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In its official documents on information warfare, the Kremlin tries to pass itself off as a victim and underdog by stating that information warfare is a covert activity organized primarily by the US and the West, which will eventually lead to the destruction of Russia and countries friendly to it.

This false claim is a so-called accusation in a mirror, where the target is accused of something the perpetrator intends to. It gives Russia the opportunity to implement apparent protective measures in its domestic policies and operate based on its own playbook by malevolently targeting countries that Russia considers to be unfriendly.

In addition to making it difficult to identify the actor, that is, the obfuscation of attribution, the Kremlin’s information warfare operations often intentionally fall in a grey area.

The traditional dichotomy between war and peace, as conceived in Finland and other Western countries, does not accurately reflect the current situation, which has also been described as hybrid warfare. This makes it significantly more difficult for liberal Western societies to respond to Russia’s actions within their national laws and international agreements.

From strategic guidelines to mass production of disinformation

 revealed essential information on the Kremlin’s uses of disinformation as a tool of foreign policy. 

The over 200-page leaked document shows how the means of information warfare described in strategies are systematically used as part of the efforts to influence foreign affairs by Russia’s Presidential Administration. The document notes that the Social Design Agency (SDA), considered a troll factory, operates under direct orders from First Deputy Chief of Staff Sergei Kirijenko.

The leaked materials include the goals, effect analyses, planning, implementation and monitoring of the disinformation campaigns. 

According to the documents, the goal of disinformation is to make the citizens of the target state question existing policies, such as the support shown to Ukraine, and cause people to have emotional reactions towards other groups of people. 

Ultimately, the aim is to undermine the target audience’s confidence in society and community by taking advantage of the key characteristics of democracy, such as an open society and multi-voiced discussions. 

Information is primarily used to affect human minds

Distinct from the discussion on information warfare in the West, in Russia the concept is often divided into operations related to information technology and information psychology.

The first of these corresponds to the definition of cyber operations or cyber warfare used in Western countries, whereas information-psychological operations aim at influencing the human mind instead of data systems. 

In the 2020s, discussions on mental warfare have also started in Russia. 

Mental warfare aims at changing the target population’s views of the surrounding society, its history, traditions, values, and culture. It is designed to cut the target population’s ties with their own communities and society, discourage people’s participation in society and thus degrade it from within.

By affecting human cognition, that is, how an individual absorbs information, processes it, and makes decisions based on this information, the aim is to create a situation where an individual becomes suspicious of the infrastructures of communities, society and international systems.

NATO’s concept of cognitive warfare: the goal is to achieve a common situational picture

The US and NATO have also started to discuss disinformation from the perspective of its cognitive effects. In the , NATO’s member countries named China and Russia as hybrid warfare actors and spreaders of disinformation for the first time.

To highlight the psychological and cognitive dimensions of warfare, NATO has also defined the new terminology of .  According to NATO, cognitive warfare “includes activities conducted in synchronization with other Instruments of Power, to affect attitudes and behaviours, by influencing, protecting, or disrupting individual, group, or population level cognition”.

NATO’s concept of cognitive warfare is expected to be published in 2024. It will be a continuation of the comprehensive study on cognitive warfare conducted by NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (ACT). The next step for NATO is to identify the cognitive vulnerabilities of its member states as well as measures that can be used to meet these challenges at the alliance level.

Mari Puurunen is a project researcher in the KILPI project at the Ģ��ֱ��, which aims to enhance research and education on cognitive security in Finland.