The West will often hires a private company to do the same thing and calls them "political operatives." And presumably the "Western" intelligence agencies are

The West will often hires a private company to do the same thing and calls them "political operatives." And presumably the "Western" intelligence agencies are doing something. We have evidence of it happening in South Koreaa around 2010, and it's hard to imagine other agencies didn't learn from it's success.