Abstract

Cyber and information instruments help in comprehending Russia’s foreign policy in the 2010s in a more accurate way. Relying increasingly on cyber-attacks and information operations to counterbalance a perceived inferiority in conventional power, Russia use these as a particularly potent foreign policy instrument. In particular, Moscow uses the cyber realm for geopolitical advantage in its contentious relations with the West. This includes Russia’s cyber capabilities and espionage motivation and its use of the Internet for information warfare. Truly, the cyber and information realms have been carefully integrated into Russian foreign policy’s doctrines and practice, all the more so as Internet access has skyrocketed throughout the globe in the past decade, de-multiplying the latter’s potential for reaching strategic objectives.