Rus­si­a’s Shad­ow War Against Ukraine and the West

About this event

Based on their two-decades-long investigative work into Russian intelligence and security agencies, Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan will assess the impact of Russia's war in Ukraine on its intelligence and security infrastructure and operations. They will discuss the role Kremlin's civilian (FSB and SVR) and military (GRU) intelligence agencies have played in the war, how this has changed over time, and the role key intelligence leaders have played throughout the conflict. Furthermore, they will evaluate Russian attempts to further penetrate European politics and society, highlighted by the increasing number of arrests of Russian 'illegals' and agents across the continent. Finally, they will analyse how Russia uses proxies to pursue its foreign policy goals - namely the notorious Wagner Group and the role it has played within the War in Ukraine.

Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov, who is now on Russia's most wanted list, are Russian investigative journalists and co-founders of Agentura.ru, a watchdog of Russian secret service activities. For over two decades, their work has featured in prominent outlets including Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, CNN. They are authors of a number of books on Russian intelligence and covert operations: The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB (2010), The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries (2015), and most recently The Compatriots: The Brutal and Chaotic History of Russia's Exiles, Émigrés, and Agents Abroad (2019). They are senior fellows at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and Visiting Fellows at the Russia Institute, King's College London. Irina and Andrei currently live in exile. For more information, please see their individual bios.

• Irina Borogan: https://cepa.org/author/irina-borogan/
• Andrei Soldatov: https://cepa.org/author/andrei-soldatov/