I can tell you where to find them
You can find them in the history, sociology, psychology, etc depts of Moscow State university and to a lesser extent 2-3 other Russian unis.
I have more than one childhood friend that is topping up their rather slim and thin state uni bread and butter with some substantial sustenance this way. This is the standard modus operandi of most large Russian corporations and their 3 letters too.
Before they do anything in a country, they ask people who know and understand a country, its history, its religion(s), customs, habits, etc to do a detailed analysis, isolate and rank pressure points as well as means of influencing key people. The latter may or may not involve a bribe. In most cases it is unnecessary - you can get similar results by catering to their vested interests. That is why they get the ROI and the precision you see.
This is different from CIA which relies on an army of parasites, sorry analysts. While some of these have applicable education, very few of them know the country and the subject matter to the same level as a Tier 1 university professor. As a result you get the typical American drive-by-democracy approach where good money is poured after bad into everyone who has declared himself an "enemy of our enemy" with occasional results interspersed by spectacular blowbacks.
While the Russian approach works fairly well for politics, I do not see how you can translate it to marketing for a generic product.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
