crazy ivan asked me to look up this, what i described as “nato opens a situation room for ukraine operations”

The article text is of course full of bullshit, disinfo and ridiculous red herrings: I particularly like the bit at the end, where the guy says their purpose is to conduct research into internet trolling. But the substantive point cannot be obscured: this is a NATO facility, it is now as of Jul 12 (six days ago) officially open, and large sums are allocated to its function, whatever that is. I suggest that its real function is not just to ‘conduct information warfare against Russia,’ but that it is a serious electronic war room and that its first project has been controlling the Malaysia airliner operation. This has been conducted more or less on the model of the 1983 Korean Airlines Flight 007, which was intentionally directed into Soviet airspace so that it would be shot down. But it is important to hang on to the fact that in today’s case, it was the DPR who were known to have “Buk” and to have used it, who were intended to perform the shootdown, as indeed I believe they did. Therefore, to blame Russia for it is pure misdirection. The intended target of the operation is the DPR, who can now be treated as “international terrorists” and targeted directly by NATO – RB

NATO opens spectent for conducting information warfare against Russia
Polina Solovyov, Galina Zarshikov, Stock in Focus,ru, Jul 12 2014

NATO intends to actively oppose the Russian supply line information about what is happening in Ukraine. This directly follows from the statements of the Latvian politicians at the opening of the center of NATO’s strategic communication in Riga. The Prime Minister of Latvia Laimdota Straujuma accused Russia of conducting information war against the Republic, saying:

The Latvian government could not allow foreign countries to interfere in the internal Affairs, undermining the state system.

According to Defense News, the Latvian authorities believe that Moscow is waging a propaganda campaign aimed at ethnic Russian minority in the Baltic republics. Straujuma made this statement at the opening in Riga one of the offices of the NATO center for strategic communication. The Latvian Ministry of defence has stated that the center will devote considerable attention to alternative coverage of the crisis in Ukraine. The Defense Minister Artis Pabriks stated that the aim of the centre is to analyze trends in communication. According to the Deputy head of the military Department Janis Sarts:

In our days, strategic communication can serve as a weapon and a shield.

The new center in Riga will be headed by the former Ambassador of Latvia in France Janis Karklins. In the centre should be 20-30 employees, who will be engaged in research sphere and operations strategic communications. Other member countries of the NATO alliance delegate it of its experts. This is the third such specialized center of NATO in the Baltic States. Estonian centre deals with the issues of cyber-security, Lithuanian with issues of energy security. According to representatives of the Ministry of defence of Latvia, the mission of the new center is:

Ensure an adequate response to the attempts of other countries to influence the information space of the members of NATO.

As explained by the head of the military Department of public relations of the Ministry of defense of the country Caspar Galkin, strategic communication helps NATO to protect its territory and population without the use of military means. The Ministry of defence of Latvia says:

The conflict of Russia and Ukraine clearly shows what an important role could be played by information campaign in achieving superiority in military conflict. Therefore, the initiative of Latvia on the establishment of the international centre of competence will enable the Alliance to improve its capabilities in the field of strategic communication.

Meanwhile, the first research center of communication already spent, and they concern not NATO countries. As it was informed:

Recently, the center was held a conference on the use by Russia of the information campaign against Ukraine. The analysis of the Russian information campaign aimed against Ukraine was carried out, having studied various communication methods and their influence on events in Ukraine, thus showing that the information the company has become an important factor in modern conflicts.

To Finance the centre Latvia next year plans to allocate 3.2m lats (approximately $6.2m), most of which will be spent on the equipment, facilities, safety, and provision of modern technologies. It is envisaged that the centre of their work will be accountable to the public, but not all information is public. Miroslav Mitrofanov, the representative of the European Russian Alliance in Latvia (the Association of Russian organisations of the EU), said:

In the near future it is clear how they will act. But as they say, can be led by the nose, a small number of people for a long time, but all to deceive always impossible. For 23 years after the restoration of independence of Latvia, the state does not consider it necessary to invest in information resources in Russian language. And only the events in Ukraine have forced Riga to change their attitude.

Executive Director of the research Centre for East European policy Andis Coders (of Riga) reminded that the center was decided to create before the Ukrainian events. He said:

Under the current military conflicts is very important information component. Often this information is often even more important than military steps, and not vice versa, as it was during the first and second world wars.

Director of the NATO information office in Russia Robert Pszczel said that among the tasks of the centre in Riga will not only maintain direct counter-propaganda (presumably, anti-Russian opinion), but also, for example, analysis of trolling on the pages of various publications, as well as the analysis of the flow of information on foreign TV channels. Pszczel told the newspaper VIEW:

For example, if I go to the page of the popular newspaper and read an article on some relevant topic in which we have serious disagreements, say, Ukraine. Then I read in the reader comments, 5 or 10 such records, and to me it is obvious that this is no ordinary people, and, as they say in the jargon, “trolls.” Not everyone understands how it works. The center will bring together representatives of different NATO and partner countries, and together with employees of the center will analyze the content of the TV programs of different countries, trying to distinguish information from misinformation. Center just created. After two or three months, he will be able to work. To carry out, for example, seminars for the representatives of the countries-participants. And it is very important to discuss the issues together, so that people knew what was going on, because as long as they do not understand what to do. I would not like to have the feeling that we are talking only about Russia. It is no secret, many NATO countries believe that Russia’s propaganda campaign. But, I will add, we would like Russia to cooperate in different fields related to information policy. Besides propaganda, there are other problems: piracy, terrorism and so forth.

Let’s remind, in April, NATO decided to suspend cooperation with Russia. In June, the NATO Sec-Gen Rasmussen said that in the current relations between Russia and NATO, “obviously there is no trust,” telling about the security challenges that supposedly come to the organization from the East and South. After the aggravation of the situation in Ukraine, Defense Minister of Russia Sergey Shoigu said about the “unprecedented” growth of activity of the armed forces of Usaia and NATO in Eastern Europe of the Russian borders.