Generals from information

What is the "doctrine of Gerasimov" and where do propaganda fakes actually come from, on which our military is periodically caught

Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Valery Gerasimo *c. *Photo: kremlin.ru

On November 14, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation issued a derivatives commentary to the fact that insidious Americans allow terrorists from ISIS* to freely leave the encirclement through areas that are under the control of the international coalition. The meaning of the accusations is clear. Moscow is very worried about the possible strengthening of an armed opposition oriented towards the United States. And now the Kremlin is trying to present the matter in such a way that the strengthening of the anti -Assad opposition occurs exclusively due to terrorists from ISIS*.

The accusations from the Ministry of Defense were immediately and ardently supported by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov: “This is not the only case when the US spare the terrorists ... When taking Rakka, Mosul, the figurative gates for ISIS were opened in Iraq ... There are a lot of questions for the USA and about what is their goals in Syria.”

One trouble: very soon it turned out that the aerial photography, which was an “irrefutable” proof of American insidiousness, was scans from computer games, as well as data from Iraqi drones that recorded the retreat of militants from the city of Falluja (later the column was attacked by the US Air Force and Iraq). Being convicted, the generals were not upset from the information. Having wiped off the eyes of God Ros, the Ministry of Defense reported that the “mistake” was made by a certain civil servant (subtext: the military work more thoroughly). After that, the same fake was actually repeated with the new "video evidence". And Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke out in the sense that the matter of everyday life, mistakes are happening.

Shoigu talked ...

The incident with a computer game is not the first time that our military department is caught red -handed.

The story of how Vladimir Putin proudly demonstrated to the director Oliver Stone a personnel attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan, believing that these were shots of the liquidation of terrorists with Russian helicopters in Syria (Peskov, who did not care, said that only the ill -wishers of Vladimir Vladimirovich).

In 2014, after the destruction of the Boeing Malaysian, the high ranks of the Ministry of Defense stubbornly poked into a specially manufactured map, which was supposed to prove that the Ukrainian military launched the rocket. At the same time, the card was compiled on the basis of aerial photography, made a month before the death of the liner. And also, as we recall, they referred to the testimonies of a “Spanish dispatcher”, which appeared on social networks a few hours after the death of the liner. Both “evidence” turned out to be obvious fakes. Moreover, in recent years, the military department is not difficult even in order to bring false information to some uniformity. The last example. According to the Ministry of Defense, the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Valery Gerasimov informed the college that the number of contractors in the Russian army reached 384 thousand military personnel. However, two weeks earlier, the head of the National Center for the Defense of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Misintsev, said that there were only 354 thousand of them.

The minister unexpectedly replied that the troops of information operations have already been created, which is much more effective and stronger than that we used to create in the direction called counterpropaganda ... ”

A wide stream of lies and falsifications allows you to suspect something more than the ordinary lies of the departmental press service. It is appropriate to recall how at the pre-holiday hearings in the Duma that took place on February 22, 2017, the restless Vladimir Volfovich turned to the Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu with a proposal to revive a certain “8th General Staff Directed”, which was responsible for the “counter-propaganda”. The minister unexpectedly replied that the troops of information operations have already been created, which is much more effective and stronger than that we had created in the direction called counterpropaganda. Propaganda should be smart, competent and effective. ” The head of the State Duma Committee, Vladimir Shamanov, in turn, said: “Today, a number of challenges have been transferred to the so -called cyberspfer, and, in essence, today there is an information confrontation as an integral part of a common confrontation. Based on this, Russia made efforts to form structures that are engaged in this matter. ”

After that, frightened silence came. The words of Shoigu were not included in the official message of the Ministry of Defense about the hearings in parliament. The first deputy chairman of the Council of Defense and Security, Franz Klintsevich, always confidently running ahead of the steam locomotive, suddenly hit and told RBC that the troops for information operations were created in Russia recently and that information about them is closed.

Indeed, in the Soviet Army there was a service that was responsible for the work "to decompose the troops and population of the enemy." This was engaged in the 8th management, but not the General Staff, but Glavpur. But now it is not even reported which structure of the armed forces includes these mysterious "information troops", which Shoigu talked about. It would seem that all this fog of mystery is nothing more than a tribute to the professional suspicion of Russian chiefs. However, in fact, there is something that the Russian authorities must hide.

