kremlinology is the term for any political intelligence gathering that's all second-order. In the canonical case of the Kremlin it's because it was very difficult to get inside data and even then there were so many moving parts that you needed an expert in just that area who had alot of data like who was having drinks with whom to predict who might be on the out and who might be ascendant.
>In the canonical case of the Kremlin it's because it was very difficult to get inside data
not anymore, apparently. even random ~~grifters~~ geopolitics experts on youtube now have people on the inside.