Did Russia hack the 2016 US election? Most certainly. The FBI, CIA, and entire intelligence community is in agreement on this point. Russian information warfare has been infamous the world over for decades — with a recent flare up starting with the Brexit vote as an obvious canary in a larger coalmine, and extending to the proliferation of right-wing movements around the world: particularly in Eastern Europe on Putin’s doorstep.
The following list is an attempt to demystify the language surrounding Russian interference in the election of Donald Trump, and Vladimir Putin’s efforts to undermine the Western order — in retaliation for the fall of the Soviet Union which happened under his watch as a young KGB agent stationed in Dresden, Germany.
See also: the RussiaGate Bestiary which lists the individuals involved in the Russian 2016 election interference investigation of Trump campaign conspiracy and fraud. Please note: both of these resources are works in progress and are being updated frequently.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| 4chan | A notorious internet message board with an unruly culture capable of trolling, pranks, and crimes. |
| 8chan | If 4chan isn't raw and lawless enough for you, try the even more right-wing "free speech"-haven 8chan, which is notorious for incubating a large swath of the Gamergate culture. |
| The Act | Las Vegas nightclub in the Palazzo, owned by Sheldon Adelson, under surveillance by the Nevada Gaming Control Board for obscene performances. Site of the Miss USA pageant party attended by Trump and the Agalarov's in June 2013. |
| active measures | information warfare aimed at undermining the West |
| Air Force One | The U.S. presidential plane. |
| AMS Panel | The GRU's "nerve center" through which they monitored the middle servers that monitored the DNC and DCCC networks. Housed on a leased computer located in Arizona. |
| art critic in civilian clothing | "joke" used by the KGB to refer to themselves while informing on dissidents under Soviet rule |
| attorney work product | |
| backdoor | a method, often secret, of bypassing regular login authentication or encryption of a computer or server |
| Baku | capital of Azerbaijan |
| banana republic | politically unstable countries whose economies are monocultures controlled by an oligarchy; puppet states |
| Bank Secrecy Act | Legal statute requiring persons managing funds in excess of $10,000 in foreign banks disclose said accounts to the US Treasury. |
| bespredel | "limitless and total lack of accountability of the elite oligarchs" |
| blind trust | A financial trust in which the beneficiaries have no access to the holdings of the trust, or any knowledge of its investments and contents |
| Bolotnaya Square | The square was the site of the biggest protests in Russia since the Soviet era, in December 2011 |
| Bolshevik | The majority faction within the Marxist revolutionary party led by Vladimir Lenin to power in Russia during the October Revolution of 1917, eventually becoming the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. |
| bolt hole | A type of retreat or refuge for those in the survivalist subculture, to be absconded to in case of disaster or apocalypse. |
| BND | German foreign intelligence agency |
| bug-out location (BOL) | Another name for a bolt hole or survivalist refuge location. |
| Calexit | Movement to split the state of Californnia into East and West states |
| capital flight | Refers to the massive ongoing exodus of both legitimate and illegitimate funds of Russian oligarchs and their state cronies to "safe havens" in foreign banks and offshore accounts outside of Russia |
| 28 C.F.R. 600.8(c) | "at the conclusion of the Special Counsel's work, he...shall provide the Attorney General a confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions the Special Counsel reached" |
| Charter 77 | Informal Czech resistance movement against the communist regime, named after a document that was deemed a political crime to distribute. |
| Chekism | Loyalty to the concept of an unbroken chain of Russian security services, all the way from Lenin's Cheka to the KGB to the FSB |
| Chronicle of Current Events | Soviet dissident periodical (samizdat) from 1968 to the early 1980s that reported on the human rights violations in the Soviet Union |
| Cold War | |
| Color Revolutions | |
| computational propaganda | |
| cooperating witness | |
| CPAC | Conservative Political Action Conference |
| CPSU | Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
| Crimea | territory in eastern Ukraine invaded and "annexed" by Putin in 2014; unrecognized and condemned by the international community |
| criminal investigation | |
| Crocus City Hall | 7000-seat theater complex in Moscow built by Aras Agalarov; site of the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | |
| cut out | |
| cyberspies | |
| cyberwarfare | |
| Cyprus | |
| DACA | |
| dacha | country estate |
| Dark Web | |
| data transfer | |
| deep state | Networks of opposition within governments who undermine the official regime |
