State Players in the System of Russian External Foreign Policy Information Influence

Abstract

The article investigates the role and structural function of the central public authorities, which are the key elements of the Russian system of information influence in the international arena. The major players representing state sector in the framework of the Kremlin's foreign strategy, their main characteristics and impact on the process of deciding and implementation of decisions of the highest political leadership of Russia have been analyzed. In the context of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, which has been continuing since 2014, information and cyber warfare is one of the key Kremlin strategies aimed at the destruction of Ukrainian statehood and demoralization of Ukrainian society. The study has applied systemic and structural-functional analysis. In particular, it has identified a range of key state players, and investigated their role function and structural influence on the development of relevant foreign policy, organizational and managerial decisions and measures on support of the Russian information aggression in the international arena in the system of central bodies of state power of the Russian Federation. It has also provided the opportunity to determine the scale and specific features of the involvement of the highest political leadership of Russia in the implementation of the main directions and tools of information influence of Moscow, Russian Federation, abroad. All these facts, in turn, are of great importance for ensuring national security, in particular in the development of appropriate foreign policy, organizational and managerial decisions and protective measures against the information impact of the enemy. The analysis of the practice of Russia's information and hybrid warfare technologies application against its neighbours shows that Moscow has been taking advantage of a wide range of both state bodies and non-governmental players to strengthen its influence abroad, operating as a single mechanism under a single scenario in the centralized management system.