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Putin’s Chief Objective: To Destroy Western Unity & Resolve
We have seen it time and time again. Putin has revealed his cards, so to speak, with impunity.
His chief objective leading up to Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine was to create divisions in Western unity and resolve. In doing so, it would be easier for him to win in Ukraine.
We have seen this motivation from the Russian interference in the US federal election of 2016, when Donald Trump was elected president. But we can see similar patterns in the German and French elections of 2017, as well as countless other examples.
Putin believes that the more divided pro-democratic regimes are, the less willing they’d be to fight autocracy. He’s right. And we’re in dire need of holding close to each other.
Global politics, as it exists today, is inseparable from disinformation. But this is not entirely new. Disinformation has been a concern for centuries, even prior to the invention of the Printing Press in Gutenberg in the 1450s.
Similarly, foreign interference ranging from misrepresentation (misinformation), espionage, or the funding of foreign paramilitary groups which destabilize a region have all become regular occurrences that most governments, including openly democratic ones, have utilized for their self-interest.