A Primer on Russian Cognitive Warfare

Bugayova and Stepanenko's primer provides a practitioner-oriented introduction to Russian cognitive warfare as a distinct and evolving operational domain. Drawing on ISW's extensive analytical record of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the report situates cognitive warfare within Russian military doctrine — tracing its roots in reflexive control theory and active measures while demonstrating how these concepts have been updated and operationalised in the contemporary information environment. The authors are careful to distinguish cognitive warfare from its component parts: it is not simply disinformation or propaganda, but a systematic effort to shape the cognitive processes of target populations, decision-makers, and military personnel.

The operational focus is one of the report's most useful features. Rather than remaining at the level of doctrine, Bugayova and Stepanenko illustrate how cognitive warfare has functioned as an instrument of Russian strategy before and during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine — including efforts to undermine Ukrainian will to resist, to fracture Western coalition support, and to shape international perceptions of the conflict's origins and legitimacy. For analysts and policymakers who need to understand cognitive warfare not as an abstract concept but as a tool with observable effects and counterable methods, this primer offers a well-grounded starting point.