The story of how Russia won the (First) Russo-American Cyberwar because American President Barack Obama did not fight back and failed to protect America’s democracy from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s well-orchestrated, wide-ranging cyberassault, part of Russia’s wider war on Western democracy
By Brian E. Frydenborg December 7th, 2016 (a condensed, edited version of this article is featured on War Is Boring)
Reuters
AMMAN — ...
New threads in the Team Trump/Team Putin tangled web show Manafort and Page linked to each other as part of a Russian plot to control Ukraine and also show a mutual Russian mafia godfather linking them with each other and Trump, providing even deeper and more fertile ground on which to ...
... went back on pledges to increase ties to the EU, culminating with Yanukovych fleeing the country with Russian help and a new, more pro-Western government being formed. In response, Yanukovych, in exile in Russia and facing charges in Ukraine, requested Putin intervene militarily in Ukraine. Russia soon invaded, annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region and directly and indirectly assisting separatist rebels in eastern parts of Ukraine, where a state of civil war still exists today.
None of the above lines up with Manafort’s terse explanations and contentions that he was working ...
... primarily, in material terms — while popular support for the move is less than evident. In essence, a repetition of the Crimean scenario is possible, but unlikely.
The most likely outcome is far-reaching regional autonomy, perhaps in the context ... ... part of Eastern Ukraine by Russia would be a disaster. But federalisation could be no less: if such a federation is as loose as Putin wants it to be, and a number of regions are controlled by Russian puppets, it will not only amount to the ‘finlandisation’ ...
Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea has enraged the West. His lack of openness to any compromise has forced it to launch a — weak — sanctions regime. Putin finds this ‘unacceptable’ and threatens retaliation.
In yesterday’s speech — which many ...
... launch an agenda of economic reform and a fight against corruption, and set the country on the course of European integration. This would have proven Russia’s and his weakness. It could have had a spillover effect in Russia — a nightmare for Putin ever since Ukraine’s Orange revolution. By annexing Crimea, he shows that turning your back to Russia cannot go unpunished. He shows that Russia can still defend its interests in its ‘near abroad’.
Even if it is against all its interests.
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