare aims to influence decision-making in the West in a way that would validate the interests of the ruling Russian kleptocracy. The report details how Kremlin-linked think tanks design ideological doctrines and how Kremlin sympathizers promote pro-Kremlin propaganda narratives in the West. Often this process is supported in various forms by oligarchs and through other informal networks that Putin’s regime has developed in the West since 2000.

One of the key conclusions that the authors make is that the current Russian government pursues a coherent “knowledge weaponization” strategy and that Western policy-makers and civil society should seek much higher standards of due diligence in regard to think tanks and universities.

The report can be found here.