As early as 2014, erstwhile Russia annexed Crimea, the Royal United Services Institute warned that it was moving from classical espionage to a "full-dimensional hybrid war" – combining kinetic activities with diversion, cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns. After the unsuccessful poisoning of Sergei Skripal in 2018 and the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats, **GRU and FSB switched to an outsourcing model** by outsourcing operations to private nets or criminals, minimising the hazard to staff officers.
