For example, in 2016, MID and its agencies paid for representatives of the Legal Information Centre for Human Rights and the Russian School in Estonia, two Kremlin-friendly NGOs, to take part in an annual OSCE meeting.

But these are often opportunistic and shaped by local conditions.

There is no grand strategy, beyond weakening the EU and NATO and creating a more conducive environment for itself.

This is largely determined by the correlation between the strength of countries national institutions and their vulnerability to Russian influence.

Among other things, this includes addressing democratic backsliding in parts of the continent.

Watch the Presidential Administration in particular, and identify the individual curators and their methods.

Seal the chinks in the EUs armour by educating national populations to be more critical of disinformation and by countering democratic backsliding in certain member states.

Name and shame individuals behind active measures and designate Russian organisations acting with hostile intent as foreign agents.

But like in war, we depend on both the strategy of the general in the High Command, and the bravery and initiative of the soldier in the trench.

There appears to be no master plan, but rather a broad strategy of weakening the European Union and NATO, distancing Europe and the United States from each other, and generally creating a political and cultural environment more conducive for Moscow and its interests.

For example, in the infamous 2016 Lisa Case (when a 13-year-old Russian-German girl was reported to have been kidnapped and raped by Turkish or Arab men a story later proven to be groundless), initial social media accounts were then recycled in the Russian media, and subsequently cited by Russias foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

The government was simply reacting to, and trying to exploit, something that started independently.

There is of course the deep cynicism which often sees Moscow cultivating rival extremes, all in the name of spreading chaos and division.

In Greece and Italy, for example, it eggs on parties on both the left and right (the Five Star Movement and the Lega Nord, Syriza and Golden Dawn, respectively).

In its broader narrative it is happy to encourage anti-capitalist and liberal protest movements such as Occupy, as well as to play to social conservatives.

One Russian journalist expressed amazement that the methods, even much of the language is the same: left or right, radical or conservative, you can use the same approaches with both sides, just change some of the language.

More broadly, though, the evidence suggests different ambitions and expectations for Kremlin operations in different European countries.

This has very significant implications not just for understanding Russian policy but also in shaping European responses.

This report seeks to identify the degree to which this is more than just a random medley of negative memes and self-interested falsehoods, and where the semi-structured political offensive against the West is planned and managed.

However, in keeping with its general philosophical belief that it is at (political) war and faces an existential cultural and political threat from the West, it reserves to itself the right to co-opt any individual or organisation when it feels the need.

As a result, it is worth dwelling on just how bewilderingly broad an array of different kinds of players are involved, sometimes constantly, at others episodically, in the Kremlins active measures campaigns.

Sometimes, he and those who speak with his voice simply support particular players and ventures.

Other times, they provide alternative messages, either to refine or correct (such as when, in 2016, Putin personally dialled back some of propaganda-primadonna Dmitry Kiselevs more extreme rhetoric about potential Russian nuclear threats) or simply to spread confusion, uncertainty, and deniability.

As will be discussed below, MIDs role within decision-making has diminished markedly, such that it often supports projects and spins narratives not of its choosing.

From championing supposedly oppressed Russian minorities abroad to thundering against the alleged iniquities of Western policy, it continues to be a powerful presence.

Washington Driver Guide-Russian