Intrepid journalists exposed the UK’s information-driven hybrid war on Russia
Leaked documents analyzed by RT's Kit Klarenberg and The Greyzone's Max Blumenthal confirm that the UK is aggressively waging an information-driven Hybrid War on Russia all across the post-Soviet space despite Western governments claiming that this is exactly what Russia is doing against them on their home turf.
Must-Read Materials About Her Majesty’s Government
Intrepid journalists Kit Klarenberg and Max Blumenthal exposed the UK’s information-driven Hybrid War on Russia all across the post-Soviet space which stands in stark contradiction of their claims that this is exactly what Russia is doing against them on their home turf. Interested readers can review their relevant articles here:
Instead of redundantly repeating their findings, the present piece will cover their strategic implications. The aim of this analysis is to place the latest revelations in their appropriate context in order to help readers better understand their importance.
“The Consortium” Is A Real-Life Conspiracy
Prior to the publication of these journalists’ work, many might have dismissed talk about the existence of a shadowy intelligence-backed anti-Russian transnational perception management structure as a so-called “conspiracy”. After all, the average Westerner has been indoctrinated for years into believing that it’s only Russia which allegedly engages in such influence operations. It’s difficult for many of them to countenance that a leading Western government like the UK’s is doing the exact same thing in Russia’s “sphere of influence” that it and its allies have accused Russia of doing in theirs. Nevertheless, that “conspiracy theory” has been confirmed as “conspiracy fact” because there’s no longer any doubt that London is guilty as previously charged. The leaked documents prove that the British government controls something that it calls “the Consortium”.
Real UK Influence Ops > Alleged Russian Influence Ops
Up until this point, Westerners were fed a steady dose of fearmongering reports about the alleged activities of something called the “Internet Research Agency” (IRA), which is accused of being one of Russia’s clandestine information warfare structures. Even if the unconfirmed reports are true (and that remains to be proven whether in part or in full), then there’s no doubt that the IRA’s influence ops pale in comparison to “the Consortium’s”. There’s a qualitative difference of perception management impact between the IRA’s alleged “troll farms” and the social media accounts that they supposedly control and “the Consortium’s” vast network of Mainstream Media outlets like the BBC and Reuters, self-professed “investigative websites” like the “National Endowment for Democracy”-funded Bellingcat, and the scores of Alt-Media outlets under their influence.
“Trusted” Outlets Are Actually Intel Proxies
Supposedly “trusted” outlets like the BBC and Reuters secretly serve the interests of the British intelligence-controlled “Consortium”. Their relationships with this shadowy perception management structure aren’t transparent, yet they at the same time claim to be in favor of transparency and other so-called “journalistic standards” when it comes to other countries’ reporting about the UK. Double standards are clearly at play, which are being deliberately employed in order to deceive the masses. Average people are being gaslighted into wrongly believing that Western Mainstream Media outlets would never do anything remotely close to what they accuse the IRA of doing. In essence, this amounts to an information-driven Hybrid War on their own readers, ironically doing more damage to Western soft power than Russia ever could.
“The Consortium’s” Activities Might Violate Russian Law
One of the most scandalous revelations from the latest documents leak is that one of “the Consortium’s” many members, the Zinc Network, acknowledged that it helps “participants [to] make and receive international payments without being registered as external sources of funding.” Russia has very strict laws in place mandating that recipients of foreign funding register as foreign agents and include that designation in all of their published materials. “The Consortium”, however, is suspiciously circumventing Russian law through undisclosed workarounds in order to obscure the source of its recipients’ funding and thus preventing them from fulfilling their legal duties. One can only imagine the reaction in Western states if such an intelligence-backed operation was discovered on their home turf regarding a Russian scheme to encourage their citizens not to register as foreign agents if they were legally obliged to do so after receiving payments from that country.
The UK Is Cooking Up Color Revolutions
“The Consortium” doesn’t just operate solely in the information space but is arguably leveraging its activities for the purpose of provoking Color Revolutions in Belarus and Russia. Blumenthal’s work raises uncomfortable questions about the role that this shadowy perception management structure plays in provoking anti-government unrest in those two countries. The impression that one receives upon reading his detailed report is that “the Consortium” is weaponized as an on-the-ground Color Revolution vanguard against those states, building upon the experience of that one of its extended members obtained during 2014’s “EuroMaidan”. Hromadske, he notes, sprouted up out of nowhere during that foreign-backed unrest with seed funding and logistical support from USAID and Pierre Omidyar’s Network Fund. It certainly appears to be the case that “the Consortium” is attempting to replicate that Color Revolution’s “success” in Belarus, Russia, and elsewhere.
British Intelligence Is Destabilizing Eastern Europe
The key takeaway from Klarenberg’s and Blumenthal’s work is that British intelligence plays a leading role in destabilizing Eastern Europe through “the Consortium’s” pernicious activities. Not only does its organizational capabilities, scope, scale, and hostile intent far surpass anything that Russia has ever been accused of doing through the IRA, but it cunningly relies on secret partnerships with so-called “trusted” outlets like the BBC and Reuters to gaslight the public into thinking that no such influence operation exists. This makes it doubly dangerous, especially because its very strongly implied regime change purpose will likely provoke Moscow to crack down on this intelligence-backed transnational influence network’s activities within its borders, after which the West will predictably mislead the world by misportraying this as “dictatorial suppression of free speech”. In turn, more sanctions might be forthcoming, all because of Russia’s “Democratic Security” response.
Concluding Thoughts
Intrepid journalists Kit Klarenberg and Max Blumenthal did a major service to the global public by analyzing the recently leaked documents about the UK’s information-driven Hybrid War on Russia. They saved everyone a lot of valuable time and thus enabled them to more easily understand the danger that the multipolar Great Power is facing from one of the leaders of the self-professed “democratic world”. In complete contradiction of everything that the UK publicly claims to stand for, its intelligence services secretly control a shadowy transnational perception management structure that’s arguably been weaponized to carry out regime change against Russia and the countries within its “sphere of influence”. It’s not even accurate to say that “the pot called the kettle black” since the IRA’s alleged activities now look spotless compared to “the Consortium’s”.
