Paul Goble
Staunton, May 27 – Because of the importance the Kremlin attaches to information war, the Presidential Administration has directed the Moscow State Institute of International Relations MGIMO, where Russian diplomats are trained, to launch a new master’s degree program on how to conduct information wars.
The program, whose purposes, leadership and programs are outlined at mgimo.ru/upload/2024/04/presentation-strategii-informacionnogo-vozdejstviya-v-mezhdunarodnyh-otnosheniyah.pdf, will be jointly controlled by MGIMO and the Presidentail Administration (vedomosti.ru/society/articles/2024/05/27/1039648-mgimo-otkroet-novuyu-programmu-magistraturi and moscowtimes.ru/2024/05/28/vmgimo-zapustili-programmu-popodgotovke-spetsialistov-dlya-informatsionnih-voin-a132011).
Among the program’s instructors is Mikhail Zvinchuk, a blogger close to the defense minister who will discuss how to influence allies, neutral countries and opponents, and Yevgeny Minchenko, a Presidential Administration political technologist who regularly advises Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.
Others on the faculty will be retired SVR colonel Andrey Bezrukov who worked as a Russian spy for more than 20 years who will deliver lectures on strategic intelligence, psychological influence, and open source intelligence, a sign that the MGIMO program will be closely integrated with Moscow’s intelligence operations.
Another module in the program will feature a master class led by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mariya Zakharova, her deputy Sergey Nalobin, Russia Today’s Oksana Boyko, and TASS observer Andrey Shitov. And in the second year of the course, students will do internships in media, consulting agencies, the foreign ministry, and other agencies.
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