Since then, in reaction to what they saw as NATO expansion into their sphere of influence, the Russians have pushed back hard, systematically trying to weaken the institutions that could hold constrain them, or prevent them from annexing parts of neighbouring countries. This strategy-using information warfare to weaken a foreign society-were first outlined by Russian general Valery Gerasimov in 2013, after he observed the impact of social media campaigns in the Eastern European “colour revolutions” and Arab Spring uprisings and urged Russia to engage in similar campaigns: “The role of nonmilitary means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown, and, in many cases, they have exceeded the power of force of weapons in their effectiveness.” After 17 students were shot to death in Parkland, for example, Russian-linked accounts spread messages designed to intensify the divide between supporters and opponents of gun control. This online army of Russian trolls and bots is engaged in a permanent campaign to sow division in the United States. Russia’s army of social media warriors, veterans now after their campaigns for Brexit and Trump, started to ridicule those blaming Russia. Jealous Westerners were conspiring to ruin Russia’s World Cup. Meanwhile, Russian TV warned that double agents shouldn’t expect to live long, but also offered unlikely alternative explanations about what made the Skripals ill. The Russian embassy in London responded with jokes, demands for a joint investigation and threats. May demanded that Russia explain how its nerve agent was used in an attack on British soil. It looks like the Russians used Novichok because they want the British to know they did this, and they want to sent a nasty message to anyone who might defy Putin: you will pay. Dozens of Britons were hospitalized after coming in contact with the scene, and a police officer remains in serious condition. Tests showed they had been exposed to Novichok, an extravagantly dangerous nerve agent invented by Russia, which is the only country known to have produced it. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found comatose on a park bench. On Thursday, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office he managed this much: “It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it.”īut you don’t need to see the secret intelligence reports circulated among world leaders to get the message. READ MORE: Russia is a mess but it’s still playing the West “We’re speaking with Theresa May today and, as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be.” Trump, Tillerson, Theresa May, Justin Trudeau and Angela Merkel would all have access to the same intelligence reports, which must show that Russia is behind the attack, and all but Trump came to the same conclusion.Īfter everyone else had concluded the Russians were behind the attack, Trump was still talking as if it might be someone else. It seemed clear that Trump would have to echo Tillerson’s comments or be radically out of step with the western consensus on standing up to Russian aggression that NATO members have shared since the beginning of the Cold War. Tillerson, himself a recipient of the Russia’s Order of Friendship from Putin, was fired the day after he denounced Russia for the attempted assassination of a former double agent in Britain with nerve gas, promised solidarity with Britain and vowed there would be consequences. We can’t know whether Putin has, as reported in the Steele dossier, disgusting kompromat that could bring Trump low, or whether Trump has compelling business or political reasons to make him dance to the tune played by the vicious assassin in charge of Russia, but if there was any real doubt about the relationship, Tillerson’s firing removes it. Donald Trump’s sudden Twitter firing of Rex Tillerson on Tuesday is the moment that it became impossible to maintain the fiction that Trump is not in some way in league with Vladimir Putin.
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