Involvement with compatriots as a tool for Russian intelligence and subversion abroad

Involvement with compatriots as a tool for Russian intelligence and subversion abroad

Russia is promoting policies that allow justifying military invasion of countries that are of pivotal interest to the Kremlin. Using them, Russia gets the opportunity to skip separatism stir-up and proceeds directly to military invasion.

President Vladimir Putin on September 5, 2022, approved a new foreign policy doctrine based on the concept of “Russian World”, a notion that nationalist ideologues have used to justify intervention abroad in support of Russian-speakers, for instance in the Donbas. 
The 31-page “humanitarian policy” (!), published more than six months into the war in Ukraine, says Russia should “protect, safeguard and advance the traditions and ideals of the Russian World”.
While presented as a kind of soft power strategy, it enshrines in official policy ideas around Russian politics and religion that some hardliners have used to justify Moscow’s occupation of parts of Ukraine and support for breakaway pro-Russian entities in the east of the country. It is conservatism, pan-Slavism and pan-Orthodoxy à la Ilyin.
“The Russian Federation provides support to its compatriots living abroad in the fulfilment of their rights, to ensure the protection of their interests and the preservation of their Russian cultural identity,” the policy said. 
It says that Russia’s ties with its compatriots abroad allowed it to “strengthen globally its image as a democratic country striving for the creating of a multi-polar world.”
Putin has for years been highlighting what he sees as the tragic fate of some 25 million ethnic Russians who found themselves living outside Russia in newly independent states when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, an event he has called a geopolitical catastrophe.

But Russia’s involvement with compatriots includes not only ethnic Russians, but also those people who belong to other ethnic groups and foreign citizens who speak Russian. The Kremlin believes those who live in the United States, Western Europe and other regions and were born in the Soviet Union or are children of Russian or Soviet emigrants, and who speak Russian with other emigrants, are compatriots.
Russia has continued to regard the former Soviet space, from the Baltics to Central Asia, as its legitimate sphere of influence – a notion fiercely resisted by many of those countries as well as by the West.
The “new” policy says Russia should increase cooperation with Slavic nations, China, and India, and further strengthen its ties to the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.
It says Moscow should further deepen its ties with Abkhazia and Ossetia, two Georgian regions recognized as independent by Moscow after its war against Georgia in 2008, as well as the two breakaway entities in eastern Ukraine, the self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic.

This policy can be compared with a lebensraum doctrine. According to it, between 1921 and 1925 Adolf Hitler developed the belief that Germany required Lebensraum (‘living space’) in order to survive.

The new doctrine strengthens and expands the field for Russian intelligence, under the KGB Higher School secret manual of 1968 “Using the capabilities of the Soviet Committee for cultural relations with compatriots abroad for purposes of intelligence.” That means the Kremlin does not adjust to new conditions, but seeks to change the conditions to keep on using familiar tools and tactics. The reason for this is that key decision makers in Russia have preserved Cold War mentality and modus operandi, typical of that era.

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The manual emphasizes that the Committee for cultural relations with compatriots is a special cover, tied to emigration and intelligence target. The paper points out that as of 1968, there were some 2,000 Russian emigrants in the U.S. alone, who worked in rocket science, aircraft engineering, nuclear energy, electronics, and chemical industry. Roughly the same number worked in Canada and Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay) at that time.

It was noted, however, that the Committee for work with compatriots is unable to work directly with the second and third generation of emigrants. That is why it was proposed to involve them through older generation. Involvement of compatriots spurs opportunities for Russian intelligence in ops planning.

The manual notes that laying ground for recruitment and intelligence ops, with emigrants involved, is the main operational task for work with compatriots. The authors of the manual point out the importance of involving older generation, whose children function in foreign societies and have access to all opportunities.

The manual emphasized the Committee for relations with compatriots should encourage emigrants to serve Russia’ s interests, particularly those related to government agencies, special services, military, scientific or technical facilities. Intelligence targets among the emigrants include the owners of lawyers and notaries, businesses, hotels and restaurants, teachers, and priests.  

The manual claims it’s essential to involve Russian compatriots who live close to important strategic facilities. It’s crucial to work with emigrants infiltrated into emigrant communities close to economic and political life of the host country, the manual reads.

The doctrine approved by Vladimir Putin, therefore, stipulates the priority of using Russian emigrants for subversion in the West. It should be recognized that Russian emigrants have been used in recent years by the Kremlin not so much for intelligence, but for subversion and policy shaping abroad.