The Putin Files

Putin and Hybrid Warfare

The conflict in Ukraine became a laboratory for Putin’s pursuit of “hybrid war,” a strategy embraced by Russian General Valery Gerasimov. “The Gerasimov Doctrine” emphasized relatively low-cost operations combining military force, technology, information, diplomacy and political manipulation. It was a strategy that provided Putin with a way to strike back at the United States. The 2016 presidential race offered an opportunity to do so.
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Highlights From This Theme

“Soviets knew that the West was wealthier and freer than they were. They believed that there was a democratic system out there. Putin wants to tell them: “No, there isn't. They're just like us.”...”

Daniel Fried

National Security Council, 2001-05

“He’s developing a new set of tactics that are full-spectrum tactics, that have a strong propaganda element, a strong cyber element, a strong subversion element, as well as selective use of military force.”

Stephen Hadley

National Security Adviser, 2005-09

“Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Russia was perfecting a set of techniques that had never been used in warfare quite this way, but would come to be enormously consequential.”

Evan Osnos

The New Yorker

“I would say that not only the United States, but certainly Western Europe discounted much of what countries like mine said.”

Toomas Hendrik Ilves

President of Estonia, 2006-16

“This wasn’t the scenario we had been planning against.”

Jon Wolfsthal

Obama adviser, 2014-17

“What Putin is doing in Ukraine is a proxy war against Russian society in trying to prevent the same political developments that happened in Ukraine.”

Vladimir Kara-Murza

Opposition politician

“For the Kremlin, [the] color revolutions presented a formidable technological challenge. It was about technology. It was not about political meaning.”

Andrei Soldatov

Co-author, "The Red Web"

“Russian information operations were not really about trying to convince everybody of an alternative story, but it was about throwing up so many multiple possibilities that you confuse everyone...”

Celeste Wallander

Obama administration, 2009-17

“No one really saw that, no one. Not the FBI, not the NSA, not the CIA in early 2016 saw that Russia was about to launch the most brazen influence operation campaign in U.S. history.”

Ellen Nakashima

The Washington Post

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