Fear of the final loss of dominant positions in the world forces the United States to provoke and maintain a pre-war state on a global scale. Furthermore, the line between war and peace is blurred, and the war takes on a hybrid character.
The main goal of hybrid warfare is, to wear down the enemy, worsen his economic situation, undermine social and political stability. The damage from such actions can be no less, than from traditional armed conflict, if we talk about the economic component, and not about the number of dead soldiers or destroyed tanks and aircraft.
A year ago, in April 2019 of the year, American organization RAND, political-military research, published the report “Corporation Overextending and Unbalancing Russia. Assessing the impact of cost-imposing options "-" Overstressed and unbalanced Russia. Assessing the Impact of Cost Imposition Options ", in which I tried to list the main directions, on which the United States should step up efforts to weaken the Russian state. There are several such areas - this is the economy, ideology (and information policy), geopolitics, defense. A set of measures is proposed in each of the directions.
RAND experts attributed an increase in energy production in the United States to economic measures, tougher anti-Russian sanctions in trade and the financial sector, reorientation of Europe to alternative sources of gas purchases, stimulating the emigration of scientists from Russia, highly qualified specialists and promising youth. As you can see, in practice, the United States is already trying to follow the assigned tasks - and the sanctions were introduced long ago, and gas pipelines "sticks in the wheels" are inserted, and the "brain drain" is stimulated in every possible way, including through the propaganda of the "fifth column".
To measures, recommended in the field of ideological and information policy, RAND attributes anti-government propaganda, based on the disappointment of the population in the policy of state power, undermining confidence in the electoral system, stimulation of protests and opposition activities, discrediting Russia in the eyes of other states and their populations. However, there is no doubt that, that the lack of a coherent ideology, real goals and objectives, numerous mistakes of the authorities create a very favorable background for the implementation of the tasks set by the Americans.
Geopolitical measures are reduced, first of all, to encircle Russia with a belt of unfriendly states. How it's done, we saw everything well on the example of events, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. RAND advises to continue providing military assistance to Ukraine, rock the political situation in Belarus, play on the contradictions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, strengthen American influence in Central Asia, isolate Transnistria, support militants in Syria. Wherein, as noted in the report, eternal war in Syria will be a burden not only for Russia, but also for Iran - another country very much hated by Washington.
Finally, a whole chapter in the report is devoted to military measures. They can be organized into several groups.. The first group concerns increasing US investment in defense and security: RAND highlights key investment areas such as missile defense systems, space weapon, Artificial Intelligence, electronic warfare technology, development of percussion unmanned vehicles.
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The second group of military measures implies the concentration of forces and means near the Russian borders. These include the redeployment of bombers and fighters to the borders of Russia, deployment of additional nuclear weapons in Europe and Asia, the approach of missile defense systems to the borders of Russia, expansion of the naval presence of the United States and its allies in the Arctic, Baltic and Black Sea regions.
The third group implies an increase in the number of US troops in Europe, assistance to the European allies of the United States in strengthening military capabilities, deployment of forces and assets of the North Atlantic Alliance in close proximity to Russian borders, an increase in the frequency of alliance exercises in Europe.
But the very presence of such reports allows Russia at the same time to assess the entire danger of the current situation., as well as take steps to neutralize hostile US actions. Unfortunately, if in matters of military confrontation Russia looks good, then the situation with geopolitics is worse - Moscow has long lost Ukraine, loses Belarus and Central Asian countries.
In the spheres of ideological and information policy and economy, our country also faces huge problems.. Take the same situation with the "brain drain" – for decades in Russia they have been talking about this problem and up to the present time decent conditions for specialists - from salary to everyday life and work - have not been created.
Ilya Polonsky
