Society
Russia’s Doxing Campaign: An Expanding Trend in Extraterritorial Repression
August 5, 2024
Mariya Omelicheva
Political scientist, National Defense University
Political scientist Mariya Omelicheva looks at the Russian government’s digital attacks on Russian dissidents, which are aimed at discouraging them from speaking out against Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Putin regime and limiting their ability to influence dissenting voices at home.
Transnational repression is widespread, from China’s relentless persecution of the country’s ethnic minorities abroad to Turkey’s campaign of illegal renditions of its citizens. Forty-five countries in recent years have reached across borders to forcibly silence journalists, human rights defenders, political activists, scholars and former regime insiders. Digital technologies coupled with the spread of online information-sharing have created new avenues for authoritarian governments to control dissent in their expatriate and diaspora communities.
The Kremlin’s digital attacks on its critics
The Russian government has been at the forefront of deploying digital tools to target its critics residing outside Russia, with these practices becoming more common following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s digital repression has taken many forms – intimidation on social media, harassment and threats through hacked email accounts and mobile devices, and digital attacks by online bots and trolls. This analysis brings the spotlight on doxing attacks carried out by Underside – the Kremlin-backed hacking, leaking and doxing agent, which, gathering sensitive and personal data, commits malicious acts aimed at exposing Putin critics who wish to remain anonymous.
The doxing campaign is notable for several reasons. It targets individuals, most of whom, until recently, had carried out their advocacy work off the radar of the Russian authorities. The campaign, therefore, is a sign of the Kremlin’s growing digital persecution in a bid to strengthen its grip on the flow of information beyond its domestic remit and to target “insufficiently patriotic,” free-thinking Russian citizens who have sought Western funding.
The new digital forms of persecution have received less attention than the old tools of transnational repression, in part due to the difficulty of attributing responsibility for digital attacks and as, in the case of doxing, they sometimes fall short of what constitutes a crime. Nevertheless, when combined with Russia’s swelling punitive laws, ballooning lists of “foreign agents” and alarming political prisoner statistics, digital repression has a chilling impact on free expression.
The goal of the doxing campaign is to keep Russian dissidents in permanent exile, discourage them from criticizing the Putin regime and quash their influence on dissenters remaining in Russia. It also weakens Western efforts to identify, expose and counter disinformation through public and private channels.
The Kremlin’s digital attacks on its critics
The Russian government has been at the forefront of deploying digital tools to target its critics residing outside Russia, with these practices becoming more common following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s digital repression has taken many forms – intimidation on social media, harassment and threats through hacked email accounts and mobile devices, and digital attacks by online bots and trolls. This analysis brings the spotlight on doxing attacks carried out by Underside – the Kremlin-backed hacking, leaking and doxing agent, which, gathering sensitive and personal data, commits malicious acts aimed at exposing Putin critics who wish to remain anonymous.
The doxing campaign is notable for several reasons. It targets individuals, most of whom, until recently, had carried out their advocacy work off the radar of the Russian authorities. The campaign, therefore, is a sign of the Kremlin’s growing digital persecution in a bid to strengthen its grip on the flow of information beyond its domestic remit and to target “insufficiently patriotic,” free-thinking Russian citizens who have sought Western funding.
The new digital forms of persecution have received less attention than the old tools of transnational repression, in part due to the difficulty of attributing responsibility for digital attacks and as, in the case of doxing, they sometimes fall short of what constitutes a crime. Nevertheless, when combined with Russia’s swelling punitive laws, ballooning lists of “foreign agents” and alarming political prisoner statistics, digital repression has a chilling impact on free expression.
The goal of the doxing campaign is to keep Russian dissidents in permanent exile, discourage them from criticizing the Putin regime and quash their influence on dissenters remaining in Russia. It also weakens Western efforts to identify, expose and counter disinformation through public and private channels.
Russians released in the August 1 prisoner exchange arriving in Germany.