"Color counter -revolution"

About a year before the Ukrainian crisis, an article was published in the “Military Industrial Courier” based on the performance of the head of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov at the Academy of Military Sciences. In it, the military leader spoke extensively about how, of course, not Russia, but the malicious West was going to wage the war of a new generation. Gerasimov wrote: “In the XXI century, a tendency to erase the differences between the state of war and the world is traced. The wars are no longer declared, but having begun, they do not go according to the usual template. The role of non -person methods has increased in achieving political and strategic goals, which, in some cases, have significantly exceeded the power of weapons in some cases. The emphasis of the methods of confrontation used is shifted towards the widespread use of political, economic, informational, humanitarian and other non -military measures implemented with the use of the protest potential of the population. ”

Delivering to the “asymmetric” forms of conflicts, Gerasimov (or those who wrote his speech) obviously wanted to grab the paranoid fears of the Kremlin, confident that any performance against the authorities is the result of the subversive work of Western special services.

"Doctrine Gerasimova" erases the difference between the states of war and the world. If the information war never ceases, then everything that was supposed to be used before during the war was allowed at any time

Two years later, in the Russian Military Doctrine ( published in the Rossiya Gazeta on December 30, 2014. - NT) will be written that “color revolutions” are a new form of military operations. And the protests of the population in the same doctrine are equal to the activities of the enemy sabotage groups.

When the Kiev Maidan happened, the Russian government was sure: it was against it that war was waged, so hesitably described by Gerasimov. In response in the Donbass, a kind of “color counter -revolution” was organized, during which Moscow used precisely the means that it initially attributed to the insidious West.

To understand the Russian “information policy”, it is important that the “doctrine of Gerasimova” erases the difference between the state of war and the world. It is no secret that units of psychological operations exist in all armies of the world. And of course, in their arsenal there is the whole set of subversive methods: lies, provocations, the spread of rumors, fake sensations - in war as in war. But by an unwritten agreement, all this adhered to the moment the hostilities began. However, the “Gerasimova doctrine”, multiplied by the use of the Internet, opened Pandora's box. If the information war never ceases, then everything that was supposed to be used before was allowed at any time. That is why the official Russian propaganda lies without stopping for a second - and is not at all shy when it is convicted of this lies. That is why Russian trolls do not stop filling the social networks with provocative posts. But, if so, then the work on decomposition is carried out not only in relation to the “potential enemy”. It is conducted in relation to its own, subordinate, people. It seems that this is today the main secret of domestic special propagandists.

Putin and Trident

The atmosphere of endless information war is influenced by those who initiated it. At the APEC summit, Vladimir Putin, annoyed that his meeting with the US President did not take place, decided to recall Washington all attributed sins. In particular, he remembered the Americans intention to replace the systems-intercepts of the system about nuclear missiles. But at the same time, he made a reservation: “And the fact that in Romania there are launchers that can be used not only for anti -throat, but also for Trident systems, and these are medium -range missiles placed at sea, they can be easily transferred to land and use, like medium -range missiles.”

The leader of the country, claiming that it is great, pronounces absurd things on a highlighting theme and does not consider it necessary to make adjustments

Trident is strategic marine -based missiles deployed on atomic underwater missile carriers. They have nothing to do with the interceptors of the Pro in Romania system and cannot have anything to do. And at the same time, to medium -range missiles (which, in turn, are not related to interceptors of missile defense systems). Putin, most likely, had in mind the marine missile defense system and AEGIS air defense system. With whom it does not happen: that the trident (trident), that the aegis ( aegis is the shield of Zeus and Athena)-what, in essence, the difference, both of the other thing-is some kind of ancient Greek. However, it is possible that the Russian chief had in mind the winged missiles of the sea base Tomahawk. He is not obliged to remember everything, although he tries to flaunt knowledge of details and terminology. But after an obvious reservation, no explanation was made. It turns out that the leader of the country, which claims that it is great, pronounces absurd things on a high -rise theme and does not consider it necessary to make adjustments. In fact, making yourself also an ordinary hybrid war ...

* IG, ISIS, the Islamic State - an organization banned in Russia as terrorist.