LEONID RESHETNIKOV

Former worker for the First Chief Directorate becoming a lieutenant general serving from April 1976 to April 2009.[i] His last role was for the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence branch as the head of the Information and Analytical Directorate. He was also deputy head of the Security Council’s Scientific Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Scientific Council.

As former head of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), Vladimir Putin personally thanked Reshetnikov for his service to the RISS. Reshetnikov in turn said, “we did our best for nearly eight years to implement your foreign policy concept. The policy of Russia and the policy of the President of Russia have been the cornerstone of our operation”[ii]

By this maybe he meant the operation to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Documents from RISS laid out the plans for a propaganda campaign aimed to undermine Hillary Clinton in case of victory.[iii]

Drafted in June 2016, the first document explained the strategy behind the operation which called for social media information war mixed with Russian news agencies aimed at swaying American voters to adopt a Russian friendly view in electing the next president. Then in October 2016, the emphasis shifted away from pro-Trump rhetoric to smearing Hillary Clinton and sowing doubt in the election by rumor milling about voter fraud.

He was replaced by Mikhail Fradkov who also served in the SVR from 2007 to 2016.[iv]

http://bulgariaanalytica.org/en/2016/11/30/%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%8F-%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5-%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BE%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8/

[i] Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, “Leonid Petrovich Reshetnikov”, https://riss.ru/profile/prime/

[ii] Kremlin website, “Meeting with Mikhael Fradkov and Leonid Reshetnikov”, January 31, 2017, http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/53793

[iii] Ned Parker, Jonathan Landry, John Walcott, Reuters, “Putin-linked think tank drew up plans to sway 2016 US election-documents”, April 19, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-election-exclusive/putin-linked-think-tank-drew-up-plan-to-sway-2016-us-election-documents-idUSKBN17L2N3

[iv] Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, “Mikhail Fradkov”, https://en.riss.ru/profile/mikhail-fradkov/