Report: Hybrid Analytica: Pro-Kremlin Expert Propaganda in Moscow, Europe and the U.S.

Download here the PDF of the report:
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.
This report was originally published by the Institute of Modern Russia in October 2018.

The report examines the structure of Kremlin’s propaganda-related institutions and their connections with Western and Russian academia, as well as their co-optation into the pool of proxy communicators for the Putin 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.