Prominent Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov, one who hasn’t been violently removed from the public forum by an increasingly repressive Kremlin and has survived attempts at intimidation has recently supported the message of a recent study of Russian propaganda targeting Canada:
“I’ll reiterate what I’ve said for years, that only playing defense is a losing game. Deterrence is essential.”
Kasparov was commenting on a new publication of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, “Stemming the virus, understanding and responding to the threat of Russian disinformation”, authored by the Institute’s Senior Fellow, Marcus Kolga, in which he concludes that Canada, and the West must be pro-active and not simply reactionary to Moscow’s growing campaign of disinformation, aggressive foreign intelligence, cyber attacks and influence campaigns.
In fact Kolga makes a concrete recommendation: the government establish a dedicated office for safeguarding Canadian democracy against foreign manipulation – The National Centre for Strategic Communications and Digital Democracy.
It would take on five distinct areas of responsibility: a) monitor, detect and identify disinformation and influence campaigns; b) develop strategies to combat and disarm them; c) increase cyber literacy and security awareness for personal, corporate and political use; d) work with all players to stem disinformation spread, identify bots and trolls, ensure privacy protection etc.; e) strengthen and widen international partnerships with domestic organizations to bolster monitoring, exposure and counter-disinformation activities. (Pikemalt Eesti Elu 25. jaanuari 2019 paberlehes)