Source: Wiki Commons
At the same time as the prisoner swap, a bill was introduced to the Duma that would allow the Prosecutor General to send evidence to foreign countries to prosecute Russians who are thought to be hiding abroad.
Source: Wiki Commons
At the same time as the prisoner swap, a bill was introduced to the Duma that would allow the Prosecutor General to send evidence to foreign countries to prosecute Russians who are thought to be hiding abroad.
Underside: the Kremlin’s tool for suppressing free speech abroad
Since Russia launched its full-scale aggression against Ukraine, it has seen an exodus of activists, journalists, artists and academics, who have sought safety and freedom of expression outside their country’s borders. Russia’s Ministry of Justice promptly slapped the “foreign agents” label on scores of exiled intellectuals, some of whom have pending criminal investigations against them for “rehabilitating Nazism” or “instigating of hate and enmity” in Russian society. A few have been sentenced in absentia to long stints in prison – apparently to deter them from returning to Russia and stirring up unwanted sentiments in Russian society. The names of the Russian exiles have been smeared in public campaigns for alleged anti-state activity with funds provided by the West.
Having been targeted in the government crackdown on academic and media freedoms, these intellectuals were also the targets of doxing attacks by Underside. The Underside project is a Kremlin-sanctioned operation that involves the collection of background information on individuals with alleged “pro-Western connections” and publication of scathing exposés on its website (underside(.)today) detailing their anti-Russia misdeeds.
Registered on the day Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine, Underside attracted tens of thousands of subscribers to its Telegram channel in the following months. Some of its posts, which include long “investigative” pieces into dissidents’ purported connections to Western governments, have been viewed more than a million times. The exposés weave together information from hacked documents and open-source data to frame the recipients of Western funding as puppets of the British and American governments who are waging an information war against Russia.
Underside has doxed more than a hundred individuals – journalists, scholars, civil society activists and other opponents of the Putin regime – revealing their personal identifiable information (PII) and social media accounts. Underside’s targets include the participants of seminars and programs funded by the Council of Europe and British Council, alumni of the Chevening Scholarship, funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the British government, and, more recently, the applicants for the Democracy Fellowship Fund of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
The information used in Underside’s “investigations” includes photographs and videos culled from public posts on social media and the websites of organizations, some of which date a decade back. In those photos, the applicants for Western funding are seen standing side-by-side with prominent Kremlin critics, such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Alexei Navalny; participating in anti-Kremlin demonstrations; and posing in front of the banners of Western organizations, which before February 2022 was not a risky affair.
There are several indications that Underside is linked to the Russian government. It uses a trove of documents that are believed to be hacked by Russian intelligence actors. Russian dissidents whose names appear in the hacked documents have become the targets of Underside “investigations.” In addition, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made repeated references to Underside “investigations” on its social media platforms and publicly praised its work.
Underside’s findings that allege the existence of an expansive network of Western-funded agents engaged in a concerted effort to undermine Russia have been shared on Russian diplomatic accounts and state media. Underside’s website is silent on its sources of funding, yet it seemingly has no shortage of funds. Its homepage advertises a tiered system of hefty honoraria for new kompromat on so-called “Western sympathizers” and their links to London and Washington.
Consequences of the doxing campaign
Underside’s immediate goal is to instill fear and silence those who dare to speak against the war and Putin’s regime. This operation is effective: many journalists and academics targeted by Underside have closed their social media accounts or purged them of sensitive content. Some have chosen to cut down on their public appearances and eschewed participation in Russia-themed events out of concern for data breaches and online surveillance by Russian authorities.
The effects of doxing reverberate beyond the immediate targets. Based on widely circulated Underside’s exposés, Russian officials have called for criminal investigations into a broad range of activities and organizations inside and outside of Russia. A Duma commission charged with investigating foreign interference in Russia’s internal affairs cited Underside’s reports in its review of “undesirable” and “extremist” activities of civil society organizations and individuals associated with the West.
