Centre for Democratic Integrity

The research initiative of the Centre for Democratic Integrity "Russia's Project 'Anti-Ukraine'" is moving forward, and today I present to you an article by Dmitry Dubrovskiy:

"Ukraine and Ukrainians in Russian Higher Education and Science"

SUMMARY: Putin's historical revisionism aims to undermine Ukrainian nationhood and serves as a justification for Russia's aggressive policies towards Ukraine, influencing Russian academia to support this narrative by integrating propaganda into higher education and restricting academic freedom. This ideological push, which includes censoring alternative views and promoting the de-Ukrainization of occupied territories, seeks to legitimise Russia's actions while undermining Ukrainian sovereignty and identity.

https://democratic-integrity.eu/dmitry-dubrovsky-ukraine-and-ukrainians-in-russian-higher-education-and-science/

Anton Shekhovtsov for EUobserver: “Russian influence in the Middle East was never based on Moscow's solid commitment to either Arab or Israeli interests. On the contrary, it was threading between the two conflicting parties that brought the greatest benefit to Moscow”.
Read more: https://euobserver.com/opinion/157561

Anton Shekhovtsov's short explainer on Russian political warfare against the background of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Anton Shekhovtsov on Russia’s Invasion in Ukraine Anton Shekhovtsov is Director of the NGO Centre for Democratic Integrity (Austria), Visiting Researcher at the Department of International Relations of the C...

FRESH OFF THE PRESS

Anton Shekhovtsov, Centre for Democratic Integrity

Russian Political Warfare: Essays on Kremlin Propaganda in Europe and the Neighbourhood, 2020-2023.

With a foreword by Nathalie Loiseau.

SPPS 271. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag. Also distributed by Columbia University Press & Gazelle Book Services.

Orders:

Outside Europe: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/russian-political-warfare/9783838218212

In the EU: https://www.ibidem.eu/de/russian-political-warfare-9783838218212.html

In the UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Russian-Political-Warfare-Neighbourhood-Post-Soviet/dp/3838218213/

Contents:

1. Conceptualising Malign Influence of Putin’s Russia in Europe

2. Russian Election Interference in Africa: The Case of AFRIC

3. Russian Malign Influence Operations in Coronavirus-Hit Italy

4. How to Fail a Malign Influence Operation: The Case of Russian Aid to Serbia

5. Putin’s “Foot Soldier” in the Kremlin’s Political War against France

6. The Rise and Fall of a Polish Agent of the Kremlin Influence: The Case of Janusz Niedźwiecki

7. The German Connection: Far-Right Journalist Manuel Ochsenreiter in the Service of the Russian Propaganda Machine

The third book by Dr. Anton Shekhovtsov, the director of the Centre for Democratic Integrity, is now out:

“Russian Political Warfare: Essays on Kremlin Propaganda in Europe and the Neighbourhood, 2020-2023”

A short description:
Political warfare is a grey area between peace and war. It involves a diverse array of methods and instruments that go beyond traditional diplomacy and soft power but stops short of open kinetic conflict using nations’ regular armed forces. This collection of Anton Shekhovtsov’s essays delves into practices of Russian political warfare designed to advance Moscow’s strategic and tactical objectives in European countries and certain African states. It reveals how Russian state actors and pro-regime stakeholders meddled in elections, politicised and weaponised the COVID-19 pandemic, amplified religious conflicts, undermined democratic institutions, and corrupted political forces.

Contents:

➢ Conceptualising Malign Influence of Putin’s Russia in Europe
➢ Russian Election Interference in Africa: The Case of AFRIC
➢ Russian Malign Influence Operations in Coronavirus-Hit Italy
➢ How to Fail a Malign Influence Operation: The Case of Russian Aid to Serbia
➢ Putin’s “Foot Soldier” in the Kremlin’s Political War against France
➢ The Rise and Fall of a Polish Agent of the Kremlin Influence: The Case of Janusz Niedźwiecki
➢ The German Connection: Far-Right Journalist Manuel Ochsenreiter in the Service of the Russian Propaganda Machine

