For Putin, Disinformation Is Power
While most Americans saw the end of the Cold War as a triumph over the Soviet Union, most Russians saw it as a victory of their own common sense over a senile and inept regime that had run out of money and ideas and had lost its appetite for repression.
After Mikhail Gorbachev opened up the Soviet media, the contrast between socialist and capitalist economic systems had become too apparent.
.. Then came an American mistake: triumphalism, rather than congratulating the Russian people on their victory over authoritarian rule, and using a short window of opportunity to offer Russia sufficient economic aid to ease the pain of a collapsing economy.
.. Every time Russia attacks a former Soviet republic, the confrontation is portrayed as a proxy war started by America against Russia.
.. Now Mr. Putin, who is known to bear grudges, appears to be disrupting Mrs. Clinton’s own presidential campaign with “active measures.”
.. Mr. Putin has long dreamed of a new Yalta-style agreement to let Russia and America divide Europe again.
.. An angry and declining Russia is far more perilous than an ascending economic power like China.