For Western donors, the doxing operation is a critical reminder of their responsibility to protect sensitive and PII data as part of proper stewardship of public and private funds. It also raises challenging questions about the pros and cons of social media visibility around the recipients of their funding.
Since Russia launched its full-scale aggression against Ukraine, it has seen an exodus of activists, journalists, artists and academics, who have sought safety and freedom of expression outside their country’s borders. Russia’s Ministry of Justice promptly slapped the “foreign agents” label on scores of exiled intellectuals, some of whom have pending criminal investigations against them for “rehabilitating Nazism” or “instigating of hate and enmity” in Russian society. A few have been sentenced in absentia to long stints in prison – apparently to deter them from returning to Russia and stirring up unwanted sentiments in Russian society. The names of the Russian exiles have been smeared in public campaigns for alleged anti-state activity with funds provided by the West.
Having been targeted in the government crackdown on academic and media freedoms, these intellectuals were also the targets of doxing attacks by Underside. The Underside project is a Kremlin-sanctioned operation that involves the collection of background information on individuals with alleged “pro-Western connections” and publication of scathing exposés on its website (underside(.)today) detailing their anti-Russia misdeeds.
Registered on the day Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine, Underside attracted tens of thousands of subscribers to its Telegram channel in the following months. Some of its posts, which include long “investigative” pieces into dissidents’ purported connections to Western governments, have been viewed more than a million times. The exposés weave together information from hacked documents and open-source data to frame the recipients of Western funding as puppets of the British and American governments who are waging an information war against Russia.
Underside has doxed more than a hundred individuals – journalists, scholars, civil society activists and other opponents of the Putin regime – revealing their personal identifiable information (PII) and social media accounts. Underside’s targets include the participants of seminars and programs funded by the Council of Europe and British Council, alumni of the Chevening Scholarship, funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the British government, and, more recently, the applicants for the Democracy Fellowship Fund of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
The information used in Underside’s “investigations” includes photographs and videos culled from public posts on social media and the websites of organizations, some of which date a decade back. In those photos, the applicants for Western funding are seen standing side-by-side with prominent Kremlin critics, such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Alexei Navalny; participating in anti-Kremlin demonstrations; and posing in front of the banners of Western organizations, which before February 2022 was not a risky affair.
There are several indications that Underside is linked to the Russian government. It uses a trove of documents that are believed to be hacked by Russian intelligence actors. Russian dissidents whose names appear in the hacked documents have become the targets of Underside “investigations.” In addition, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made repeated references to Underside “investigations” on its social media platforms and publicly praised its work.
Underside’s findings that allege the existence of an expansive network of Western-funded agents engaged in a concerted effort to undermine Russia have been shared on Russian diplomatic accounts and state media. Underside’s website is silent on its sources of funding, yet it seemingly has no shortage of funds. Its homepage advertises a tiered system of hefty honoraria for new kompromat on so-called “Western sympathizers” and their links to London and Washington.
Consequences of the doxing campaign
Underside’s immediate goal is to instill fear and silence those who dare to speak against the war and Putin’s regime. This operation is effective: many journalists and academics targeted by Underside have closed their social media accounts or purged them of sensitive content. Some have chosen to cut down on their public appearances and eschewed participation in Russia-themed events out of concern for data breaches and online surveillance by Russian authorities.
The effects of doxing reverberate beyond the immediate targets. Based on widely circulated Underside’s exposés, Russian officials have called for criminal investigations into a broad range of activities and organizations inside and outside of Russia. A Duma commission charged with investigating foreign interference in Russia’s internal affairs cited Underside’s reports in its review of “undesirable” and “extremist” activities of civil society organizations and individuals associated with the West.
For Western donors, the doxing operation is a critical reminder of their responsibility to protect sensitive and PII data as part of proper stewardship of public and private funds. It also raises challenging questions about the pros and cons of social media visibility around the recipients of their funding.
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