The Trump administration’s most disturbing trait

A case in point is press secretary Sean Spicer’s continuing refusal to confirm that Trump campaign officials were in touch with Russian diplomats and other Russians before the election, despite persuasive reports based on law enforcement and intelligence agency intercepts — and the Russians’ own confirmation.

.. Some of the best analysis I received in the late 1980s on the impending collapse of the Soviet empire came from a KGB agent and from an East German intelligence officer, both of whom could see the internal rot spreading rapidly.

.. They have incubated suspicion that Trump’s business interests depend on foreign financing that has given the Russians leverage over this president.

.. Spicer has now been caught in so many bare-faced falsehoods that a Nixon-era saying has become current again: He lies not just because it is in his interests but because it is in his nature.

John Podesta: Trump’s dangerous strategy to undermine reality

President Trump’s fake-news pivot isn’t subtle. First he benefited from fake news stories during the campaign; then as president-elect and now president, he has constantly used the epithet against mainstream media outlets that dare criticize him.

.. Any negative polls, he has proclaimed, are “fake news.” So are news stories that put him in a bad light — even if they are corroborated by Trump’s own officials

.. What’s happening here is more than the simple continuation of Trump’s well-documented tendency as a candidate to lie flagrantly and refuse to back down. It is more than his narcissistic incapacity to receive bad news.

.. He seeks nothing less than to undermine the public’s belief that any news can be trusted, that any news is true, that there is any fixed reality.

.. He is emulating the successful strategy of Vladimir Putin.
.. “the Kremlin has finally mastered the art of fusing reality TV and authoritarianism to keep the great, 140-million-strong population entertained, distracted, constantly exposed to geopolitical nightmares, which if repeated enough times can become infectious.”
.. Russians hear something on TV and assume it’s a lie. That attitude of reflexive cynicism makes it impossible to know the death toll from an industrial accident or a terrorist incident, or the risk to their kids of drinking the water, or even the results of the last election. It ruins everything.
.. He’s telling us we are being lied to all the time. That has a corrosive effect, deepening public distrust of the media and other institutions at a time when they already enjoy historically low levels of confidence.

Behind Russia’s Cyber Strategy

A 2013 article by Russian Gen. Valery Gerasimov emphasized importance of cyberwarfare

 .. Russia’s military laid out what is now seen as a blueprint for cyberwarfare with a 2013 article in a professional journal by Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s General Staff.Cyberspace, wrote Gen. Gerasimov, “opens wide asymmetrical possibilities for reducing the fighting potential of the enemy.”

.. In the 2013 article, Gen. Gerasimov elaborated on the Russian military’s desire to hone its hacking skills as an extension of conventional warfare and political conflict.

.. In Washington’s defense and national security circles, Russia’s use of masked invasions on the ground and difficult-to-attribute attacks in cyberspace have become examples of what is now known as the “Gerasimov doctrine,” in reference to the 2013 article.

.. “He talks about what he calls fighting a war without fighting a war—use of information, social media, disinformation, deception,” Gen. Neller said.

.. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said security services had detected 6,500 attempted cyberattacks on government agencies and state information resources in the past two months.

.. “Ukraine is the perfect sandpit for this as it is complex enough to test it out but it’s not NATO and can’t really fight back,”

.. Russia denied official connection to the well-armed and well-trained military professionals who took over key government installations on the Black Sea peninsula before acknowledging the “little green men” were actually Russian special-operations troops.

Top U.S. Military Commander to Meet Russian Counterpart

U.S.-Russia meeting in Azerbaijan will mark first such face-to-face since in 2014

The meeting between Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Russian Gen. Valery Gerasimov

.. senior military officials at the Pentagon are pushing to elevate communication and coordination between the two militaries. Under a Pentagon proposal, three-star generals at the Pentagon would routinely discuss operations over Syria with Russian counterparts.

.. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has expressed a harder line on Russia than other members of the Trump administration. During his confirmation hearing last month, Mr. Mattis said the U.S. must recognize that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is trying to break the North Atlantic alliance.” He classified Russia among the principal threats to the U.S.

.. During a congressional hearing last September, he classified Russia as potentially the most significant threat to U.S. national interests and said the American military had no intention of sharing intelligence with Russian counterparts.

.. “I believe that we should maintain military-to-military communications and relationships in the worst of times,” Gen. Dunford said early last year. “We did it throughout the Cold War, and we should do it now.”
.. Gen. Gerasimov is a figure who looms large in Washington. His 2013 article in a professional Russian military journal is widely viewed in Washington as the blueprint for Russian hybrid and information warfare initiatives—sometimes referred to as the Gerasimov doctrine.
.. The meeting also comes amid accusations that Russia is violating a Cold War-era pact, known as the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF Treaty, which bans Washington and Moscow from producing, maintaining or testing medium-range missiles.