WE’RE NOT BEING OUTSMARTED; WE’RE BEING OUTPLAYED — THE SERIES
10 Strategies the Kremlin Utilizes to Destroy Democracy
The 2024 Election is Coming! Will You Vote For Democracy or Putin? Learn How You Can Tell the Difference!
Know Thy Enemy
To identify the root cause of a problem, it is beneficial to ask, “Who stands to gain the most from this?” By doing this, you can focus your efforts on the source of the problem and not waste time chasing your tail trying to fix it.
The surge of anti-democratic sentiment in the United States has direct links to Russia.
How Russia is “Destroying America Without Firing a Single Shot,” Making Americans Kill Americans, examine the forces behind the anti-democratic movement in America and how much Putin’s Fifth Column in Congress advanced his anti-democracy agenda.
Trumpism and Putinism are deliberate, orchestrated campaigns masterminded by a clique of powerful men and women, PR specialists, media professionals, and political strategists in Russia. They contrived a persona, a narrative, and a distorted history and are determined to use these methods with marketing and PR to undermine Democracy worldwide.
Putinism was created in Russia before there was Putin. Cécile Vaissié has published a series of essays, “They Made Putinism,” about the creation of the monster hell-bent on destroying Democracy.
They created Putin and Putinism and are the architects behind destroying Ukraine, anti-democracy, and media manipulation to help big oil destroy the planet. Notice the picture on the wall behind the group photo — he is a creation of a group of people, in a photo dated from 2000 — just after he assumed leadership in Russia.
Please don’t take my word for it; read it in Putin’s own words.
Putin:
You have succeeded in undermining and circumventing two institutional pillars of America: the Republican party and the electoral system. Going forward, I ask that you now concentrate on assisting the president to emasculate the norms of American political process, to slash and cut at the civility that must underlie a democracy to allow the democracy to function.
Your task is made easier by the prime impulse of Trump. The people of the United States are becoming accustomed to this man looking directly at a duck, then coming out to face the cameras and claiming he has just observed a dolphin — or a donkey. We must keep in mind that every Trump untruth helps spread a virus of vice across the United States. Every falsehood that originates in the temple of the White House represents another blow to American probity, a further defilement of the country’s civic culture, a deeper contamination of its public square.
All this in turn helps bury the idea of American exceptionalism among nations. Accordingly our resources must find means to feed and water his dolphins and donkeys. If there is no agreement on a foundation of facts within any organization, and particularly within an organization as large as the U.S. government, decision-making becomes random, indefinite, enfeebled. With weakened decision-making will come weaker resolve and less engagement in the world.
— President Vladimir Putin, Putin’s Secret Speech
You can read the speech in full in my article “Putin’s Weapons of Mass Deception: Killing Democracy in Plain Sight.”
“The opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Putin’s Recipe for Autocracy Soup
Putin has made his intentions to weaken America’s Democracy and Constitution clear, and he is utilizing multiple strategies to accomplish his goals.
These strategies involve distorting facts, subverting social organizations, and manipulating public opinion with help from within.
- Own The Narrative
- Infiltrate Organized Religion
- Discredit the Media
- Culture Wars and the Don’t Say Gay Laws
- Contaminate the Public Square
- Devalue Women
- Corrupt Elections
- Gun Violence
- Attack on Education
- Political Technologist
Putin has used the media and the Russian Orthodox Church to trick the people into believing they live in a theocracy. In reality, they have no democratic choice for representation. This illusion of Democracy is crafted and created by false religious beliefs spread by the Putin-controlled media.
The methods outlined below have been used in Turkey, Hungary, and other countries and have been effective in furthering the agenda of authoritarian governments. Governments in these countries have adopted strategies similar to those employed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, some through force or coercion, and are committed to furthering his political objectives.
Whoever controls the media, controls the mind. — Jim Morrison
Own the Narrative
In April, Fox News reached an agreement to pay $787 million to Dominion Voting to settle a lawsuit stemming from Fox News’s role in promoting the false claims Dominion Voting had been involved in election fraud. Source
Why is creating an alternate reality worth almost a billion dollars to an Australian media mogul?
Media Matters pointed out how Fox News “stoked the flames of the insurrection more than 800 times in the two weeks after they declared Biden the president-elect.