| demoshiza | short for ‘democratic schizophrenics’ |
| deposition | |
| détente | strategy of easing geopolitical tensions between nations; used in particular to describe attempts to "cool off" antagonism during the Cold War |
| dezinformatsiya | Russian information warfare |
| diaspora | |
| directories | The file folder organizational structure on your computer |
| disinformation | |
| DIOG | The FBI's Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide |
| document theft | |
| Donbas | Territory in eastern Ukraine where Russian aggression has resumed as of Jan 29, 2017 following two years of Minsk Two ceasefire agreement |
| Doomsday Clock | |
| doxing | researching and broadcasting personally identifiable information about an individual |
| Duma | the lower house of the Federal Assembly, Russia's Parliament |
| Eastern Bloc | |
| Echo Moskvy | Democratic radio station in Moscow seminal is thwarting the KGB-led coup against Gorbachev in 1991 |
| encryption | |
| "Eternal Rome" | ideology positing Russia as a geopolitical bulwark of conservatism against a weak-kneed West (part of Alexander Dugin's reformulation of Eurasianism theory) |
| Evening Internet | the first blog in Russia, founded by Anton Nossik |
| executive privilege | |
| exfiltration | The removal or copying of data from one server to another without the knowledge of the owner |
| fake news | |
| fallout shelter | |
| false flag | covert operations designed to deceive by appearing as though they are carried out by other entities, groups, or nations than those who actually executed them |
| FAPSI | One of the agencies spun out from the former KGB to head Govt Comms & Info (modeled after the NSA) — this division was instrumental in controlling the unfolding of the Russian internet |
| Federal Assembly | Russian Parliament |
| fifth column | |
| fifth world war | non-linear war; the war of all against all |
| Financial Crimes Enforcement NEtwork (FinCEN) | Department within the Treasury that handles and maiontains FBAR filings from US persons holding in excess of $10,000 in foreign banks. |
| FISA Court | |
| FISA warrant | |
| Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) | Legal statute requiring those persons lobbying on behalf of a foreign government or other entity to register such with the U.S. government. |
| foreign bank account report (FBAR) | Required disclosure to the US treasury by persons holding in excess of $10,000 in funds in foreign banks. |
| forensics | |
| FreedomFest | Conservative evangelical event annually in Las Vegas |
| frozen conflict zones | term for several unrecognized pseudo states within former Soviet territories who have broken away from the national government and are operating as Russian protectorates |
| FSB | the Russian Federal Security Service |
| GamerGate | |
| Gazeta.ru | |
| Gazprom | Russia's energy monopolgy and largest gas company |
| Georgia | |
| Ghost Stories | FBI operation allowing a sleeper cell of 10 KGB spies to operate in the U.S. for 10 years, to reverse engineer their methods. At the end of the sting, FBI Director Robert Mueller rounded them all up and expelled them from the country. |
| glasnost | "increased government transparency" or openness — a slogan employed by Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet leader in the 1980s |
| Glavplakat | |
| "global cabal" | euphemism in far-right Russian discourse to refer to a perceived "Jewish conspiracy" behind the international order of institutions like NATO and the EU |
| globalization | |
| Grand Jury | 16 to 23 people impaneled to hear evidence from a legal prosecution, and decide if said prosecution has a caseworthy set of evidence to bring charges. |
| Grenadines | |
| hashtag | |
| Helsinki Accords | |
| honeypot | |
| hybrid warfare | |
| IC (Intelligence Community) | |
| iMessage | Apple's version of SMS |
| information warfare | |
| interlocuter | |
| IRC | |
| Iskra | The main Bolshevik newspaper in the early 20th century |
| Jackson–Vanik amendment to the Trade Act of 1974 | |
| kakistocracy | |
| keylogging | Technique that enabled the GRU to record passwords, internal communications, banking info, and sensitive personal info from compromised DCCC and DNC employees |
| KGB | The Soviet secret service, renowned for ruthlessness and duplicity |
| kleptocracy | form of government in which the leaders harbor organized crime rings and often participate in or lead them; the police, military, civil government, and other governmental agencies may routinely participate in illicit activities and enterprises. |
| Kommersant | Long-respected business newspaper purchased by pro-Kremlin oligarch Alisher Usmanov |
| kompromat | compromising material on a head of state or other important figure; typically used for blackmail purposes |
| Komsomol | Leninist Youth League organization for Communists aged 14 to 28 in the late 80s & early 90s |
| The Kremlin | |
| Kuchino | the oldest top-secret research facility of the KGB, 12 miles east of Moscow |
| Kurchatov Institute | Preeminent Soviet nuclear research facility still in operation today in the far north of Moscow |
