Förändring i ryskt nyttjande av ickestatliga aktörer

Sammanfattning

Hybrid warfare is a concept that started getting a lot of attention after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. After this the method has gotten increasingly more popular, not least by Russia. One aspect of hybrid warfare is the use of non-state actors. Russia utilises non-state actors as a way of projecting power without having to take responsibility for their actions. Non-state actors is an effective tool in multiple types of conflicts ranging from peacetime operations and grey zone strategies to full-scale wars. To get a better understanding of this phenomenon we must research the way it has developed. The aim of this study is to describe similarities and differences between the Soviet union’s use of non-state actors in Angola and Russia’s use of non-state actors in Ukraine. The research shows that there has been a change in the way non-state actors are used even though some aspects remain the same. Unlike in Angola, Russia used several different types of non-state actors in Ukraine. The way these actors are being used has also changed, in Ukraine the use of nonstate actors is more direct in close cooperation with regular Russian forces, however the more indirect approach seen in Angola still played a large part of the warfare. The way Russia supports these non-state actors looks pretty much the same with the defining difference that the forces in Ukraine were to some extent directly supported by Russian forces.