But his network played an enormous role in stoking the flames of the insurrection — in fact, the network questioned the results of the election or pushed conspiracy theories about it almost 800 times in the two-week period after Fox News declared Biden, the president-elect. Once January 6 was in the history books, the network downplayed its role and continued to host members of Congress who voted against certifying the election over 900 times in 2021. Source
“Owning the narrative” was done to achieve political gain. Even though this tactic caused more losses for the Republican Party than almost any other issue (second only to anti-abortion). Russia gained by making Americans doubt the health and stability of the Constitution, the electoral system, and the Republicans — precisely as he forewarned in his speech the morning after Trump’s inauguration.
When conservative leaders act as puppets for Fox News and propagate Kremlin-crafted deception, it harms the Republican party — which experienced crushing defeats in the last three consecutive elections as a result.
As with all mob bosses, once they trap you, they own you.
Due to their use of Dark Money and influence to achieve their objectives, Republicans have become pawns of the authoritarian kingpin who owns them. How lawmakers in Congress and the House obediently obey these strategies to demolish Democracy indicates who stands with Freedom and who stands with the Kremlin.
Perception versus reality — when perception is manipulated, reality follows, making it almost impossible to tell the two apart.
Sadly, only about 10% of the Nazis who worked at Auschwitz and committed some of history’s most heinous crimes were brought to justice.
We are providing this information so that you can be aware of the facts and make informed decisions about the type of world you want to create and the future you want to provide for your children.
Infiltrate Organized Religion
As a second target, Putin targeted the Russian Orthodox church.
“Kremlin interests are extended and legitimized through it [the Church].” (29). He recognized the church’s power to extend his power and legitimize his corrupt criminal leadership.
The Republican’s assault on the separation of Church and State in America directly reflects Putin’s raging success in corrupting the Russian Orthodox Church. It is mirrored in the grooming of Evangelicals while force-feeding them a daily diet of hate, disinformation, and lies via Fox News and their network of incel hate.
The separation of church and state was crafted to guard the state and defend the church’s sanctity. America was founded on the grounds of religious Freedom. Our founding fathers were aware of the risks of government-sanctioned religion and placed religious liberty at the core of American independence.
The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries. — James Madison
One of the secrets to Putin’s popularity has been his ability to exploit the strange mixture of pride and shame that many Russians carry inside them: pride for belonging to a unique civilization and shame for its lingering backwardness. As he turned Russia into a revanchist power, Putin compensated for the humiliation of corruption, poverty, and lack of economic opportunity with an aggressive foreign policy. He solidified his rule on the inferiority complex of an entire generation. Source
By exploiting the “mixture of (historical) pride and shame,” evangelical churches are established; Trump (following Putin’s lead) has effectively manipulated and financially supported his agenda, making it a highly successful effort.
This is Putinism’s personality cult. Putin has expertly exploited religion to maintain his influence, convincing the Republican base to support his damaging policies in the name of Jesus. This is a classic example of Putin’s self-serving cult of personality.
Jason Stanley of Yale University argued that Putin was “the leader of Russian Christian nationalism” and “has come to view himself as the global leader of Christian nationalism, and is increasingly regarded as such by Christian nationalists around the world.” Source
In America, the separation of church and state protects the state and the church.
For many reasons, this strategy is advantageous to the adversary — particularly given that Rupert Murdoch, CEO of Fox News, owns the exclusive legal rights to the bible (the KJV is the property of the Church of England) along with the vast majority of Christian publishing, Christian bookstores, newspapers, and hundreds of other enterprises propagating the White Nationalist message he consciously produces.
In July 2011, Murdoch faced allegations that his companies, including the News of the World, owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking the phones of celebrities, royalty, and public citizens. Murdoch faced police and government investigations into bribery and corruption by the British government and FBI investigations in the US.[9][10]
Rupert Murdoch was allowed to become a major media player in Russia through a political assassination of his competition early in Vladimir Putin’s reign. Putin was also in a relationship with Wendy Deng, Rupert Murdoch’s ex-wife and mother of two of his children.
Wendy Deng has also been rumored to be a Chinese spy, is a long-time friend of Ivanka Trump, and is rumored to be responsible for getting her and Jared back together during a rough patch in their marriage. Source
The point of all this information is to give a small glimpse behind the people pulling levers in the name of “Corporate Jesus.”
The good news is not all religions have been infiltrated.
According to Pew Research, the Black church remains strong with faith-based values, supporting Black parishioners. In contrast, White parishioners seem less devoted to the church and receive less support. In other words, the Black church has been able to resist the influence of White Nationalism and remain rooted in Christian principles.
