The Russia watchRussia targets U.S. “Achilles heel”; Putin's new 'doomsday' device; the Crimea model, and more

Published 16 March 2018

· Russians targeting the “Achilles heel” of critical Infrastructure

· Anatomy of an info-war: How Russia’s propaganda machine works, and how to counter it

· Little green men: the annexation of Crimea as an emblem of pro-Kremlin disinformation

· Putin’s pivot: 4 new features of Russian foreign policy

· Cold War tactics return to Britain

· Gavin Williamson was right to be paranoid about Russia

· The confusing timeline on Roger Stone’s communications with WikiLeaks

· Why Putin’s new ‘doomsday’ device is so much more deadly and horrific than a regular nuke

· Russia’s chemical romance: Don’t call it a WMD attack

· House Intel Committee screwed itself—and the president it’s trying to save

· More countries are learning from Russia’s cyber tactics

Russians targeting the “Achilles heel” of critical Infrastructure (Cipher Brief)
The Trump administration has accused Russia of a coordinated “multi-stage intrusion campaign” to hack into critical U.S. infrastructure networks and conduct “network reconnaissance” while attempting to delete evidence of their intrusions.  Homeland Security officials say they have helped the affected companies remove the Russian hackers from their compromised networks, but the Russians keep trying to hack into these critical systems.

Anatomy of an info-war: How Russia’s propaganda machine works, and how to counter it (StopFake.org)
Russia’s propaganda assault on the West is well-organized and well-funded. However, it is also predictable, and this is its weakness.

Little green men: the annexation of Crimea as an emblem of pro-Kremlin disinformation (EU vs Disinfo)
After Crimea, the world learned a new word of Russian origin, dezinformatsiya – in English: disinformation.

Putin’s pivot: 4 new features of Russian foreign policy (Daniel Treisman, Russia Matters)
Four years ago, Vladimir Putin shocked the world by sending troops to occupy Crimea and then annexing it to Russia. Was this an isolated aberration in Russian foreign policy, experts wondered, or a sign of things to come? Today, the answer is clear. While, of course, not everything has changed, the Crimean operation introduced a new style in Russia’s international behavior that has persisted. Four key features characterize the current approach: risk taking, neglect of exit strategies, outsourcing and saber rattling. Although this hardly sounds like a recipe for success, it has worked quite well—at least in the short run.

Cold War tactics return to Britain (Yasmeen Serhan, Defense One)
Spies, intrigue, and expulsions are back in a way not seen in decades.

Gavin Williamson was right to be paranoid about Russia (Ross Clark, Spectator)
In responding to the Salisbury attack, Theresa May was in little danger of over-reacting. Her challenge was more to come up with a response which would not have Vladimir Putin laughing. As soon as the nerve agent used against Sergei Skripal and his daughter was identified as Novichok – a chemical developed by the Russian military – it became clear that there was going to be no chance of fudging the issue – of doing what the Labour government did after the death of Andrei Litvinenko in 2006: calling an inquiry which concluded the Russian state was ‘probably’ to blame.

The confusing timeline on Roger Stone’s communications with WikiLeaks (Philip Bump, Washington Post)
On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported a new wrinkle in the murky overlap between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. Roger Stone, a confidant of Trump, told multiple people during the 2016 campaign that he had directly communicated with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks was the outlet that released thousands of documents believed to have been stolen by Russian actors from the Democratic National Committee and the email account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.

Why Putin’s new ‘doomsday’ device is so much more deadly and horrific than a regular nuke (Alex Lockie, Business Insider)
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a new nuclear weapon that demonstrates Russia’s apparent disregard for human life in human warfare. Most nuclear weapons use nuclear detonations in the air to put massive heat and pressure on targets. Russia’s new nuke weaponized radiation itself in a way that could leave massive swaths of Earth uninhabitable for the better part of a century.

Russia’s chemical romance: Don’t call it a WMD attack (A; Mauroni, War on the Rocks)
Retired Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury, England earlier this month. This is not the first time Russia has been accused of using unconventional means to try to kill off Russian expatriates residing in the United Kingdom. The use of chemical weapons by Russia to conduct a covert assassination within the United Kingdom is a criminal act, but not necessarily a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

House Intel Committee screwed itself—and the president it’s trying to save (Liz Mair, Daily Beast)
In shutting down the Russia probe in such an obviously hackish way, the House Intel Republicans only managed to ensure that if and when Adam Schiff takes over—look out.

More countries are learning from Russia’s cyber tactics (David Bond, Financial Times)
Nation states look to be growing more aggressive in their capabilities to disrupt