Russian Command and Control in Information Warfare and Reflexive Influence

Introduction

In the modern-day digital environment, those who can effectively leverage the digital space wield the most power in the global system. Learning how to conduct not only cyber-attacks, but information operations (IO), psychological operations, and social media campaigns afford beneficiaries significant power over the cognitive functions of their adversaries. Russia has not only learned these tactics but has institutionalized them into its Command and Control (C2) infrastructure (NATO C2OE , 2026). Within this framework, C2 assumes a fundamentally different meaning from how it is understood in the West. While NATO typically views C2 as a purely technical means of executing strategic and operational goals, the Kremlin uses C2 to target not only NATO’s technical architecture, but also its cognitive resiliency, seeking to degrade NATO’s ability to plan and execute missions from its very foundations.

Dr. Ivana Stradner is a Research Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD). Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery serves as senior director of FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI).