Europe's Anti-Russian Psy-Ops Network

Recently published documents have shed light on a huge U.K.-led psyop to allegedly counter Russian propaganda and create a European "large-scale information secret service" to do it. The leaked documented were thought to be by the hacking group Anonymous, but they recently denied the "Anonymous" claim via one of their Twitter account. Who really leaked the documents is not certain.

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The November 5 document dump exposed this European PR network called Integrity Initiative (II). It's a U.K.-based organization which was set up in 2015 by the Institute for Statecraft which is affiliated with the NATO HQ Public Diplomacy Division and the Home Office-funded 'Prevent' program. The stated objective of II is "to provide a coordinated Western response to Russian disinformation and other elements of hybrid warfare."

They claim to fight disinformation that threats democracy, and have admitted to receiving 2 years of funding from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The authenticity of the document's haven't been confirmed, but II said it's "clear that much of the material was indeed on the Integrity Initiative or Institute systems".

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Expressing outrage over the hack and leak of documents, II did put the blame on it's target, Russia, implying the Russian intelligence community must be behind it. The documents describe the "semi-secretive operation to coordinate efforts by seemingly independent journalists, academics and experts" in countering Russian propaganda.

The latest year of operation cost about $2.5 million to form "clusters" of "local politicians, journalists, military personnel, scientists and academics" in *"Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Norway, Serbia, and Montenegro" who are dedicated to publishing how Russia interferes with European affairs. They then influence leadership behind the scenes. They are doing the same thing they claim Russia is doing, with stated aims are about "changing attitudes in Russia itself":

"... our project will continue its successful building of a network of networks across Europe, organising local teams to counter Russian influence and disinformation in their own societies, including within Russian-speaking communities, and changing attitudes in Russia itself."

II plans on expanding the network and influence throughout the world to the the US, Canada, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa region. They've received funding from NATO and the U.S.State Department so far, with £168,000 and £250,000 respectively. Security analyst Charles Shoebridge says the *"cover operation" makes the publications appear as "genuine popular feelings":

"What we’ve got here is a hidden influence. Actually, these are not genuine opinions, or if they are genuine opinions, they are being pushed and given prominence because they are backed including by funding from organizations such as the UK government."

The clusters of "agents" may not be paid, but this is an ideologically driven hidden campaign to manipulate public opinion. NATO is well known for it's history of using the "soft power" weapon of "merging psychological operations, propaganda and public affairs" to "influencing a target population’s state of mind and surreptitiously shaping people’s perceptions". It just makes sense that they would help fund this new so-called "Integrity Initiative".

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References:

• Anonymous blows lid off huge psyop in Europe and it's funded by UK & US
• EU-wide ‘anti-Russian psy-ops’ program confirms UK govt funding, Anonymous denies leak
• II Dump
• II Handbook v2
• Statement on Russian media publication of hacked II documents
• FCO Application Form 2018 v2
• US/NATO Embrace Psy-ops and Info-War

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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