Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Alexey Shevtsov said on Tuesday that Russia has recorded a manyfold increase in information attacks since the start of the special military operation, and that they are aimed at splitting the country from within.
Addressing the International Week of the Peoples of Russia session, Shevtsov said data attacks had increased by several times and were specifically aimed at destabilising interethnic and interreligious relations. He said the aim was not only to discredit Russia but to split its multinational state from within, and described the activity as a targeted disinformation policy rather than isolated fakes.
According to Shevtsov, the disinformation is carried out through the media with the support of non-governmental organisations. He cited the British Institute for the Study of War and Peace Reporting and its subsidiary, the Central Asian Analytical Reporting Bureau, as well as the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg and the Center for European and Eurasian Studies at Stanford.
Shevtsov said their task was to create destructive narratives and broadcast them through the media, NGOs, social networks and pseudo-experts. He said preventive measures had been taken to counter the Russian side’s information influence operations, and that a number of foreign-based organisations have been declared undesirable, with their Russian proteges designated as foreign agents.