Russian hybrid warfare has become indistinguishable from politics

“The new [U.S.] National Security Strategy does not list Russia as an enemy or a target. Nevertheless, the NATO Secretary General is preparing for war with us. How does that make sense?” Russian President Vladimir Putin said, two hours into his Dec. 19 press conference at the Kremlin. 

Your answer to that question depends on which of two parallel realities you inhabit: one where Russia is a potential strategic partner of the United States, or one where it is a threat. The contest between those realities will play out on social media, in policy, and possibly through conflict.

The U.S. National Security Strategy, released in December, reads like a founding document of the first reality. It describes Russia as a potential business partner of the United States, no real threat to NATO, and barely a threat to Ukraine. It dismisses, even while acknowledging as a notion held by “many Europeans,” that Russia represents an “existential threat.”

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