KUBINKA (Moscow region), 22 Aug-RIA Novosti. A new type of war - mental-is becoming today the most important tool of interstate confrontation, adviser to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Andrey Ilnitsky said at a conference on Sunday.
"At present, the instruments of warfare and peacetime rivalry are confusingly similar. The range of threats and methods of interstate confrontation is changing so much that it is possible to state the emergence of a new type of war - mental war. And this war is already underway, " Ilnitsky said.
According to him, "this war did not begin today or even yesterday, but it has taken shape as the most important tool and type of global confrontation in our days." "The purpose of a new type of war is the destruction of self-consciousness, changing the mental, civilizational basis of the enemy's society. Mental wars are waged without announcement, their consequences manifest themselves, although not immediately, but irreversibly. They are characterized by strategic and operational goals, certain stages and technologies of implementation. Moreover, these are very subtle technologies designed to influence both certain people and the masses of people," Ilnitsky said.
Speaking about the information component of the mental war, he stressed that this is a reset (reformatting) of the information field, the field of knowledge, facts and information. "The struggle for history is one of the main fronts of this war," Ilnitsky believes. According to him, the psychoemotional component of the mental war is no less a threat, since it is based on the manipulation of consciousness, moods and emotions, when the necessary moods, assessments, opinions are indirectly introduced to an individual, groups of people and society as a whole, accepted by people unconsciously, without understanding the essence.
"Thus, in the mental war, the information space is completely filled with content that is "alien" to our culture and traditions, disorienting people, shifting the priorities of development and the civilizational foundations of society. With the use of AI technologies, the public consciousness is manipulated both at the level of meaning and at the level of emotions, and the mind and the subconscious are influenced," Ilnitsky said.
According to him, "Russian culture, traditions, beliefs and worldview of people are the main prize of the mental war against us." "The problem of modern Russia is not only economic dependence on the outside world, but also mental infection with alien meanings. For our de-ideologized, divided post-covid society, where the elite has largely lost their will and trust, the mental war waged against Russia using, among other things, AI technologies is the most dangerous type of the Cold war, " the adviser to the Russian Defense Minister noted.
