Filip Kovacevic

What is Russian "hybrid war" or gray-zone warfare. It is often misunderstood. I have written here, in my book out with Naval Institute Press, and in journal articles about this topic. My latest piece was published by @USNIBooks PROCEEDINGS journal this week. I hope you enjoy and it helps foster discussion on this critical issue. Welcome your feeback in the comments, and I highlighted some key excerpts below. 🎬Also: I am on the PBS program Story in the Public Square” with Jim Ludes this week. Please set your DVR to hear us discuss Russian intelligence tradecraft, and how it affects the American public. 👉Will post a link to YouTube next week too, but for those who have PBS, please tune in and tape on! 🚨On Russian hybrid war (From my Proceedings article): 👉 These aren’t desperate improvisations…from the front lines in Ukraine to capitals across Europe—they are the predictable expression of Russian intelligence service doctrine. 🚨Old Methods with New Tools: Russian hybrid war has evolved steadily over the past 30 years. It is often described in Moscow as “non-contact” or “new generation” warfare. 👉The current wave of sabotage and covert influence operations is not episodic; it is strategic. 🚨For the Kremlin, hybrid war rests on the conviction that the Russian intelligence services (RIS) and proxies allow Moscow to project power without triggering a conventional military response. Intelligence operations become an extension of politics by other means, in line with Carl von Clausewitz’s famous dictum. 👉This approach has deep roots in Soviet intelligence practices but has been adapted for the digital age. Now cyber tools, disinformation, and covert financing amplify the reach of traditional espionage. ✅There are three main aspects of Russian hybrid warfare: 1) First, the Kremlin’s hybrid war is a natural outflow of the strengthening of the RIS. Over 25 years, these entities grew strong enough that they now play a significant role in national decision-making--they make policy. 2) Active measures are a constant tool of malign influence used to disrupt public opinion in countries around the world, and to attack institutions and politicians not favorable to Russia. 👉Putin cannot tolerate functioning democracies, especially in Russia’s near abroad, as they pose a direct threat to his rule. ☢️The aim is to get Russia’s adversaries to play the role of “useful idiots,” to use Lenin’s old phrase, effectively doing Russia’s bidding for it; perception is a weapon system. 3) Finally, Moscow is engaged in what analysts describe as a war without end: a continual series of second fronts with hybrid warfare that stretch adversaries thin, blur the line between war and peace. 🚨Hybrid war thrives in the shadows between war and peace, civilian and military, information and firepower. Will the West understand before its effects become irreversible? 👉Link to Proceedings—thank you to Bill Hamblet and team for publishing this ARTICLE: usni.org/magazines/proc… 👉and LINK to my book out with Naval Press last week, still #1 in its genre on Amazon: a.co/d/0hvP1qnD #Russia #HybridWar #CognitiveWarfare #UkraineWar #Espionage

🎉BOOK Publication Day!! My book: Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks, Russian Intelligence and Putin's Secret War -launches officially today, "pub day"! 🎬Below is a really well-done promotional TRAILER and clip...all credit to @USNIBooks, and their promotional team. Please take couple mins to watch it, you'll enjoy it I promise! It is well done not just because it is good short movie making, but because it gives the nuances of our profession in the fine details, and from my book... For example: 👉Russian intelligence officers working for us still retain great PRIDE in the successes and accomplishments of their services, even after making the decision to work for us. You see that reflected in the clip... They detest the corruption--I talk about that at length in the book and as a motivation for espionage by Russians, and not just Russians. But they still retain their pride and why shouldn't they...as I mention in the book, they never give up on Mother Russia. That is the hint of pride and reflection you see in the agent in the clip. And the debriefer in the clip ...there is a professionalism between and among handler and agent, and with us, even as they/we spar over the history. I have been there many times with Russian intelligence officers... So have many of my colleagues across the IC with agents, defectors, Russians who became our citizens. 👉All the Russian cases and spies featured by name or in the snippets in the trailer (Rudolph Abel up front, Tolkechev, or the others in pictures, like the Russian "Ghost Stories" Illegals of Anna Chapman, Heathfield, Foley, etc. pictured at the end)...these are ALL cases discussed in my book and its chapters. 🚨Russian agents said to me many times---this is a war, a secret war, declared by Putin against the West a long time ago. We just haven't been aware of it as societies. We are their "main enemy"-their term for the United States, always will be... And as the Russian in the clip says in Russian at the end...well, I don't want to spoil it! Listen to the clip and if you don't speak Russian, I included in comments what he says... Thank you for watching and for supporting the book and its MISSION to counter Russian intelligence operations, sabotage, and espionage! The Book is out...TODAY!! ✅Link to Order: a.co/d/0fZndXja #RussianIntelligence #RussianWar #HybridWar #Ukraine #UkraineWar #Espionage #Intelligence #KGB #SVR #GRU #FSB #SpecialOperations