Russian Political Warfare

Political warfare is a grey area between peace and war. It involves a diverse array of methods and instruments that go beyond traditional diplomacy and soft power but stops short of open kinetic conflict using nations’ regular armed forces. This collection of Anton Shekhovtsov’s essays delves into practices of Russian political warfare designed to advance Moscow’s strategic and tactical objectives in European countries and certain African states. It reveals how Russian state actors and pro-regime stakeholders meddled in elections, politicised and weaponised the COVID-19 pandemic, amplified religious conflicts, undermined democratic institutions, and corrupted political forces.

Dr. Anton Shekhovtsov obtained his doctoral degree from University College London (UK). He is Director of the NGO Centre for Democratic Integrity, Visiting Professor at the Department of International Relations of the Central European University (Austria), and an Associated Researcher at the Research Centre for the History of Transformations at the University of Vienna. He is the author of New Radical Right-Wing Parties in European Democracies (ibidem, 2011) and Russia and the Western Far Right: Tango Noir (Routledge, 2017). He also published numerous op-eds in international media, and several academic articles in Journal of Democracy, Russian Politics and Law, Europe-Asia Studies, Nationalities Papers, and Patterns of Prejudice, among others.