Hot Type: A Useful Guide to Russia's Hybrid War Against the West

American political columnist Heidi Siegmund Cuda offers a warning to Europeans not to follow the US in falling prey to Russian sabotage of their democracies

Photo: Heidi Siegmund Cuda

Don’t be like America. Don’t lose your democracy, because you’re too blind to see you’re in a war.

And the thing is, it’s not like independent investigative reporters didn’t tell Americans, we handed them the evidence, it was right before their eyes. Now, each day is loaded with painful regret, as even Republicans are increasingly aware they voted for Moscow’s man.

As a magazine cover of Trump plastered on a Paris storefront noted:

L’homme de Moscou (The man from Moscow)

Poutine et Trump, l’alliance des prédateu (Putin and Trump, the alliance of predators)

Walking through the streets of Paris on a recent visit, I saw extreme leftist graffiti tagged all over the statue of the Place de la République and my first thought was, “Nice work, Vlad.”

We know that organic disputes in democratic nations are amplified by Russian disinformation and provocations. During France’s ‘yellow vests’ protests, British and US media outlets reported that Russian trolls were posting fake protest pictures and pushing disinformation in an attempt to stoke civil war.

We see the same plays over and over again and a world none the wiser.

But with European nations standing alone against an increasingly authoritarian world, it’s key that they recognize their communities are littered with Russia’s lies of war:

• Disinformation online and spread by paid hacks

• Land and sea sabotage events

• Protest provocations where both sides are funded by the Kremlin

• Long-term investment in political leaders – through money, ideology, compromise, ego (MICE)

• A steady river of Kremlin horseshit repeated by global influencers using repetition and frequency

• Fake videos of political leaders or events in advance of elections

• Fake movements that ensnare real people

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Acts of Provocation

As geopolitical analyst Dr. Michael MacKay told Byline Supplement: “Russians are not very imaginative. When they engage in hybrid warfare, their acts of provocation are variations of the ‘Mainila Incident’.