I’ve been putting out a daily compilation of Information Warfare, propaganda and related news for the past two weeks or so.
I have released it at 4 PM, 6 PM, 8 PM and Midnight, Eastern Time (Washington DC time), whenever I felt like it.
Now I am asking you. When do you want it?
If you don’t find what you want, feel free to leave a comment.
I found the following article both confusing and… okay, just confusing.
I believe it is his writing style, but I can’t tell when his points begin and when they end. I have a limited amount of time to read, so please, tell me when to stop looking?
If these approaches are so ineffective, I didn’t get a clue as to what really works. Street-smart networking, which he mentions but doesn’t expand upon?
Okay, I kept sliding down the page and found this. What Is Street-Smart Networking?
I kept going but couldn’t tell what he was recommending… help anyone? I have a clue he meant the six methods of persuasion…
By Russ Alan Prince
There are many ways professionals – financial advisors, insurance agents, accountants, attorneys – go about cultivating centers of influence, and all of them do indeed work to some degree or another. Based on extensive empirical analysis, the following approaches are some of the more common examples of how many professionals are trying to gain access to high-caliber clients by working through centers of influence:
Of course, many professionals use a combination of these approaches as well as some others. Each and every one of these approaches can indeed result in centers of influence introducing you to clients generally on a very restricted, erratic, and a not-so-preferential basis. In contrast, there are other methodologies such as street-smart networking that have a proven track record of exceptional success.
Hey, boys and girls!
Want to attend a class on Russian Information Warfare and another about Propaganda?
Next Thursday I am going to be giving two classes, for free, to a few lucky girls and boys! We have a very rigid limit of 10 students. We already have three signed up (before advertising), so hurry! Be the first kid on your block to sign up!
Okay, juvenile sales pitch is over.
The AOC Capitol Club Chapter is hosting an afternoon of classes, no charge. Ladies and Gentlemen, join me next Thursday for two classes:
Particulars
Warning, a German Colonel will probably be there, there is no US only restriction, and he probably knows more about IO/IW than all of us combined!
I presented a Russian Information Warfare class in January 2015 and got a lot of really positive feedback. If you’ve read this blog you’re probably aware of the ebb and flow going on in the Russian IW world. I’ve updated the part on Russian trolls, thanks to a troll expert in Philadelphia. I brought the briefing up to date and show some of the new tactics and strategy they’re trying. Since I’ve scheduled this former one hour class for two hours, I can relax and have more discussion during the actual class.
The second class is on Propaganda. I have four different working definitions at play, we’ll go through them all. I recently got input from two PhDs in the UK, two PhDs in the States and one expert in Russia. A real live, no crap, Russian propagandist (who I believe reads this blog). I know this blog is read in the Kremlin, so if someone from the Russian Embassy wants to come, leave me a comment below or send me an email and I’ll get you in the class. The only price to you is that you must participate or I’ll escort you out. No, not agitprop, it’s real. Seriously, I’m going to start in 1622, meander through World War I, jump to 1928, then to 1933 to 1945, then to the Cold War, and finally to Ukraine vs. Russia in 2014 – 2015. I am going to present examples, as disgusting as some of them are, laugh at quite a few, and have you seriously consider and discuss what should be the correct way to define propaganda.
I’m trying to convince an expert on Russian Trolls to drive down from Philadelphia to not only take the class, but give a quick tutorial about Russian trolls. MC?
If you want to sign up, send me your name and the name of your company to joel_harding@yahoo.com (see how old that is? No numbers?)
Faculty of Arts Charles University in Prague Jan Palach Square 2 116 38 Prague 1 info@ff.cuni.cz
Peter Pomerantsev is a British journalist and TV producer. In his book Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible, he shows how the Russian media produce information which constructs a completely alternative reality. Mr. Pomerantsev will be interwieved by Josef Pazderka, journalist and foreign correspondent of the CT.
Before the discussion, there will be a screening of the documentary film The World According to Russia Today (dir. Misja Pekel, 2015, 40 minutes, English with Czech subtitles) which analyses the ways in which information is manipulated in this influential Russian TV station.
The discussion will be held in English with simultaneous interpretation into Czech.
Free entry.
This event is part of the cycle You Have the Right to Know.
Source: http://www.ff.cuni.cz/event/true-possible-discussion-russian-propaganda-peter-pomerantsev/
Russian FM Lavrov
Anytime my professional friend and colleague, Dr. Igor Panarin, is mentioned, I like to broadcast what he writes.
Unfortunately his piece is at the end.
What Lavrov fails to mentionin this article is Russia’s accountability for the siezure of Yukos to the tune of $50 billion.
Of course Igor Panarin says that this is all part of an insidious plot (a Global conspiracy in other places) being waged by the West against Russia, lead by the UK. He calls it a Hybrid War.
Igor likes to divide up things into six or eight parts. He’s divided up the US into six pieces by the year 2010 (oopsie) and composed his IW organization in eight parts. Now the hybrid war against Russia is in eight pieces. Interesting.
