I’m going to tell you a story. This story is about the links between Russia and Western conservatism. We’ll file this story under “fiction” in the local library. What you do with this story, as is always the case, is up to you.
Foundation and Empire
Throughout the history of humanity there have been many empires with a strong founding ideology. The Soviet Union was one of those empires. Empires are, by nature, expansionist. Empires built on a distinct ideology tend to be even more expansionist. Empires who feel that their existence, and ideology are under threat, as was the case throughout the history of the Soviet Union, even more so.
The Soviet Union was a military super power, and the brains of that military might was it’s intelligence apparatus, embodied by the KGB. The dominant rival of the Soviet Union was the United States of America, but the Soviet Union, and the KGB in particular, viewed every Western democracy as a hostile threat to it’s survival and it’s ideology.
The KGB, as was the case with every imperial intelligence entity in the 20th century, saw itself not only as an intelligence gathering entity, but also as an offensive actor, who could disrupt and weaken enemies, as well as manipulate their psyche and politics, always with the goal of gaining advantages over those enemies, ideologically, economically, and in concrete military terms.
How to Project Force
The top priority for the KGB, in view of it’s objectives, was the recruitment of foreign agents, it’s primary tool for maintaining the loyalty and cooperation of those agents was blackmail. It used a number of tactics to accomplish this. In the 20th century it would often look for citizens who held positions of interest to them, who were sympathetic to their ideology, and attempt to persuade them to act on their behalf, or they would find people who were financially vulnerable, or with other specific weaknesses, and use those levers to persuade those persons to act on their behalf.
But the key to maintaining loyalty and cooperation was meticulous record keeping, preservation of evidence and ultimately using those records and that evidence to blackmail the individual foreign agents. Once you acted in any way on behalf of the KGB, you were theirs for life. They would never let you go. If they had payed you to act for them in the first instance, that would not continue. They could, and would, ruin your life, if you did not continue to follow their instructions, or provide them with whatever it was they were looking for from you.
The Fall of the Soviet Union
Then came the collapse of the Soviet Union. The KGB was dissolved, but the KGB was a massive, robust, entrenched organism that did not die, it changed it’s name and appearance, and eventually became what is now known as the Russian FSB. The objectives and tactics evolved, but did not fundamentally change. The Russian FSB is, for the most part, a leaner, 21st century version of the KGB. What did change however, both for the new Russia, and the KGB, was the foundational ideology.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the apparatus of dictatorship was weakened, but not destroyed. A flawed, fragile democracy was born, but it would not survive the challenges it faced when a man named Vladimir Putin took the reigns of power. The Russian economy and it’s military might lay in tatters and Russia had been humiliated on the world stage. The citizens of Russia were ready for what Vladimir Putin was going to offer them. What he offered them was the restoration of their national pride. The price for that restoration was fascism, and once again, Western democracies became the enemy.
The Rise of Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin set about rebuilding the Russian economy and it’s military, with varying degrees of success. His first priority however, was rebuilding and strengthening the FSB, and providing it with a laser focus and sense of purpose. Vladimir Putin was going to do everything he could to wipe Western style democracy off the face of the planet, and the FSB was going to be the primary weapon he would use to accomplish that objective. Vladimir Putin was a highly trained, highly motivated KGB operative. This would be his baby, his great work.
The first objective of the FSB was to recruit high value foreign operatives. But the FSB had lost some of the tools in it’s tool box. There was no longer a large pool of intellectuals, socialites and people in positions of power sympathetic to Russian ideology. Or was there? Fascism was certainly “the monster under the bed”, but it was rarely named, and it’s ideals were only expressed in dark corners of society and now, the internet. But America had once been quite sympathetic to fascism, and those sympathies had never vanished, in spite of WWII, the Civil Rights Movement, and all the other blows that had been dealt it.
The Rise of a New Ideology
Fascism had not disappeared, it did what virtually every other robust social organism has done in the history of humanity, when faced with strong threats and adversity, it went underground and adapted. It re-emerged in the 1980’s with the punk, neo-nazi, “skinhead” and white supremacist movements. It embedded itself into a new form of conservatism under the leadership of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. It gained intellectual legitimacy with the birth of Libertarianism, and co-opted the popular manifestation of that ideology. And once again, the descendants of the KGB found themselves with a pool of Western prospects, sympathetic to their ideology, that they could recruit from.
And recruit they did. The late 20th and early 21st century brought with it an entire new toolset, perfectly suited to their purpose. Russian manufacturing capacity was woefully out dated, and there was no chance that it would be able to produce high tech, 21st century components inside any reasonable time frame, so under Vladimir Putin Russia focused on the components of technology that were accessible to them, primarily coding and manipulating social media.
Recruiting High Value Foreign Agents
At the lowest levels they infiltrated the mediums used by gamers and coders, and learned how to use them to manipulate public opinion. They became masters of social media. They used the new technology not only to manipulate public opinion, but also to sow general discontent and unrest. The very people that they had once targeted as potential allies and operatives now became the enemy, the “woke” and “social justice warriors”. Sometimes slowly, sometimes with frightening speed, they undermined the values of Western democracy and of compassion.
They identified “high value targets”, people in positions of power who were sympathetic to their ideology. They targeted people who were ambitious and might one day gain positions of power and influence. Before social media became ubiquitous they used other sources to identify those targets. They followed the local news closely, clear across the Western world, but especially in the United States. Once social media became ubiquitous they used that to help identify those targets.
The Role of Russian Organized Crime
The story of the new Russia could not be told without understanding the power and influence of organized crime. After the fall of the Soviet Union there was a period of social and political chaos. As is common under such circumstances, criminals organized and took advantage of that chaos to gain real economic, social and political power. In the new Russia organized crime became a dominant force. And again, like the FSB, they used the new tools provided by a technological revolution to pursue their goals. They also became master coders, scammers and hackers. One of the areas that Russian organized crime specialized in was under aged sex trafficking, child pornography and sextortion.
Russian organized crime embedded themselves in the new, emerging Russian political structures. Many of the power brokers in the new Russian organized crime were themselves ex-KGB, and the new FSB saw in them a potentially useful ally. So did Vladimir Putin, whose personal record of crime and corruption predates the fall of the Soviet Union. Crime and corruption were woven into the political fabric of the old Soviet Union, but with the new Russia, that integration became even deeper, and broader.
Fabulous Parties and Under Aged Sex Workers
When the FSB is looking for potential recruits, they are particularly interested in power brokers: politicians, and business leaders. The tech and media industries, both old and new media, are a particular focus. The primary tool for ensuring loyalty and cooperation is still blackmail. This is how it often works. The FSB invites you to Russia. They throw fabulous, mind blowing parties. They introduce you to underage sex workers, the sexiest children in the world. They keep meticulous records. They film everything. They take and preserve physical evidence. You are theirs for the rest of your life.
So who are these Russian agents? I can guarantee that you and I know the names of at least some of them. They are people in positions of significant power and influence, at every level of society, industry and politics in the Western world. Most of them, but not all, are members of right wing and conservative political organizations. The recruitment efforts of the FSB have been successful, probably beyond their wildest dreams. Russia has co-opted conservatism in every Western democracy, but particularly in the United States. WWIII began decades ago.