| Latvia | |
| Lenta.ru | |
| liberalism | Political and ethical framework based on individual liberty via human rights and equal protection |
| Logan Act | |
| lords on the boards | |
| Mafia state | A systematic corruption of government by organized crime syndicates. |
| Magnitsky Act | |
| Maidan revolution | Student protests that ousted the Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych, that started Nov 21, 2013. |
| malware | |
| Marxism | |
| maskirovka | war of deception and concealment |
| Menatep | |
| Menshevik | |
| middle servers | Intermediary sets of servers used by the GRU to communicate with their malware implants in infected U.S. computers and networks -- for an arm's length, plausible deniability strategy |
| Mimikatz | Piece of malware whose function is a hacker credential harvesting tool |
| Minsk Two | Colloquial name of the 2015 ceasefire agreement between Russia & Ukraine following the annexation of Crimea |
| Mitrokhin Archive | |
| Mokhovaya Square | well-known landmark in front of the Kremlin |
| MSK-IX | The main Internet exchange point in Russia |
| MVD | Ministry of Internal Affairs; supervises all police, prisons, and "public order militias" |
| nationalism | |
| National Prayer Breakfast | |
| neutralize | |
| Never-Trump | |
| Newsru.com | |
| NKVD | a forerunner to the KGB under Stalin |
| non-linear warfare | |
| NotPetya | |
| novichok | military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia and used in the poisoning of former FSB agent turned Putin critic Andrei Skripal and his daughter in Lonson in March, 2018 |
| Novorossia | region of eastern Ukraine occupied by Russian separatists |
| October Revolution | the Nov 7, 1917 Bolshevik revolution and armed overthrow of the government, leading to the creation of the USSR |
| October Surprise | |
| oligarchy | |
| one-party state | |
| open source intelligence | |
| operating system | |
| operatives | |
| oppo | short form of opposition research |
| opposition research | |
| OSINT | open source intelligence |
| Ostankino | Russia's TV network |
| Ozero Cooperative | |
| perestroika | policy of restructuring or rebuilding the Soviet government, employed by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s |
| plausible deniability | |
| plea deal | |
| plead the Fifth | |
| Plovdiv, Bulgaria | Safe "bolt hole" identified for Eastern European hackers paid by Trump and the Kremlin if things went south |
| ponyatiya | an unwritten understanding about how things must be done |
| populism | |
| postmodernism | |
| "post office boxes" | Secret Soviet military and security research facilities, known only to the public by their P.O. Box number |
| post-truth | |
| power grid intrusions | |
| Prague, Czech Republic | |
| proizvol | Russian word for "arbitrariness" |
| Project Lakhta | Internal name for the operation that Prigozhin's IRA was running to interfere in elections across the Western world, according to the Mueller indictments. |
| Project Ripon | |
| propaganda | |
| provokatsiya | |
| rar.exe | A hacker tool used to compile and compress materials for exfiltration to GRU servers from the DNC and DCCC networks |
| American social network inhabited by numerous denizens of the alt-Right and hosting notoriously grotesque subreddits. | |
| refuseniks | Term given during the Soviet era, particularly under Stalin, for Jews who had been denied permission to emigrate |
| reiding | |
| Relcom | One of the first private companies or "collectives" formed under Gorbachev's glasnost reforms, it brokered the first proto-Internet within the Soviet Union and first connection to the outside world — playing a key role in thwarting the attempted coup against Gorbachev by the KGB in August, 1991 |
| rent-a-peer | |
| retweet | When a Twitter user amplifies the tweet of another, by "retweeting" it out to her or his network |
| Rodina | extreme nationalist party in Russia c. 2003 that hinted at ethnic cleansing; The Guardian reported it had actually been set up as a prop by Putin & cronies, to draw votes away from the other far-right Communist Party |
| Rosatom | Russian company building Turkey's first nuclear plant |
| Rose Revolution | Peaceful protest-driven pro-Western transfer of power in the former Soviet state of Georgia in Nov 2003 |
| Rosneft | Russia's state oil company |
| Rossiiskaia Gazeta | Russia's official government newspaper |
| RT.com | state-owned Russian news service |
| Rublevka | billionaire's row in Moscow |
| Russian Imperial Movement | part of the far-right coalition within Russia seeking to build an international consensus, this group advocates "Christian Orthodox imperial nationalism" |
| Russophobia | Popular hysteria against Russia and Russians perceived to be the case by Russia and Russians |
| samizdat | in the Soviet era, the creation by hand and distribution of copies of literature and other material banned by the state |
| Sberbank | Russia's largest bank |
| SDNs (specially designated nationals) | Individuals against whom secondary sanctions have been applied |
| The Seychelles | |
