What is a Hybrid War and why is Putin so angry with Ned Flanders
Firstly, hybrid warfare is a military strategy first proposed by Frank Hoffman in his 2007 book, Conflict in the 21st Century. It is a blend of primarily instigating political discourse within a region then using kinetic or military attacks to initiate the conflict.
So divide and conquer, a strategy as old as the bible just rebranded.
The Ned I refer to is not the Simpsons character but rather the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). This is an NGO in the US that’s directives promote democratic institutions such as political groups, trade unions , free markets and all the stuff that makes the free world free.
Sounds altruistic however Putin and many others are convinced it is the CIA.
Perhaps not an unsubstantiated claim.
It’s founder, Carl Gershman, in 1986 stated that the group was created because “it would be a terrible idea for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidised by the CIA”
Years later in 1991, NED president Allen Weinstein said "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."
Claiming that operating overtly through NED rather than covertly through the CIA made the risk of blowback “close to zero”
In the year prior to the current instability in Kazakhstan, NED spent over $1m funding and training anti-government protestors.
I don’t really believe it is a front for the CIA but rather a subdivision of it. After all, regime change is not part of usual foreign policy agenda’s. Overtly that is.
Putin see’s this as part of the hybrid war. As applied in Ukraine, Syria, Belarus and other former soviet states or allies.
In all fairness, revolutions do occur in countries where these NGO’ are active.
Kazakhstan being the latest example.
Enter the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) which is the Russian led equivalent of NATO. This is the legitimacy Putin is using to enter the areas militarily.
After all the supreme leader of Kazakhstan requested CSTO support claiming his nation was under attack.
Russian forces are deployed alongside Belarus and Armenian troops allowing Kazakh forces to focus on anti terrorism operations. Turns out Putin’s Chechen brigade may be too vicious a dog for this fight.
Now that the Kazakh protestors know that Russian forces are operating within their borders I imagine the discourse will be quelled for now.
Moscow’s greatest fear is a repeat of the Ukrainian revolution in the Red Square. The more it appears the West is pursuing revolutions in former Soviet republics the more aggressive Russia gets.
Russia's Foreign Ministry stated. “the situation in Kazakhstan is an attempt to undermine the security and integrity of the state by force, using trained and organized armed formations, that is inspired from the outside."
So all this is a little bit of background information for you if you live in western Europe and were curious why your home energy prices were so high, and rising.
