The Plot to Hack America

Now if this sounds familiar, it’s what Hitler did back in the ’30s… All the Germans that were… the ethnic Germans, the Germans by ancestry who were in places like Czechoslovakia and Romania and other places, Hitler kept saying they’re not being treated right. I must go and protect my people and that’s what’s gotten everybody so nervous.¹

Putin responded to these comments to French TV March 4, 2014, dripping with sexism and disdain he claimed her comments was not befitting a woman.

It’s better not to argue with women… But Ms. Clinton has never been too graceful in her statements. Still, we always met afterwards and had cordial conversations at various international events. I think even in this case we could reach an agreement. When people push boundaries too far, it’s not because they are strong but because they are weak. But maybe weakness is not the worst quality for a woman.²

Clinton was having none of it. She apparently had Putin’s number and understood what CNN Masha Gessen noted when she said “[Putin] sees himself as someone who doesn’t mince words and who gets into verbal fights, as well as knife fights. And in fact Russians see him like that.”³

So Clinton gave him a knife fight but using a verbal putdown that even Russian women could understand.

“He is very difficult to read personally,” she said. “He is always looking for advantage. So he will try to put you ill at ease. He will even throw an insult your way. He will look bored and dismissive. He’ll do all of that.”

“I have a lot of experience with people acting like that,” she said. “Go back to elementary school. I’ve seen all of that, so I’m not impressed by it.”⁴

Objective: Candidate Should Damage NATO Alliance and Push for its Realignment

Leon Arron, writing in Foreign Affairs, believes that the Putin Doctrine is to reestablish the Soviet state with modern Russian norms instead of communist doctrine.⁵ Aron believes that the Russian state after Putin’s election in 2000 has accepted the overarching goal of remaining a global superpower that will harness all aspects of military, political, and economic power to maintain hegemony and dominance in Eastern Europe.

Every six years Russia creates a strategy document to assess and guide its strategic policy. At the end of 2015 they submitted the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation until 2020. This document is multidimensional in that it reflects not only the risks Russia faces in defense, foreign affairs, and geopolitical challenges but also internal security, cultural, and economic risks. The first major takeaway was that above all, Russia views the United States and NATO as a threat to their global position.⁶

The security of Putin’s Russia is not just a matter of military prowess, it reflects on Putin himself and the position he sought to carve out in the post-Soviet world. Putin views Russia as a nation that must acquire and maintain a newfound respect from its opponents. National prestige and deep pride in the new Russian nation has been a consistent theme since he became President. Anything that challenges this is a security threat, be it loss of economic status, the impression that its defenses are weak, or that Russia is not in control of its own destiny.

If one watches how Putin has ruled since 2000, almost every move has been to gain international status and to impress Russia’s rising dominance upon the world. Anything that can be done to bolster that prestige is quickly adopted. Putin sought aggressiveness in foreign policy, economic negotiations, and military affairs, particularly if it helped the Russian public see Putin as steering the ship of state to its destined greatness.

When Russia flies relatively obsolete Tu-22m BACKFIRE jet bombers from its military base at Engels in Southern Russia to drop unguided gravity bombs indiscriminately on Aleppo, it meets the strategic goals of impressing its allies, adversaries, and the Russian people. Even if militarily such a strike mission has little to no effect on the war effort except killing innocent civilians, it looks good on Russia Television.