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How a Russian operative used the American media to force a risible "peace deal" into existence
“He Must Have Got This From K.”
How a Russian operative used the American media to force a risible “peace deal” into existence
Michael Weiss
Concepts from Soviet military and intelligence doctrine have a bad habit of degenerating into American buzzwords, if not cliches, especially in the Age of Trump. Disinformation, which has a very specific meaning and is a powerful and relevant tool in the right hands, has, through overuse and politicization, come to mean in the popular American imagination something like, “News I don’t like” or “Facts inconvenient for ideologues on the other side.” Slightly less familiar, but still sometimes circulated by people who want to sound sophisticated when talking about foreign plots of deception or destabilization (which often include the use of disinformation) is the term active measures. Much less vogue is a concept Americans deserve to be more familiar with because they’re victims of it all the time: reflexive control. This is the psychological trick by which the Russians get their enemies to allow the Russians to do their thinking for them, at their own expense.
Reading the news in the last 48 hours is a very good example of this theory put into practice.
Axios’ Barak Ravid and Dave Lawler reported that the Trump administration was drafting a 28-point plan, modeled on its Gaza peace deal, to end the war in Ukraine. The plan, per the outlet, fell into four broad categories: “peace in Ukraine, security guarantees, security in Europe, and future U.S. relations with Russia and Ukraine.” The main drafter on the American side was Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy; while his counterpart on the Russian side was Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund and a hyperkinetic operative who seems to understand the American political and media establishment better than most Russians do.
Attributed to anonymous U.S. and Russian officials, the story quoted only one person on the record, who told Ravid and Lawler many things, including some that were demonstrably untrue. The Russian position, “is really being heard,” Dmitriev said, adding that what was up for discussion was “a much broader framework, basically saying, ‘How do we really bring, finally, lasting security to Europe, not just Ukraine.’” This proposal was taking place, Dmitriev noted, against the backdrop of recent Russian battlefield gains. He claimed to have worked out the preliminary details with Witkoff after three days “huddled” with the Bronx developer in Miami last month. (In reality, Dmitriev had only a few hours with Witkoff in Florida and left the United States rather ingloriously, having been denounced as an ignorable “propagandist” by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CBS’s Face the Nation.)
https://macspaunday.substack.com/p/he-got-this-from-k
How a Russian operative used the American media to force a risible “peace deal” into existence
Michael Weiss
Concepts from Soviet military and intelligence doctrine have a bad habit of degenerating into American buzzwords, if not cliches, especially in the Age of Trump. Disinformation, which has a very specific meaning and is a powerful and relevant tool in the right hands, has, through overuse and politicization, come to mean in the popular American imagination something like, “News I don’t like” or “Facts inconvenient for ideologues on the other side.” Slightly less familiar, but still sometimes circulated by people who want to sound sophisticated when talking about foreign plots of deception or destabilization (which often include the use of disinformation) is the term active measures. Much less vogue is a concept Americans deserve to be more familiar with because they’re victims of it all the time: reflexive control. This is the psychological trick by which the Russians get their enemies to allow the Russians to do their thinking for them, at their own expense.
Reading the news in the last 48 hours is a very good example of this theory put into practice.
Axios’ Barak Ravid and Dave Lawler reported that the Trump administration was drafting a 28-point plan, modeled on its Gaza peace deal, to end the war in Ukraine. The plan, per the outlet, fell into four broad categories: “peace in Ukraine, security guarantees, security in Europe, and future U.S. relations with Russia and Ukraine.” The main drafter on the American side was Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy; while his counterpart on the Russian side was Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund and a hyperkinetic operative who seems to understand the American political and media establishment better than most Russians do.
Attributed to anonymous U.S. and Russian officials, the story quoted only one person on the record, who told Ravid and Lawler many things, including some that were demonstrably untrue. The Russian position, “is really being heard,” Dmitriev said, adding that what was up for discussion was “a much broader framework, basically saying, ‘How do we really bring, finally, lasting security to Europe, not just Ukraine.’” This proposal was taking place, Dmitriev noted, against the backdrop of recent Russian battlefield gains. He claimed to have worked out the preliminary details with Witkoff after three days “huddled” with the Bronx developer in Miami last month. (In reality, Dmitriev had only a few hours with Witkoff in Florida and left the United States rather ingloriously, having been denounced as an ignorable “propagandist” by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CBS’s Face the Nation.)
https://macspaunday.substack.com/p/he-got-this-from-k
X-posted in Editorials & Other Articles - https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016418126
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