Discredit the Media
There is a bigger problem of disinformation spreading through the news media, causing Americans to distrust their neighbors and trust Vladimir Putin; the nightly lies have caused a rupture in the heart of Americans, and the BIG LIE was just the beginning.
Without Fox News, Putin could not have caused the damage he did in the US. Putin uses Rupert Murdoch’s media corporation to spread false information and propaganda to influence US elections. Fox News has become a powerful tool for the Kremlin by amplifying its messages and influencing public opinion.
Vote Vets is working overtime to protect our military heroes from Fox News — a network that peddles Kremlin propaganda spreads disinformation, and champions lies.
Fox News and the Republican Party actively help Putin exploit the American people for his gain. Together, they disregard the sacrifices of our citizens and veterans who have fought to preserve the freedoms they are now recklessly jeopardizing.
Culture Wars and the Don’t Say Gay Laws
President Putin has fueled culture wars to draw a distinction between Russian ‘‘traditional values’’ and the purported decadence and corruption of the West. The results have been particularly acute in the state’s treatment of private and domestic life, including of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals and women. A series of anti-LGBT laws introduced at regional levels in Russia in 2003 and 2006 and at the federal level in 2013 essentially prohibit the public mention of homosexuality, including ‘‘promoting non-traditional sexual relationships among minors’’ and drawing a ‘’social equivalence between traditional and non-traditional sexual relationships.’’
These laws have created a manufactured enemy for the public to fear and concentrate on, masking the real purpose behind them, which is to conceal corporate and political corruption by the legislators — causing citizens to be suspicious of their fellow citizens and exposing them to the Russian-Republican’s government’s control.
The best way to get people to accept a corrupt government is to make them believe the form of government being offered is in their best interest. So making people feel White Nationalism/Christianity is the preferred type of governing promotes a fake inclusion that has them giving up their Constitutional rights to serve their religious purposes — thereby helping to destroy Democracy from within for “Corporate Jesus.”
“Corporate Jesus” represents the people who stand to gain the most from exploiting Christianity. Among them are Rupert Murdoch and Vladimir Putin.
Here in America, we recognize and celebrate the value of every person, regardless of their societal contributions. We understand the pain of history and honor the sacrifices of those who have fought to keep us free. Our strength comes from our belief in the individual’s worth, and our culture of Democracy is a testament to this.
Even though American democracy is far from perfect, we cannot fix it if we allow them to destroy it.
Contaminate the Public Square
From the outset, this was one of Putin’s most carefully crafted objectives. He understood that saturating America’s homes with Fox News propaganda was only a starting point.
He needed to reach the younger generations, and Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, his unserious attempt to run the company, and his amplification of Right-wing media promoting Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and Putin — have been essential in propagating and normalizing Putin’s lies.
Contaminating the public arena is also beneficial in many ways. It’s a known method of Putin’s and was written about in 2016 in The Firehose of Falsehoods. It leads to a distracted population and spreads disinformation quickly and easily.
Elon Musk’s control of Twitter has allowed lies and disinformation, making it impossible to hold anyone accountable. This has created distrust in traditional institutions and an increased reliance on unreliable news sources, making the public more vulnerable to manipulation.
Devalue Women
Anti-abortion, the war on Trans Rights, and LGBTQ Rights all attempt to keep women down and divide us from one another. It’s a power play meant to make men feel “superior” and to keep women in their place.
It reinforces gender roles and entrenched power structures while deepening the racial divide and limiting women’s access to reproductive health care, thus limiting their ability to control their bodies and compete in the workplace.
The politicization of traditional family values in Russia has also influenced the state’s policies regarding the treatment of Russian women. According to Russian government statistics from 2013, Russian women are victims of crime in the home at disproportionately high rates, while 97 percent of domestic violence cases do not reach court.9 Against this bleak backdrop, the parliamentarian who introduced the original 2013 gay propaganda law also introduced a law in 2017 dubbed the ‘’slapping law’’ to reduce punishments for spousal abuse to a misdemeanor and administrative offense. The law was adopted by a vote of 380 to 3 in the Duma and signed by President Putin in February 2017, decriminalizing a first instance of domestic violence if the victim is not seriously injured; some observers have noted its passage was hastened by support from the Russian Orthodox Church.
