DISINFO: The West is waging a hybrid war against Russia using NGOs and activists
SUMMARY
The West and the globalist elite are using an ecosystem made up of different elements and instruments to wage hybrid warfare against Russia. This ecosystem is composed of Western-funded media, human rights organisations, NGOs, bloggers, artists, scientists and opposition politicians. But the striking force of the West's hybrid warfare ecosystem directed against Russia are the agents of influence that operate at various levels of the Russian power hierarchy, including at the very top level.
There are top-level Russian officials who disguise themselves as Putin loyalists but are Western agents of influence and carriers of global liberal values. These agents of influence are usually labelled “the 6th column”.
The goals, priorities and strategies of the hybrid war ecosystem that is attacking Russia are set by an authority linked to Western military structures and intelligence services.
RESPONSE
This article repeats a narrative, increasingly spread by pro-Kremlin outlets, claiming that the West is waging a hybrid war against Russia. This narrative fits into the broader disinformation theme about the West’s allegedly belligerent and hostile agenda against Russia, and about its alleged plans to destabilise and encircle Russia.
The article’s message is also consistent with the recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Western intelligence services control Russian opposition politicians, independent journalists, human rights and environmental NGOs, and other actors that are critical of the Kremlin. It adds a new twist to this narrative by alleging that the West has recruited Russian officials at the highest levels of power as its covert “agents of influence”.
There is no evidence to support the article’s claims that in Russia independent media, NGOs, opposition politicians, Kremlin critics, and even some top-level Kremlin figures, are “agents of influence” controlled and directed by the West.
Kremlin disinformation often targets political opponents and other critics claiming that they are Western intelligence assets. This narrative dates back to Soviet times and has been refurbished by the Kremlin, especially after 2021, when a law that branded foreign-funded NGOs as “foreign agents” was passed by the Russian Parliament. Critics argued that the term “foreign agent” implied spying for a foreign government and was aimed at harming the image of members of the opposition and human rights and environmental groups working in Russia.
Recently political opposition figure Alexei Navalny has been repeatedly accused by pro-Kremlin media of being a CIA or an MI6 agent.
The idea that Western intelligence services have penetrated not only the Russian political opposition but also control some powerful representatives of the Putin regime has been theorised by Aleksandr Dugin, who created the concept of the “sixth column”. This concept is used in the article and refers to top-level Russian officials who allegedly pretend to be Putin loyalists but are agents of Western intelligence and are carriers of “liberal globalist ideology“. The more reform-oriented figures in the Russian government are labelled “the sixth column” by this theory.
Read similar cases claiming that Navalny works with the CIA and receives instructions from this Agency and that Some American funds completely control the Russian opposition.