Putin steals the CIA’s playbook

by confuzzled dude Tue Apr 08, 2014 9:28 pm

"The West has made NATO’s military alliance the heart of its response to Russia’s power grab in Ukraine. But we may be fighting the wrong battle: The weapons Russian President Vladimir Putin has used in Crimea and eastern Ukraine look more like paramilitary “covert action” than conventional military force.

Putin, the former KGB officer, may in fact be taking a page out of the United States’ playbook during the Ronald Reagan presidency, when the Soviet empire began to unravel thanks to a relentless U.S. covert-action campaign. Rather than confront Moscow head-on, Reagan nibbled at the edges, by supporting movements that destabilized Russian power in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Angola and, finally, Poland and eastern Europe.

It was a clever American strategy back then, pushing a wounded Soviet Union and opportunistically exploiting local grievances wherever possible. And it’s an equally clever Russian approach now, offering maximum gain at minimum potential cost.

The parallel was drawn for me this week by John Maguire, a former CIA paramilitary covert-action officer, who served in the contras program in Nicaragua and later in the Middle East. “At the end of the day, Putin is a case officer,” says Maguire. “He watched what we did in the 1980s, and now he’s playing it back against us.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-putin-steals-from-the-cias-playbook-with-anti-soviet-covert-operations/2014/04/08/2fd4f73a-bf57-11e3-b195-dd0c1174052c_story.html?hpid=z5

by Kris Tue Apr 08, 2014 10:44 pm

confuzzled dude wrote:"The West has made NATO’s military alliance the heart of its response to Russia’s power grab in Ukraine. But we may be fighting the wrong battle: The weapons Russian President Vladimir Putin has used in Crimea and eastern Ukraine look more like paramilitary “covert action” than conventional military force.

Putin, the former KGB officer, may in fact be taking a page out of the United States’ playbook during the Ronald Reagan presidency, when the Soviet empire began to unravel thanks to a relentless U.S. covert-action campaign. Rather than confront Moscow head-on, Reagan nibbled at the edges, by supporting movements that destabilized Russian power in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Angola and, finally, Poland and eastern Europe.

It was a clever American strategy back then, pushing a wounded Soviet Union and opportunistically exploiting local grievances wherever possible. And it’s an equally clever Russian approach now, offering maximum gain at minimum potential cost.

The parallel was drawn for me this week by John Maguire, a former CIA paramilitary covert-action officer, who served in the contras program in Nicaragua and later in the Middle East. “At the end of the day, Putin is a case officer,” says Maguire. “He watched what we did in the 1980s, and now he’s playing it back against us.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-putin-steals-from-the-cias-playbook-with-anti-soviet-covert-operations/2014/04/08/2fd4f73a-bf57-11e3-b195-dd0c1174052c_story.html?hpid=z5

>>>I think Putin is capable of conjuring up these tactics on his own. This guy must be a consummate chess player.

Putin steals the CIA’s playbook

Putin steals the CIA’s playbook

Re: Putin steals the CIA’s playbook