As for the West forming a ‘vast conspiracy” against Russia? We can’t even agree on a defense plan, and you credit us with an eight part plan to bring down Russia. Let the snickers begin. *snork*
Your chuckle for the evening. Thank you very much.
June 19, 2015
Tensions continue to mount between Russia and the West after Belgium, France, and Austria took steps this week to freeze Russian government assets to cover a settlement ordered by a European arbitration court in July.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking to journalists in St. Petersburg on June 19, said affected Russian entities “intend to file claims with a Russian court seeking for similar actions to be taken in the Russian Federation to seize the property of foreign companies with state capital in response to the illegitimate actions taken against them.”
Lavrov said Moscow is not satisfied with the explanations it has received from the Belgian Foreign Ministry.
He said the seizure of Russian accounts in Belgium “totally contravenes…conventions on diplomatic relations” and that the action might have been “timed specially to the St. Petersburg Economic Forum” in order to “obstruct this cooperation” between Russian and Western companies.
On June 17, court bailiffs in Belgium informed 47 Russian entities– including diplomatic representations, Russian companies, and the representation of the Russian Orthodox Church — to provide information about any Russian state assets they control. No assets have been seized and Belgian authorities have not commented.
The move was initiated to enforce a July 18, 2014, ruling by an arbitration court in The Hague awarding nearly $50 billion to former Yukos shareholders.
Moscow expects other Western countries to take measures similar to those initiated in Brussels. Russia has said that it will file a countersuit against the former Yukos shareholders’ claims.
Yukos was dismantled following the 2003 arrest of its former owner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, on fraud and tax-evasion charges. Russian courts seized and sold off Yukos’s assets, most of which ended up in the hands of Russian state oil company Rosneft.
Khodorkovsky spent 10 years in prison, maintaining his innocence and saying his prosecutions were politically motivated. He was pardoned by President Vladimir Putin in December 2013 and now lives in self-imposed exile in Switzerland.
‘Bewildering’ Russian Stance
Former Russian Finance Minister and influential economist Aleksei Kudrin, also attending the St. Petersburg forum, told Dozhd TV that he does not think Western countries will seize the assets of Russian companies.
“These are joint-stock companies and they have many shareholders besides the state,” Kudrin said. “If you arrest the property of Gazprom or Aeroflot or Rosneft, foreign shareholders would suffer as well.”
He added that the Russian government itself owns very little non-diplomatic property in foreign countries and that cultural-exchange programs might suffer the most.
Kudrin also said “the very fact that several countries have undertaken the forcible enforcement of a decision of an international court — which is obligatory for Russia — is already a negative factor for our investment climate.”
Russian lawyer Karinna Moskalenko, speaking to RFE/RL’s Russian Service, also expressed bewilderment that Russia has refused to abide by the arbitration court’s ruling.
“Russia itself selected a judge and this is a foundation of the legitimacy of the court,” Moskalenko said. “If Russia entrusted this court to become involved in this dispute as an independent arbiter, that means its decisions must be carried out.”
She added that Moscow’s refusal to comply could be costly in the end.
“If they don’t comply, creditors will use compulsory methods,” she said. “Many economists say that the compulsory enforcement of the ruling could be nearly twice as expensive because of the way the value of the assets is calculated.”
Russia To Leave ECHR?
Some Russian state media have erroneously reported that the moves to seize Russian assets were made to enforce a completely separate July 31, 2014, ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that awarded 1.8 billion euros to Yukos shareholders.
Moskalenko speculated that had been done intentionally by those in the Kremlin who seek to withdraw from the Strasbourg court and the Council of Europe.
“Some want Russia out of the Council of Europe and an end to the ECHR’s jurisdiction over Russia,” she said. “Some absolutely don’t want Russia within any system of rights where it has to pay for violations. The government does not want people to have a real mechanism for protecting their human rights or resisting lawlessness.”
Despite the discussion of tit-for-tat measures, the official Russian reaction to the threatened asset seizures has been restrained.
Nongovernment figures, however, have been more forceful.
“I can’t say anything about idiots,” said Russian Railways head and oligarch Vladimir Yakunin, “except to advise them to seek psychiatric help.”
Kremlin-friendly analyst and former State Duma deputy Sergei Markov declared the move “a new stage in the hybrid war against Russia.”
In a post on Facebook, Markov said the Yukos decision is just a pretext and that “other pretexts will be found.”
“Russia is guilty in the eyes of the West merely because it exists,” he wrote.
Dr. Igor Panarin
Political scientist Igor Panarin, noted for his frequent predictions that the United States is on the verge of imminent dismemberment, also wrote on Facebook that the Belgian and French moves are part of a “hybrid war” against Russia, claiming that this “war” is being organized by United Kingdom.
He listed eight aspects to this hybrid war, including the organization of an uprising against Putin, the “mobilization of the information resources of the West,” and the “activization of the fifth-column, pro-British agents of influence in Russia (nationalists and pseudo-religious structures, nongovernmental organizations, etc.).”
