# CTEC Progress
- Author: Kojin Glick
- Published: 2023-06-10
- Canonical: https://www.kojinglick.com/blog/ctec-progress
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It's been a while since I've updated my blog here, and since I've been primarily busy with establishing myself at [CTEC](https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec), I'll cover my progress there in some detail. We'll cover some of the reports I've finished up, and projects that are just starting to come into full swing as I start my full-time engagement with the center this summer.
## Wagner Reports
Probably my biggest contribution so far has been the publication of three reports about the Wagner Group. They've been a lot of fun to write, and I've been able to flex all manners of methodological muscles and conquer all sorts of theoretical challenges. In addition to these reports, I was able to contribute to the [Wall Street Journal's documentary about the Wagner Group](https://www.wsj.com/video/series/shadow-men/shadow-men-inside-wagner-russias-secret-war-company/29735C37-0B4E-4E70-8E8C-C46FB711370C?mod=djem10point), and CTEC earned a place in the acknowledgements!
### The Changing Face of the Wagner Group: From Military Adventurism to Venture Capitalism
The [first one](https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/changing-face-wagner-group-military), was largely my co-author's work, and it regards the financial empire of Yevgeniy Prigozhin. I was able to contribute editorial skills, as well as an open-source investigation into the hackathon that the Wagner Group undertook at their headquarters in St. Petersburg. This paper really got me thinking more deeply about the changing face of conflict, as nation-states are more restricted than ever in claiming territories and other exercises in strategic flexibility. The Wagner Group seems less like a private military company, and more like a strategic multi-tool for Russian foreign interests.
### The Wagner Group’s Social Footprint: A Time-Series Sentiment Analysis of PMC World
I had a lot of fun writing and researching [this one](https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/wagner-groups-social-footprint-time-series). I built a custom scraping tool for VK, and developed brand new proficiencies in Natural Language Processing, in Russian no less. By examining the sentiment of all engagements, both posts and comments, in the PMCWorld VK channel, I was able to find a distinctly, and statistically significant, positive period between Putin's speech calling Ukraine rightful Russian territory and the expansion of Russian aggression towards Ukraine. Not only this, text frequency analysis during this period revealed a lot of chatter involving the word "movie," which lead me to the discovery that Prigozhin had purchased a movie studio in order to release a propagandistic movie presenting the 2014 initiation of hostilities as victimizing for Russian speakers.
Despite my excitement, my challenge here was presenting these findings as descriptive rather than causal, and although I wanted to point to these discoveries as revolutionary evidence that Prigozhin was acting as a state propagandist drumming up support for the later invasion, I think I did well in holding this more bombastic statements back. This report was very helpful in teaching me how to present statistics-based discoveries in an even-handed matter. As Mark Twain said, ["there are lies, damned lies, and statistics"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics).
### From Ideas to Action: Yevgeniy Prigozhin, Wagner Group, and the Operationalization of Duginism
[This report](https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/ideas-action-yevgeniy-prigozhin-wagner-group) was a lot more up my alley, at least in terms of what I've studied in my undergraduate career as a political scientist and media theorist. It's a rather in-depth analysis of Duginist thought, as well as brilliant open-source work by my colleague and myself in connecting Dugin and Prigozhin closely beyond theory and into the real world. Not much to say here, but definitely learned to appreciate the editorial work by the other full-time staff at CTEC who sought to make my work sound more like an academic work than a diatribe against "Russian thought." As they pointed out well, Russia is a large and multi-cultural place, and ascribing the thought of a particular esoteric thinker to the entire country reduces the credibility of my statements.
## New projects
The project I'm engaging with this summer is probably my most ambitious software project as of yet. It's a fully native (and hopefully cross-platform) application that helps researchers conduct analysis of a particular social media platform. Luckily, there's well-founded reason why I think I can be successful despite being a one man team on a project that would usually take an entire software development studio. [Tauri](https://tauri.app/) is an awesome framework with a frontend written in web-friendly languages like Typescript and HTML, and a powerful backend written in Rust. I've chosen [Svelte](https://svelte.dev/) as my frontend framework, which is an awesome framework to sketch out big ideas with little to know boilerplate. As a side note, the ability to write components with the following syntax makes my heart happy:
```
```
I've really made strides in my abilities and confidence as a Rust developer, and I've been able to bring ideas to life in Rust with speed and effectiveness. Also, this project features my most extensive attempt at project management and accountability, so luckily I have that cut out for me.
## Wrapping up
I've been blessed to find a place to apply myself and learn so much in such a self-directed manner. The best part is that despite my personal development, I don't feel like I'm being selfish for applying my own perspective to solving problems, and my initiative has been treated as a plus and not as a minor annoyance. Hopefully I come back to this blog with good news about my projects.