The Russian Ministry of Defense found out about plans to increase information pressure on the country's military leadership amid attempts already being made to discredit the Russian authorities from “individual states”. This was stated by First Deputy Minister of Defense Ruslan Tsalikov in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.
“Today we have reliable information that coordinated work is being carried out by individual states through specific media aimed at discrediting Russian authorities, politicians, public figures and journalists. Moreover, in the near future, increased information pressure is expected to be directed against representatives of the leadership of the Russian Armed Forces at all levels - from the command of formations, associations, military branches and branches of the Armed Forces to the direct military-political leadership, ”Tsalikov said.
According to him, in recent years there has been an intensification of this campaign, which is aimed at undermining confidence in the work "to strengthen the Russian army."
“The media and communication system has become an area of very serious confrontation. Moreover, information in skillful hands and with sufficient resources has turned into a powerful and destructive weapon, ”the representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense emphasized.
At the same time, Tsalikov noted that Moscow is committed to "honest and open work."
“But those who will use dirty methods of information warfare against us should know that their actions will not be left without an adequate response,” he said.
The First Deputy Minister of Defense also said that Russia would not allow the implementation of "plans and plans to discredit the Russian army." He believes that it is necessary to deal with this through information transparency. According to Tsalikov, the implementation of such a policy is one of the priority tasks of the department.
“We did not rely on information transparency for advertising or PR ... Information work in the Armed Forces is organized and is being carried out at all levels within the framework of a single information policy. In the context of the transition of our society to digital formats and social media, in most associations professionally-oriented units have been created to prepare high-quality multimedia content, ”the representative of the Ministry of Defense said.
- The building of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
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In addition, he noted that the emergence of a “new environment” - a virtual space - requires a special approach from military personnel.
“Unfortunately, attacks are taking place in a new space for us, and, of course, it is already wrong to act with the methods that could act in the era of rumors. And the army in this segment, in the new habitat, pays a lot of attention. On the part of the opponents, this attention is directed at destroying, and on our part, at reflecting this. Perhaps this is the peculiarity of the modern informational confrontation, ”said Tsalikov.
Cyber Activity of the West
According to analysts, Western countries have unleashed information wars against Russia in the past and continue to do so now.
According to The Washington Post, US cyber command is developing an information war tactic that could be unleashed against the leadership of the Russian Federation, representatives of the Russian special services and the army, as well as large businessmen, if Moscow "tries to intervene" in the US presidential election in 2020.
According to the American military, the object of the attack will need to demonstrate that its confidential personal information can be hacked. Another scenario is to spread misinformation, which will be aimed at intensifying the contradictions and creating a split in the Russian government and the establishment.
In addition, NATO countries are building up their cyber activity on Russian borders. So, in the Estonian city of Tartu in early December, large-scale cyber missions of the North Atlantic Alliance Cyber Coalition took place. This was reported by the Supreme High Command of the Joint Armed Forces of NATO in Europe on its Facebook page.
It was noted that these maneuvers are the "largest exercises" of the alliance, which are conducted under the leadership of the Supreme High Command for Transformation. It was planned that 27 NATO countries "together with partner countries will work out activities to prepare and protect NATO networks as part of simulation scenarios to contain cyber threats."
Recall that in Estonia, the Cyber Coalition exercises were held for the seventh time.
At the same time, back in March of this year, the Russian Security Council announced that "the United States and its NATO partners are paying serious attention to active actions in cyberspace and gaining total control over this area." This was announced in an interview with "Red Star" Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Mikhail Popov.
“The NATO Strategic Communications Center in Riga and the united center of excellence in the field of cyber defense in Tallinn, created by the alliance, are aimed at waging a large-scale information war. The main task of these structures is to disable computer networks of critical facilities and infrastructure of a potential adversary - as you understand, primarily Russia - by disrupting the functioning of public administration systems, financial institutions, enterprises, power plants, railway stations and airports, ”Popov said.
- Cyber Coalition teachings
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It is worth noting that the NATO cyber center began its work in the Estonian capital more than ten years ago. To date, representatives of 25 countries participate in the work of this structure on an ongoing basis.
At the same time, Western states regularly accuse Russia of cyber espionage and other crimes of this kind, but do not confirm their words with anything.
For example, a report by the UK’s National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC) and the US National Security Agency (NSA) reported that the hacker group Turla, allegedly associated with “Russian entities,” hacked Iranian hackers' software for cyber espionage and attacks on government and industry organizations in dozens of countries. Relevant evidence is not provided in the report. At the same time, the Iranian government said that they did not have information about the use of Iranian devices by Russian hackers.
"To discredit Russia"
As HSE professor Dmitry Evstafiev notes, new information attacks against the Russian leadership, including the military, can be expected, first of all, from Washington.
“The United States is mainly doing this, because it is they who today define the mainstream in information wars. Their satellites, including NATO countries, Ukraine and Georgia, always follow the United States. All these players are part of the American scheme for maximizing the geo-economic weakening of Russia and will be anyway involved by the American side, ”the expert said.
At the same time, Washington may assign some of the important functions to discredit the Russian military leadership to Great Britain, Yevstafyev said.
“In the UK, it is possible to organize any provocation in order to discredit Russia,” the analyst said.
A similar opinion is shared by Vladimir Olenchenko, senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at IMEMO RAS.
“The UK, as the closest ally of the United States, will write defamatory stories about the Russian Armed Forces and their activities,” the expert said.
In his opinion, Poland, the Baltic countries, Romania and Bulgaria will also help them in this.
According to Yevstafyev, the fact that the representatives of the leading staff of the Russian Armed Forces will fall under the gun is “more than logical.”
“The military department of Russia is seen by Washington as an effective structure that impedes American politics. The goal of this policy is to drive Russia into a corner in the geoeconomic sense, ”the analyst said.
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At the same time, Evstafiev points out that in recent years Washington has intensified its “information manipulative actions” directed against Moscow. The same goes for other western countries.
“At the same time, preference is given precisely to personal discrediting people who occupy high positions,” the analyst noted.
As noted by Vladimir Olenchenko, Washington and its NATO allies will seek to "reduce the authority of Russia" in the international arena.
“And this is of particular relevance, because it was thanks to Russian participation that they managed to stop the terrorists in Syria and prevented a large-scale war there,” the expert emphasized.
In addition, Western countries need this in order to allocate additional money for their armed forces, motivating this need with the “Russian threat,” Olenchenko believes.
However, Russia will be able to cope with the information manipulations of Western countries, since “it has been done more than once,” the analyst notes.
“Russia has long been forced to confront aggression from Western countries. Therefore, Moscow already has a certain immunity, an arsenal of actions has been developed. Of course, for Russia this is an additional expenditure of energy and energy, but if the US and other countries hope to weaken it, then they will not succeed, ”Olenchenko predicted.
Yevstafyev, in turn, emphasizes that the fight against disinformation through an open policy, as stated by a representative of the Russian defense department, is an effective method.
“The Ministry of Defense can fight these provocations through openness, because it has something to show. And in this case, the Western countries will not succeed in distorting the facts, ”the expert concluded.