Translation by my Chrome browser:
Professor Igor Panarin about hybrid war against Russia in London
The arrest of Russian property in Belgium and France – the beginning of a new phase Hybrid war against Russia.
Since its inception in 1949, NATO is controlled from London. The main objective of the British project, code-named NATO – a multi-level war against Russia with the aim of destroying it.
The main directions of the British hybrid war against Russia
1.Diplomaticheskaya blockade of Russia with the help of the sanctions.
2.Stimulirovanie activities in London controlled US anti-Russian forces.
3. Organization of a “color revolution” in Russia to overthrow Putin.
4.Mobilizatsiya information tools of the West and other tools to influence the minds of the people to create in NATO anti-Russian hysteria.
5. Covert pressure on the Russian oligarch living in London.
6. Financial and economic war against Russia (economic pressure, blockage of funds from Western banks, etc.).
7. Actions aimed at the disintegration of the Eurasian space, creating chaos and instability in Eurasia, using technologies of the information war, terrorism and extremism,
8.Aktivizatsiya work with pro-British fifth column agents of influence in Russian (nationalist and pseudo-religious structures, non-governmental organizations, etc.).
Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-european-asset-seizures/27081579.html
20 June 2015
The Word of the day from dictionary.com reminds me of how Russian trolls work.
Cavil (verb)
1. To raise irritating and trivial objections; find fault with unnecessarily (usually followed by at or about ): He finds something to cavil at in everything I say.
2. To oppose by inconsequential, frivolous, or sham objections: to cavil each item of a proposed agenda.
I have a troll in the comment section of one of yesterday’s blog, using an email once used by a ‘Donald Ruff’. He invented a new definition for fascism, which does not work. He cited statistics not based in reality, with no citations or references and then accused me of having no references. He attempted to rewrite history, with amazing results which will cause one to scratch the heck out of their scalp in wonderment.
His latest comment is a poster child for copied and pasted troll schlock. I think he blew his wad and has nothing left except for copy and paste on other topics. He’s American but appears to have an affinity for pro-Russian and Russian material. Interesting character but worthless as teats on a boarhog.
Counter-Russian-Propaganda
Russian Propaganda
ISIS
Neutral
Behavioural Science Festival – Nudgestock
21 June 2015
Slow day, so I’m working on ‘work stuff’ and putting together a propaganda class for Thursday, 25 June 2015.
Russian IW and Propaganda Classes – 25 June 2015 – Alexandria, VA There are still a few more slots open.
Counter Russian Propaganda
Russian Propaganda
Neutral
Can you spell opposition suppression?
Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny said on June 23 he was suing the immigration authorities for denying him a passport to travel abroad, describing the move as an echo of Soviet times.
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What’s Canada Buying?
Ukraine
#CANvsISIL
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Good blog piece I didn’t discover until today.
The unlikely face of Russia’s information war with the West is a real estate investor in Florida. His name is Scott Rickard, and he is one of a coterie of American conspiracy theorists who have become central in Russia’s latest propaganda efforts. The Russians discovered Rickard through Iranian state media, who had been broadcasting interviews with him since 2012 and billing him as “an activist and former American intelligence linguist.” According to Linkedin, he has worked at a real estate investment company in central Florida since 2007, but over the last year and a half, he has been consulted in Iranian and Russian media over 200 times as a covert affairs expert, in nationally syndicated television, radio, and print. So who exactly is Scott Rickard?
His early interviews on Iran’s Press TV hint at how Rickard achieved his modicum of fame. Press TV is owned by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and…
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Eye Catchers
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The information war is ongoing. Notice Russia dismisses anything which reflects negatively on Russia or suggests Russia is the aggressor? Excellent compilation.
By the way, reports indicate a distinct increase in what looks like pre-assault artillery (all illegal by Minsk 2, but at this point, “does it really matter?”)
Eye Catchers
Updates
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Spetsnaz: Russia’s special forces, is a timely book, much needed and it dispels many of the myths about these Russian fighters.
Johnny Shumate’s preliminary sketch for colour plate of a Spetsnaz sniper
I’m very happy to be able to note that my latest compact book from Osprey is out this week. Spetsnaz: Russia’s special forces is, in my admittedly hardly humble opinion the most comprehensive work on Russia’s special forces yet out in English, taking to task many of the myths both old and new about these guys (not least, the idea that they are all some kind of Slavic ninjas), exploring their role in operations ranging through Civil War pacifications, through Afghanistan and to the seizure of Crimea, and considering what they can and, just as importantly, cannot do. Orders of battle, anecdotes about some of their members and operations, and Johnny Shumate‘s amazing colour plates, what more could you want? Available in both paperback and ebook formats.
Here’s the official blurb:
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What’s Canada Buying?
#CANvsISIL
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Happy Birthday, Canada!
Internal Security
Attacks on CF in Canada
Ebola
#CANvsISIL
Big Mother Statue
Way Up…
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