How Acts of Terror Help Information Warfare Triumph

Heidi Siegmund Cuda reports on the ingrained links between terrorism and Russian disinformation

Photo: David Gee 4/Alamy Stock Photo

In a conversation with Russian spy whistleblower, Sergei Cristo, this week, I found a terribly plausible explanation.

I now understand why the West failed so miserably in defending its citizens from information warfare. The answer lies in terrorism.

Acts of terrorism, either intentionally or as a catalyst, diverted resources away from countering espionage.

I had asked Cristo why he thought there’s been such a limp response to Russian active measures that have succeeded in destabilizing democracies globally, and he responded:

“Probably they thought they were just the usual bumbling KGB officers — they didn’t think it would have the impact that it has had,” said Cristo, the subject of the podcast Sergei and the Westminister Spy Ring by investigative reporter Carole Cadwalldr and Byline Times co-founder Peter Jukes. “Also, let’s not forget that the resources committed to counter espionage in the UK have been drastically reduced due to the threat of terrorism.”

I reflected on that last statement and ran through the inventory in my head: the Russian apartment bombings in 1999; the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US; October 7, 2023 in Israel; the 2014 explosions in the Czech Republic of ammunition depots, first thought to be organic then found to be GRU operations to disrupt weapons to Ukraine; the ongoing threat of nuclear terrorism which distracts from the very real threats that are actually occurring in real time.

Cristo continued:

“And Trump, sorry, that was a Freudian slip, Putin has helped this national security apparatus in the UK set its objectives accordingly. He helped reset the priorities from counter-intelligence to counter-terrorism.

“I think it was 2008 that the MI5 shadow budget was around five percent, maybe less, and then they tried to build the infrastructure up but without the officers who worked through the Cold War and could recognize active measures for what they are.”

Disinformation analyst Alex Alvarova told Byline Supplement that “human attention became the most precious commodity to mine.” And that autocrats use “violent shock” to grab our attention.