Abstract
After the infamous cyber attacks against Estonia in 2007 and the Ukrainian conflict in 2014–15, the Russian military theory, and in particular, Information Warfare (IW) doctrines, have come into the center of attention. IW has played a very peculiar role in the Russian political and military theory and practice, and its current state can be regarded as a climax in its evolution. To gain an in-depth understanding of the Russian strategic thinking, the second part of this article strives to give an overview of the current phase of the process.
Highlights
After the infamous cyber attacks against Estonia in 2007 and the Ukrainian conflict in 2014–15, the Russian military theory, and in particular, Information Warfare (IW) doctrines, have come into the center of attention
IW has played a very peculiar role in the Russian political and military theory and practice, and its current state can be regarded as a climax in its evolution
To gain an in-depth understanding of the Russian strategic thinking, the second part of this article strives to give an overview of the current phase of the process
Summary
The Russian military has been studying virus or software warfare since the 1970s as one of the most important aspects of future information warfare. Part of the scarce publicly available information is that within the military the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) has a major share in information warfare operations including cyber capabilities. The Russian operational art, uses the notion of ‘information space’, which they put in the context of social, political and civilisational threats This shift helps to justify the Kremlin’s domestic and foreign policies. Lacking the sufficient resources the current strategy of selective investment coupled with careful analysis of U.S vulnerabilities could enable Russia to compete with and even surpass US forces in specific operational niches – such as information/electronic warfare – long before the RMA is generalised throughout the Russian military. The IW capability upgrade gained a new momentum in 2012 when Vladimir Putin became the new Commander-in-Chief, the Russian military received a new Minister of Defence, Sergey Shoygu, and a new Chief of General Staff, Valeriy Gerasimov, and a new Defense Plan in January 2013.9
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