A Digital Counteroffensive: Outmaneuvering Russia’s Information War

 

Russia’s grueling war in Ukraine, now dragging into its fourth year, has left the Kremlin battered and overstretched. Yet, as the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) reveals in its June 2025 report, Russia’s Information Confrontation Doctrine in Practice (2014–Present), Moscow’s real weapon is not its faltering military but a shadowy digital arsenal: cyberattacks, psychological operations, and disinformation campaigns crafted to fracture democracies and project power. With Russia drained by its prolonged conflict, the West cannot rely on battlefield triumphs alone. To defeat the Kremlin, the Global West must outmatch it in the information domain, wielding hybrid warfare, artificial intelligence, aggressive infowar, and its own sophisticated psychological operations. This is the new front line, and the West must dominate it.

Russia’s Digital Playbook Exposed

Image: El PAIS

The IISS report exposes Russia’s information confrontation doctrine as a relentless machine driven by a network of state and non-state actors—Kremlin-funded media like RT, private contractors, and bot farms—that manipulates narratives and erodes trust. Since 2014, Russia has pummeled Ukraine’s infrastructure with cyberattacks, turned stolen personal data into lethal weapons, and spread propaganda to splinter Western unity. In the Global South, it fuels anti-Western resentment, posing as a defender of sovereignty while trampling Ukraine’s. The doctrine’s strength is its adaptability: when Western intelligence derailed false flag operations in Ukraine in 2022, Russia pivoted to cognitive warfare and localized propaganda. But the IISS spots a critical weakness: Russia’s resources are thinning under the weight of its endless war. “The Kremlin’s obsession with Ukraine creates vulnerabilities,” said Dr. Emily Carter, a report co-author. “Its information machine is potent but overstretched.” The Global West must exploit this fatigue by overwhelming Russia’s digital campaign—and outsmarting it with its own psyops.

Harnessing AI to Neutralize Propaganda

Artificial intelligence is a game-changer for detecting and neutralizing Kremlin propaganda. Intelligence agencies like the CIA and Britain’s GCHQ should deploy AI systems to monitor platforms like X, training them on IISS-identified patterns to flag Kremlin-linked accounts instantly. These tools could also power automated bots to flood social media with verified information, diluting Russian disinformation across Eastern Europe and beyond. AI can further pinpoint the network of actors in Russia’s ecosystem, from hackers to media fronts, enabling the U.S. Treasury Department to freeze their assets and cripple their operations.

Waging Infowar and Psychological Operations

Infowar must be relentless, but the West should go further by launching its own psychological operations to unsettle Russia’s domestic and global standing. Interagency task forces should debunk Russian lies, like the Kremlin’s hollow sovereignty claims, with viral X campaigns modeled on Ukraine’s 2022 successes. These psyops could include targeted messaging to sow doubt among Russian elites, using leaks to highlight Kremlin corruption or military failures. In the Global South, where Russia’s anti-Western narratives gain traction, the U.S. State Department should fund local influencers to push back, crafting culturally resonant messages that undermine Moscow’s credibility. To exploit Russia’s war fatigue, Western intelligence should amplify evidence of Moscow’s economic and battlefield struggles, broadcasting its overextension to global audiences and Russian citizens alike. These efforts must strike fast, hitting within hours of Kremlin disinformation to own the narrative.

Destabilizing Russia from Within

Image: Foreign Policy

The West’s psyops should also target Russia’s home front, subtly amplifying dissent to strain the regime’s grip. Encrypted platforms could empower Russian dissidents to share anti-Putin narratives, with Western support discreetly funneled through groups like the National Endowment for Democracy. Carefully crafted messages—highlighting the war’s toll on Russian families or the elite’s lavish lifestyles—could erode public support for the Kremlin, sowing internal chaos without overt fingerprints. “Russia uses psyops to divide us,” said Dr. Carter. “We need to turn that weapon back on them, but smarter.”

Fortifying Digital Defenses

Hybrid tactics demand fortified digital defenses. The Department of Homeland Security should mandate AI-enhanced cybersecurity for critical sectors, drawing on Ukraine’s tech partnerships, with federal grants to ensure compliance. Military and civil servants need AI-simulated training to resist Russian psychological operations, hardening their defenses against manipulation. Public awareness campaigns, spanning TV and X, should educate citizens about disinformation risks, echoing Ukraine’s grassroots efforts to rally the public.

Starving Russia’s Propaganda Machine

Image: The Economist

Starving Russia’s propaganda machine is critical. G7 nations should ban Kremlin media like RT and Sputnik , following the EU’s lead, and block their financial streams. Diplomacy must pressure Global South countries to shutter Russian fronts, offering trade incentives to seal the deal, as South Africa did in 2023. Generous funding for independent media in vulnerable regions can amplify voices that drown out the Kremlin’s.

Exploiting Russia’s Exhaustion

Russia’s exhaustion is the West’s opening. Sustained economic sanctions, tightened by the G7 to choke Russia’s access to tech components, can weaken its cyber capabilities. Research, funded through think tanks, should probe the Kremlin’s doctrinal cracks, feeding insights into infowar and psyops strategies to keep the West ahead. The Global West must act as a united front, orchestrating its psychological operations to maximize impact while maintaining plausible deniability to avoid escalation.

Navigating the Challenges

Challenges loom. The Global South’s wariness of Western motives demands deft diplomacy, blending aid with persuasion. Budgets will strain, requiring a shift of defense funds to infowar and psyops efforts. Regulating disinformation without curbing free speech needs transparent oversight to deflect backlash. Yet these hurdles pale against the cost of inaction: a world where Russia’s falsehoods reign.

Winning the War for Truth

Russia’s war in Ukraine has exposed its limits, but the IISS report shows its information war remains a formidable threat. With the Kremlin fatigued, the Global West has a chance to strike decisively—not on the battlefield, but in the information plain. Hybrid warfare, powered by AI to detect threats, fueled by infowar and psyops to destabilize Russia’s narrative and regime, and sustained by unrelenting pressure, can break Moscow’s digital grip. Ukraine’s defiance proves it’s possible; now, the West must unite, turning Russia’s exhaustion into defeat with a psychological edge. The battle for truth is ours to win.