MOSCOW — A Kremlin-controlled research organization that Western critics accuse of subversive propaganda in other countries, including possible election meddling, is known in Russia as a semiretirement refuge for former intelligence officers.
The organization, the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies in Moscow, says its main purpose is preparing policy papers and other analytical materials for the country’s leading government agencies.
At the top of its website, the institute says in capital letters that it was founded by “the president,” a reference to President Vladimir V. Putin. Some political commentators in Russia regard it as a place where ex-intelligence officials can work with dignity.
Nonetheless, Kremlin opponents have linked the institute to such efforts as trying to dissuade Sweden from closer ties to NATO and subvert Montenegro’s impending membership in the alliance.
Attention was focused on the institute this week when Reuters, quoting what it described as seven former and current American officials, reported on Wednesday that the institute had provided the “framework and rationale” to interfere in the Nov. 8 United States presidential election to help Donald J. Trump win.
