... many segments of American society to his ends without their knowledge that it was a masterful orchestral performance and that Putin was a legendary conductor. This (First) Russo-American Cyberwar will be studied for generations, for centuries, as a brilliant ... ... without actually firing a single shot but by turning that nation’s strengths against itself.
This is part of a larger Russian war against the West that is becoming increasingly brazen: until this year, Syria and Ukraine were the most glaring centerpieces in Russia’s disinformation campaigns; then, Russian disinformation caused a faux ...
... Firtash, and Manafort: faced with his whole house of cards collapsing in on itself in the face of popular resistance, and with a government hostile to him and his intentions once again in place after a decade of effort designed to restore and maintain Russian hegemony over Ukraine, Putin went to Plan B: the dismemberment of Ukraine and war.
Which is exactly where the situation is today (and, of course, gas is in the middle of the conflict).
Criminal Scheme #3: Trump Manhattan SoHo Deal
At the same time this was all going ...
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Concurrent with much of his work for Yanukovych, Manafort also linked up closely with Ukranian power-broker Dmitry Firtash, who worked closely with Seymon Mogilevich, a godfather of the Russian Mafia. But, even more importantly, Firtash was one of Putin’s top agents in Ukraine: Russia’s state-owned gas giant, Gazprom, would sell Firtash huge amounts of gas at a discounted rate, who would then sell that gas to Ukraine for a sizable profit, profit that Firtash funneled to pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, including—yes—Yanukovych....
... coming up from the Caucuses, there are still some alive who remember the Nazi assault that very much came through the plains of Ukraine. It is not a mistake that Putin chose to highlight a real but tiny fringe neo-Nazi movement that forms a significant part of Svoboda, one small, far-right Ukrainian political party, when he was framing Russian involvement there. These are very real fears among Russians even if the threat—a Nazi Ukraine engaging in mass killing ...
... senior editor of The Economist. He was the weekly’s Moscow bureau chief between 1998 and 2002, later serving as its Central and East European correspondent. Lucas is author of three books: Deception, on Russia-West espionage, The New Cold War, on Putin’s Russia and the threat it poses to the West, and The Snowden Operation. He is a non-resident fellow at the Washington think-tank CEPA.
Assessing the consequences of the Ukraine crisis for the wider world, commentators’ concerns are manifold. National sovereignty, international law and norms, the European security architecture, dividing lines and polarity within Europe, to mention but a few key concepts. What do ...
... in, and control of, Ukraine a hard security threat and feel they could be next on the list — unsurprisingly, as some United Russia MPs now want to prosecute Gorbachev for letting them secede from the Soviet Union. Finally, Europe needs not only Ukraine; it would like to work with Russia, too. But Putin’s uncompromising, expansive power politics will lose him all trust, indispensable for any cooperation.
America will suffer, because, despite sustained efforts to forge a partnership with Russia, it will have to fight against it once again....
... America’s ‘reset’ and Europe’s partnership ambitions. They have to put on the boxing gloves; they can knock Russia out in the first round. It will not be painless, but it will be worth it.
Because, even if the Ukrainian conflict is ... ... Central Europe. The Crimean adventure, seasoned with a large amount of the usual disinformation, has occasioned a huge rise in Putin’s popularity — much like the last time in Georgia. He now has the recipe.
But the situation in Ukraine is bound to escalate. It will not come to a Cold War — but it looks like Putin is dead set on testing the limits....
... little doubt this is going to happen swiftly. Any different reaction to yesterday’s clear, if unfair, results, will seem much too cynical even to Russians, who now — thanks to the lies seen on television —overwhelmingly believe that Putin is fighting to save Russian-speakers in Ukraine, put in real danger by the ‘fascists in Kiev’. The accession has, of course, been planned by the Kremlin — but it is hard to comprehend why.
From the beginning, Russia’s primary interest has been to maintain the ability ...
