“Only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage and such. The other 85% is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion or active measures [meaning] psychological warfare… What it basically means is to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that, despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.”
Yuri Bezemenov - regarding the subversion campaigns of the Soviet KGB (current FSB) within the U.S.
Thank you for adding this excellent quote from the Soviet era Active Measures realm. Ah, how little things change other than the names, Lately, Active Measures is the "Gerasimov Doctrine" although some other attempts have been attempted to find other labels. As you well understand, decades of Russian/ Soviet efforts have always been about exploiting social differences in the pursuit of the level of dysfunction, that undermines US and Western Liberal Democracy, the single biggest threat to Soviet of Russian Imperial objectives. As a common-sense Midwesterner, I just stick to the basics and call it, adversarial influence campaigns.
Now, with decades of assets, formal and otherwise within the US, financed by Russian and Western Oligarchs, there is a great deal of backing that is difficult to track, for those not well immersed in this field. In my professional opinion, this is the single biggest threat to our national security and compromises every single objective in our NSS/ National Security Strategy.
It is always a breath of fresh air for me, to see comments that understand this threat so well.
Thank you again and my best for your holiday season.
“Only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage and such. The other 85% is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion or active measures [meaning] psychological warfare… What it basically means is to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that, despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.”
Yuri Bezemenov - regarding the subversion campaigns of the Soviet KGB (current FSB) within the U.S.
EJ,
Thank you for adding this excellent quote from the Soviet era Active Measures realm. Ah, how little things change other than the names, Lately, Active Measures is the "Gerasimov Doctrine" although some other attempts have been attempted to find other labels. As you well understand, decades of Russian/ Soviet efforts have always been about exploiting social differences in the pursuit of the level of dysfunction, that undermines US and Western Liberal Democracy, the single biggest threat to Soviet of Russian Imperial objectives. As a common-sense Midwesterner, I just stick to the basics and call it, adversarial influence campaigns.
Now, with decades of assets, formal and otherwise within the US, financed by Russian and Western Oligarchs, there is a great deal of backing that is difficult to track, for those not well immersed in this field. In my professional opinion, this is the single biggest threat to our national security and compromises every single objective in our NSS/ National Security Strategy.
It is always a breath of fresh air for me, to see comments that understand this threat so well.
Thank you again and my best for your holiday season.