Hot Type: America, You Are Not Alone

In her latest exclusive Hot Type column, Heidi Siegmund Cuda documents Russia’s attacks on 22 countries to show that America is just another campaign for Moscow and Elon Musk is just another oligarch.

It’s rare for an independent woman reporter like me to be invited on high-profile radio shows to discuss my work. Generally, independent investigative reporters, who can freely speak to truth to power, are studiously ignored by colleagues in legacy media, whose normalizing and euphemisms cloaking the rise of fascism allowed a decapitation strike on America by an organized crime ring run out of Moscow.

That I am a repeat guest on The Thom Hartmann Program — America’s top progressive radio show — has helped propel my words out to his six million listeners, expanding my reach, for which I am truly grateful.

This week, the topic was what we can do to stop the fascist train heading toward America. Having just interviewed geopolitical analyst Dr. Michael MacKay, who has documented the war in Ukraine daily for a decade, I had some solid suggestions:

• President Biden should announce the United States supports the immediate admission of Ukraine to NATO.

• He should lift all restrictions on the use of weapons — allow the armed forces of Ukraine to defend their country from Russia’s invasion as they see fit.

• Declare the Russian Federation a terrorist state.

• Demand US enforcement agencies release the list of 600 US-based Russian propagandists being monitored by the Kremlin, as reported in the FBI’s ‘Doppelganger’ affidavit. They include: politicians, businessmen, reporters, comedians, academics, think tank analysts, military veterans, bloggers, and influencers.

• And critically, pressure Joe Biden to declare an information war.

MacKay explained America is just one of the countries targeted by Russian hybrid warfare to manipulate election outcomes, and the attacks follow a predictable pattern. MacKay, who has a doctorate in political philosophy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, has been engaged with Ukraine’s civil society since the renewal of independence, working as a university lecturer, the director of an Internet access project and an election observer. He has also been a pivotal source in multiple definitive reports for Byline such as our original Unmusked report and my first report on Russia’s full-scale invasion.

He wrote the following list, documenting examples of Russian violence and active measures in what he describes as the first decade of World War III:

• Chechnya: In two wars and invasions, Russia destroyed the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

• Moldova: Russia invaded in 1992; Russia put its puppet Vlad Dodon in power in 2016; Maia Sandu defeated the Russia faction in 2020 and 2024; "Transnistria" remains occupied by Russia

• Belarus: after a fraudulent election in 2020, Belarus under Alexander Lukashenka became a Russian puppet regime, part of the so-called "Union State of Russia and Belarus"

• Georgia: Russia invaded in the early 1990s, grabbing Abkhazia; Russia invaded in 2008, grabbing Tskhinvali region (so-called "South Ossetia"); the pro-Russia Georgian Dream party seized power after fraudulent elections – it is the faction of the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, a prominent member of the Putin-Kremlin crime syndicate

• Ukraine: Russia falsified the 2004 election to make Viktor Yanukovych appear to win – the Orange Revolutions forced a repeat run-off election; Yanukovych was finally put into power by Putin and Paul Manafort in 2010; the Revolution of Dignity of the Ukrainian people (November 2013-February 2014) led to Yanukovych fleeing Ukraine; on the same day Yanukovych fled – February 20th, 2014 – Russia invaded Ukraine

• United Kingdom: Russia illegally financed the "Vote Leave" campaign and tipped the Brexit referendum so the UK crashed out of the EU in 2016

• Netherlands: Russia sponsored the GeenPeil referendum against the EU and against Ukraine – the pro-Russian side won