October 29, 2022 Earlier this month, we announced that the Russian/Chinese network categories would henceforth concentrate more on primary sources than we had in the past. We would like to announce a further change in the Russia category. The GIOR will be shifting its focus on Russia from coverage of its influence operations in general to Russia and the Global National Conservative Alliance (GNCA) in particular. As discussed in the GIOR report “The National Conservatism Alliance: An Opportunity for Russian Influence,” the GNCA is centered on national sovereignty, cultural identity, and opposition to global institutions. Of late, Russia, under its President Vladimir Putin, is attempting to position itself as the leader of the GNCA, and many countries and leaders tied to the GNCA are sympathetic to Russian and its positions. In Europe, the GNCA is being spearheaded by Hungary under its Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and in the US, it represents a potentially radical change for the US conservative movement away from long-held Reagan-era philosophies.
To reflect the new focus, the Russia category is being renamed to Russia (GNCA), and the US category combined with the new Russia (GNCA) category. The US category will be deleted. We will also be editing both categories, retaining only those posts relevant to the GNCA focus. All other posts will be moved to an archive but will still be “live” so that existing links can be maintained. The “Other” network category is also being deleted in light of the above. Followers of our Russian coverage may have already noticed this shift with our latest series of posts. We hope our users will find the new category useful to them. In the end, trying to cover the entire spectrum of Russian influence operations was simply overwhelming, given the resources available to us. We are excited about the possibilities as GIOR believes that shifting the focus will allow us to make a unique contribution as the GNCA is not widely covered by other media and monitoring organizations.
As always, let us know what you think by way of the GIOR contact form.
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