| shadow profiles | Data that Facebook collects on people who are not members of Facebook, via association with their friends who are |
| shestidesiatniki | "Sixties' Generation" in the Soviet Union, who shared a lot in common with the American New Left. Advocated for political reform. |
| Siemens AG | |
| siloviki | Russian term for those who have backgrounds and employment in security services, the military, and police; more specifically a reference to Putin's security cabal |
| Signal | |
| sistema | Russian term to denote "how the government really works" (as opposed to via formal state institutions) |
| SJW | Social Justice Warriors, a term which has somehow been wielded as a pejorative by alt-righters and other radical right cadre, energing out of Gamergate culture. |
| SMS | Aka "texting" |
| Snow Revolution | popular protests beginning in Moscow in 2011, demanding the reinstatement of free elections & the ability to form opposition parties |
| sockpuppet accounts | Fake social media accounts used by trolls for deceptive and covert actions, avoiding culpability for abuse, aggression, death threats, doxxing, and other criminal acts against targets. |
| Solidarity | Polish workers' party confronting Communism in the late '80s |
| SORM | System of Operative Search Measures — the system in use by the FSB to eavesdrop on the Russian internet |
| South Stream pipeline | Gazprom project through Balkans and Central Europe |
| "sovereign democracy" | system in which democratic procedures are retained, but without any actual democratic freedoms; brainchild of Vladislav Surkov |
| sovereign wealth fund | |
| spasitelnii | Russian word for "redemptive" |
| spearphishing | An email designed to appear as if from a trusted source, to solicit information that allows the sender to gain access to an account or network, or installs malware that later enables the sender to gain access to an account or network |
| specialists | Moniker given to the IRA employees assigned to operate the social media accounts in the U.S., including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Tumblr. |
| Sputnik | Russian news wire proffering fake news |
| Stasi | Nickname for the Ministry of State Security in East Germany during the Cold War |
| Steele dossier | |
| stochastic terrorism | |
| Stoleshnikov Lane | pedestrian street in Moscow lined with designer boutiques |
| St. Petersburg | Location of the headquarters for the IRA, Internet Research Agency, aka Putin's troll farm, at 55 Savushkina Street. |
| Strana.ru | |
| subpoena | |
| SUP Media | Russia's largest blogging service via acquisition of LiveJournal from Six Apart |
| SVR | Russian foreign intelligence service |
| swatting | hoaxed reports to emergency services intended to provoke a SWAT team response at the target's home; a form of Internet-based attack used by Gamergate, the alt-Right, and other groups and individuals |
| tax returns | |
| The Thaw | Brief period of reform under Nikita Khrushchev between 1956 and 1964, when Khrushchev takes over from Stalin and is replaced by Leonid Brezhnev |
| tradecraft | |
| "translator project" | |
| trial balloon | Information put out or leaked to the media to gauge public reaction. |
| Trump Tower Moscow | Then-candidate Trump signed a letter of intent to move forward with this project in 2015, while at the same time denying its existence publicly, repeatedly. |
| truthiness | |
| Turkish Stream | Proposed gas pipeline allowing Russia to extend its control over Turkey and European energy markets |
| Ukranian occupation | |
| unmasking | Intelligence protocol redacting American identities from transcripts of foreign intercepts |
| USPER | |
| Velvet Revolution | |
| vertical of power | reference to the tightly controlled power cabal structure Putin has amassed around himself |
| vKontakte | Russian social network; equivalent analog to Facebook |
| vlast | power |
| VPN | |
| VTB | Russia's largest commercial bank |
| wag the dog | |
| watering hole | hacker attacks that infect entire websites |
| whataboutism | Classic debate tactic of old Soviet apologists to deflect criticism of Soviet policy; whenever an American would levy a critique, the response would be, "What about the bad things America does?" |
| white knights | |
| white nationalism | |
| Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation | |
| World National-Conservatism Movement (WNCM) | umbrella term for Russia's movement to unite an international extreme far-right coalition |
| X-Agent | Multifunction hacking tool that allowed Russian GRU Military Unit 26165 to log keystrokes, take screenshots, and gather other data about the infected computers |
| X-Tunnel | Hacking tool creating an encrypted connection between the victim DCCC/DNC computers and the GRU-controlled computers to facilitate a large-scale data transfer |
| Yes California | Movement to secede from the US entirely, run by Marcus Ruiz Evans, Louis J. Marinelli |
| Yukos | |
| zakaz | news information that has been paid for by special interest |
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