Maskirovka

[skews13]

I first learned about Maskirovka from one of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels, Red Storm Rising. The novel was fiction, of course, but Maskirovka, literally, the art of deceptive military and political maneuver, is a very real threat to America by Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

RealClear Defense explained the peculiar importance of Mashkirovka in Russian military and political thinking like this —

While U.S. and NATO doctrine recognizes many enabling aspects and conditions to modern warfare, such as military deception (MILDEC), psychological operations (PO), electronic warfare (EW), information operations (IO), and unconventional warfare (UW), the truth is that the doctrine of Decisive Action and Combined Arms Maneuver rarely includes or provides instruction for other elements of combat power. Most leaders cannot tell you what information operations (IO) are, yet information and influence operations complement combined arms integration and remain an essential element of combat power in U.S. doctrine.

Russia, however, has a history of operating with a more complete inclusion of elements of political power and influence as well as Operational Art that ties combined arms to campaign objectives.

It is so important to Russian doctrine, they have used and continue to use the term, Maskirovka—the art of deception—to elevate the complete set of actions and conditions that fall short of war that enables battlefield victories to be decided before tanks and infantry close in battle.

It is Maskirovka, and the complementary technological changes to the character of warfare now and in the future, that make Russia the significant resurging threat to regional stability, NATO, and the U.S.

Some analysts speculate that Putin’s motivations for involving Russia with Trump and our elections reflect his desire to denigrate representative democracy and create the impression that our form of government is no better than his.

No doubt he’d like to drive wedges between Europe and America, and, especially, weaken NATO. But it is the nature of Mashkirovka that we usually can’t see where the edges are, or what is really happening. There are too many shiny distractions and fast moving objects for us to be able to recognize the reality in front of us, much less analyst or understand it.

The word, Maskirovka popped into my head when I learned that Senator Mark Warner, D-VA, today, told USA Today, based on classified briefings to the Senate Intelligence Committee, that whatever it is that Putin is doing to us, he didn’t quit just because Trump got elected. He said, “None of these actions from the Russians stopped on Election Day.”

Because this thing isn’t over, it’s more important than ever for Democrats to find better messaging on this Russia problem. A good place to start would be to begin calling things by their proper names. Putin is running a Maskirovka maneuver against American democracy.

We can know that’s what it is without knowing Putin’s motives or objectives. Let’s also be honest enough to admit that America is in a Cold War with Russia and, while we might not need to win such a thing, America had best not lose it.

Russia is a United States adversary. It is engaged in a hostile maneuver against our country. Many Republicans are aiding and abetting that Russian hostile maneuver against the USA. There is a word for that, too.



Let Us Give its Proper Name to What the Russians Are Doing: Maskirovka