Britain’s Secret War With Russia

At least the British understand the problem -Russia is not our friend.

This is a tour de force in reporting an Information Operation and how it shapes and sustains more decisive action, both offensively and defensively. It is a long article, but I recommend reading the whole thing, as it gives a lot of understanding on how Russia incorporates Maskirovka into everything it does. It also highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the Russian method of IO.

My analysis:

Russia carefully plans operations and integrates IO, Deception Operations, diplomatic efforts, and cyber support in order to achieve and sustain their aims. They have developed a robust infrastructure in order to affect this, and have a number of fully developed themes and messages available to deploy in planned drops as likely reactions to Russian initiatives develop. Hence things like disinformation "spamming" in order to see what sticks and then exploit. The Russians are exceedingly good at this.

However, it also exposes a profound weakness. Russia is adept at centrally planning and coordinating operations. But this central planning results in tactical paralysis as field leaders are strongly discouraged from employing initiative against opportunities and threats as they develop. In short, if it isn't in the plan, the Russians pause for consultations, allowing an agile adversary to seize the initiative and put the Russians on the defensive. Typically, the Russians will turtle up in this situation, deny, keep silent, and maybe throw a distraction in to get their adversaries to chase a squirrel. Occasionally, they will get aggressive such as this field operation to launch a cyberattack on a closed system.

On the open web, Russia is a superpower in IO and cyber, and the west is far behind. In the world of actual human terrain and operational agility, Russia still lags and is vulnerable.
The key takeaway is that Russia is a profound threat in this regard, but one that was weaknesses that makes it vulnerable to a counterpunch. We need to learn how to get the Russian people into the fight, so they have to concern themselves with their own backyard, not just ours.

Great read and how little I knew.