Order the book:
➢ EU: https://www.ibidem.eu/de/reihen/gesellschaft-politik/soviet-and-post-soviet-politics-and-society/russian-political-warfare-9783838218212.html
➢US: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/russian-political-warfare/9783838218212

Foreign individuals serving as "international observers" at Russia's illegitimate 2023 "elections" in occupied parts of Ukraine:https://democratic-integrity.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/CDI-EPDE-FO-2023.pdf

Anton Shekhovtsov: With an Icelandic rat-catcher in occupied parts of the Kherson region, Russia is scraping the barrel for fake election monitors, as the US threatens sanctions against those involved: https://euobserver.com/opinion/157413

In his new column for EUobserver, Anton Shekhovtsov argues that the EU should use Moscow's nuclear threats to compel China to abandon its support for Russia.

And the grounds for Europe's strategy in this direction is a document that the Chinese authorities do not want you to see.

Learn more: https://euobserver.com/opinion/157224

“Putin's regime has long rested not on love or respect but on fear. But now, Putin's cowardice and the fragility of the Russian state structure have likely forever compromised fear as the main fuel of the Kremlin's political control”.

Anton Shekhovtsov’s column on Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny in Russia: https://euobserver.com/opinion/157185.

[Column] What we learned so far from a short-lived mutiny in Russia It actually did not take a great number of Wagner fighters to deal the greatest blow to Putin's authority so far. Prigozhin claimed that he had 25,000 fighters, but in reality the number was unlikely more than 10,000.

In his piece on Ukrainian-Russian relations after the war, Anton Shekhovtsov suggests to relevant Ukrainian stakeholders to abandon provincialism and start influencing the future Russian political culture to secure a safe North-Eastern neighbourhood:

[Column] Russia-Ukraine relations the Year After the war After the war ends Ukraine should work to make Russia a safe place, which respects independent and sovereign neighbours as well as Nato.

Putin's Russia: From dictatorship of spin to dictatorship of fear. Interview with Sergei Guriev Welcome to the channel of the Centre for Democratic Integrity (CDI). In this episode of CDI Talks, Anton Shekhovtsov talks to Sergei Guriev, Provost and Prof...

In this episode of CDI Talks, Anton Shekhovtsov talks to Sergei Guriev, Provost and Professor of Economics at Sciences Po (Paris, France), about the transformation of Putin's authoritarian regime since the beginning of the full-blown invasion of Ukraine in February 2022: https://youtu.be/I1fKHYun_us

Has Germany done enough to help Ukraine prepare for the Russian invasion? What is the role of German post-WW2 pacifism in undermining Europe's security? What's the way for postwar Ukraine?

Anton Shekhovtsov discusses these questions with renowned German Green politician Rebecca Harms, former president of the Greens/European Free Alliance political group in the European Parliament (2009-2016).

The link is in the first comment.

Anton Shekhovtsov will give a talk (in English), followed by a discussion, in Paris on 25 April 2023.

Info:
— Participation aux frais directement au café : le prix d'une consommation à 7 €. Ceux qui le souhaitent peuvent dîner sur place avec le conférencier et l'équipe de Desk Russie.
— Réservation obligatoire: https://www.helloasso.com/associations/a-l-est-de-brest-litovsk/evenements/russia-s-tactical-and-strategic-narratives-in-its-war-against-ukraine

Anton Shekhovtsov’s interview for Aljazeera Balkans, in English with South Slavic subtitles: https://youtu.be/dAQmGAUPg74

Shekhovtsov talks about Russia’s relations with the European far right, Russian-Ukrainian war, Moscow’s peculiar interpretation of “fascism”, and how the European far right was first almost destroyed by the COVID-19 pandemic and then saved by the vaccine policies.

Der ukrainische Politikwissenschaftler Anton Shekhovtsov im PULS 24 Interview über die Verbindungen von europäischen Rechtspopulisten nach Russland, die Geschäfte der Raiffeisen Bank und das Image Österreichs in der Ukraine.

