Intelligence & Espionage

This Congressional Research Service report, "Russian Military Intelligence: Background and Issues for Congress", provides a detailed overview of Russia's Main Directorate of the General Staff (GRU), the country's military intelligence agency. Good introduction to the agency

In this paper the authors explore how Russia's intelligence services, primarily the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and the Federal Security Service (FSB), play a central role in Moscow's non-violent influence operations abroad. The paper, correctly, points out that understanding and exposing the methods employed by Russian intelligence, while challenging, remains essential to mitigating their impact on democratic processes and societal cohesion.

This paper provides insight into the thinking behind Russian information operations. Unlike Western approaches, where such operations typically complements military or diplomatic efforts, Russia uses information operations as a primary means to achieve strategic objectives. Besides the background information about Russian TTPs, the paper raises an interesting point - that the challenge lies in countering Russian information operations without mimicking its authoritarian tactics, ensuring that Western responses remain ethical and effective.

The paper highlights how Russian (theoretical) espionage and cyber capabilities are rendered inefficient by Putin's personalized, corrupt, and paranoid management style - the authors argue that this systemic failure mirrors historical patterns in authoritarian regimes, where intelligence services prioritize regime security and confirmation bias over accurate analysis, often at the cost of strategic blunders.

Russian intelligence agencies have intensified their operations in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in 2014. The fact that these activities are not just about these states' pro-Western orientation, but about a Russian historical claim to a "sphere of influence" over its former Soviet territories is talked about too little - and something that's looked at thoroughly in this paper.