I may be the wrong person to give you an absolutely objective view of this, coming out of that academic community, but I would say that the impact within the academic world is probably pretty limited. If you take the example of the Valdai Club, I cannot imagine there are many Canadian academics who would fully subscribe to their activities in the present day. The Valdai Club has evolved over time. It is certainly something much more sinister and propaganda oriented than it was when it was first established.
I don't think there is large traction in the academic community. I also doubt that it's really a significant target for Russian disinformation operations.
CSIS's intelligence assessment is interesting in that regard, because it really is suggesting that what Russia would like to be able to do, as a foreign state actor in disinformation, is latch on to a Russian diaspora in Canada and try to use elements of that diaspora to spread the message further, but there are significant limitations in their ability to do that.