FPÖ, Raiffeisen und Russland: "Distanzieren, wenn man nicht völlig verrückt ist"

How do we interpret Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine?

Is it Putin's war, as some politicians say? Or is it a war of the Russian people?

Do Russians support the war? If they don't, why are they not protesting more?

Do their vocal or tacit approval of the invasion, or even fearful silence make them collectively responsible for the aggression?

What psychological defence mechanisms do some Russian citizens use to avoid responsibility for the war against Ukraine?

Anton Shekhovtsov and Andreas Umland are discussing all these questions in the first episode of the Café Eurasia project of the Centre for Democratic Integrity: https://youtu.be/rZyL4rAr-mk

Anton Shekhovtsov explains why Ukraine is wary of some representatives of the Russian opposition to the Putin regime.

Why Ukraine is wary of the Russian opposition Ukrainians have many reasons to distrust Navalny and his movement.

Ever wondered what European countries are the best (and worst) in supporting Ukraine in its defensive war against the Russian Federation? In a new episode of the joint project of the Centre for Democratic Integrity (Austria) and the Аналізуй Platform (Ukraine), Anton Shekhovtsov gives an overview of Europe's responses to the Russian-Ukrainian war: https://youtu.be/vzw1sX9toaA

Is Germany ready to lead the new European policy on Russia taking into consideration Berlin's past attempts to appease Moscow? Anton Shekhovtsov discusses this issue with Stefan Meister, a leading German expert on EU/German-Russian relations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ2Ofhs8VK0

A year ago, Russia launched its full-out invasion of Ukraine. Supposedly against all the odds – Ukrainians disagreed – the country resisted. This was the price for the West to understand the threat posed by the Russian regime and its interest in supporting Kyiv, says political scientist Anton Shekhovtsov: https://voxeurop.eu/en/one-year-russias-full-scale-invasion-west-finally-discovers-what-ukrainians-stand-for/

“A team of Israeli contractors who claim to have manipulated more than 30 elections around the world using hacking, sabotage and automated disinformation on social media has been exposed in a new investigation”.

Hacks, Bots and Blackmail: How Secret Cyber Mercenaries Disrupt Elections - OCCRP Undercover reporters recorded a group of covert cyber influence specialists as they pitched their services, which involve using disinformation campaigns, false intelligence, hacks and blackmail to ...

"For years, a secret organization run from inside Russia’s parliament successfully interfered with European policies on occupied Ukraine. Leaked emails give a new overview of the operation and show how European Union politicians who helped push Moscow’s agenda were offered cash and perks."

Featuring comments from Anton Shekhovtsov.

Kremlin-Linked Group Arranged Payments to European Politicians to Support Russia’s Annexation of Crimea - OCCRP For years, a secret organization run from inside Russia’s parliament successfully interfered with European policies on occupied Ukraine. Leaked emails give a new overview of the operation and show ...

Revealed: UK Treasury, then under Rishi Sunak’s control, let Yevgeny Prigozhin circumvent sanctions to target Eliot Higgins.

Exclusive: Treasury helped Putin ally sue UK journalist UK Treasury, then under Rishi Sunak’s control, let Yevgeny Prigozhin circumvent sanctions to target Eliot Higgins

Will the Russian war against Ukraine trigger a break-up of the Russian Federation? Anton Shekhovtsov discusses this question with Andreas Umland in the "Café Eurasia" Special Episode of the CDI Talks: https://youtu.be/NvvjZ4-jMyA

In the pilot episode of our new video project, Anton Shekhovtsov discusses Russian malign influence in Germany and argues that we need to pay more attention to its local agents: https://youtu.be/H6lZ1-D2gLM

⮕ Russian operators of political warfare do not function without help from local actors
⮕ Proven collusion with the Russians often goes unpunished
⮕ It is politically expensive to dig too deep into corruption allegations

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Anton Shekhovtsov explique dans cet article en quoi consiste le discours russe en fonction de ceux qu’il cible : la population russe, l’Ukraine, l’Occident et les pays du Sud : https://desk-russie.eu/2023/01/14/les-quatre-cibles-de-la-propagande.html