Putin uses the church to reduce women and empower the worst in men while lining his wealthy oligarchs’ bank accounts. He isn’t a leader; he’s a Russian crime boss who’s bullying the whole world with the help of his organization of criminals. (200)
All of this is done to promote the head of the global White Nationalist movement, the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
Fascism is a cult of the leader, who promises national restoration in the face of supposed humiliation by ethnic or religious minorities, liberals, feminists, immigrants, and homosexuals. The fascist leader claims the nation has been humiliated and its masculinity threatened by these forces. It must regain its former glory (and often its former territory) with violence. He offers himself as the only one who can restore it. Source
Trump, Trumpism, Putin, and Putinism are not lone wolves in their respective political battles. When the Nuremberg trials were held, only a tiny fraction of the Nazi regime faced punishment for their actions.
Both the Russians and the Republicans are gambling that they’ll be able to get away with their wrongdoings without facing any real consequences.
Corrupt Elections
There is no way Putin can remain in power unless he avoids legitimate Democracy. (197). The only way for Trump to regain control is to prevent legitimate Democracy.
Promoting an illegitimate democracy, a democracy in name only. There is overwhelming evidence Putin and the Republican Party orchestrated Donald Trump’s 2016 win for Russian purposes. We can’t let them destroy Democracy by continuing to corrupt our elections.
“Gentlemen, we have interfered, are interfering and will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do,” Prigozhin boasted in remarks posted on social media.-Yevgeny Prigozhin, Commander of the Wagner Group, the Russian paramilitary organization (Source)
The Republicans have made Putin the head of their party.
Election deniers are more than dangerous — they’re working to further an agenda of the enemy of Democracy.
Republicans cannot win elections when they promote unpopular agendas. They resorted to tactics such as gerrymandering, lying, and deceiving, but these will not succeed in a fair election. Consequently, they were easily persuaded by Putin to give up their loyalty to the US government in return for more power, which he also controls.
Marc Elias with Democracy Docket is a leader in fighting voter suppression and is an incredible resource to follow.
If we organize ourselves to fight voter suppression, we won’t have to try to organize voters to overcome it.
Americans are more intelligent than the Republicans are giving them credit for.
Gun violence
The gun industry isn’t interested in the safety of the American public, as a whopping 90% of us call for much-needed gun reform. Instead, they exploit Republican lawmakers’ financial goals to pass dangerous laws and serve Russian interests.
Russia knew the NRA was the perfect way to launder money, sow division, and leave Americans to play dodgeball with bullets. It’s disgusting that gun manufacturers flood our streets with weapons, hoping we never learn who’s behind them.
The NRA is a 501c(4) tax-exempt social welfare corporation.
The National Rifle Association is a “social welfare organization” in the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service. Its 501(c)(4) designation means the NRA can endorse political candidates, engage in unlimited lobbying and allow its donors to remain anonymous. It also means it’s exempt from federal income tax.
Gun violence in America is a tax-supported self-inflicted wound.
We can prevent gun violence by stopping lawmakers from profiting from the gun industry.
Attacks on Education
Attacks on education are probably the most anti-American pro-Russian tool used to undermine Democracy. Education allows us to become the most capable and authentic versions of ourselves, heal our wounds, and help others.
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength of the nation. — Nelson Mandela
It will ultimately be the education ministries, civil society, and independent news organizations that are most effective in inoculating their societies against fake news. (160)
It is directly reflected in the attacks on education that uneducated people are easier to manipulate, control, and exploit. For this reason, Donald Trump said early on in his presidency that he loved the “poorly educated.”
Whenever someone wants to hide information from you — run away!
Don’t give them a second chance, don’t ask why (the answer will be a lie), and do not assume it’s “only this one time” (it will always happen again and will become a pattern if you stick around to see it.
Education is power. Question everything and never let anyone limit your knowledge. Freedom is the hallmark of true faith, not control and manipulation.
We must be informed and able to stand up for our rights. Education is the key to unlocking knowledge; we can make informed decisions with wisdom. We must always strive for the truth and never be afraid to ask questions.
Political Technologist
It is using advanced technological means to promote a particular political agenda.
Political technologists are anything but mundane. They are specialists in manipulating the public through mass media, creating a narrative that is often false or distorted to push a specific political agenda. Their tactics are designed to control the population and deceive them into believing a lie.
Political ‘technology’ is really political manipulation, normalised in Russia by the assumption that all politics is manipulation or realpolitik. My own definition would be ‘supply-side engineering of the political system’. And whether we use the term or not, this is now happening in the West. In Russia political parties are created by political technologists. In America parties are still independent, but are surrounded by a manipulative eco-system of Political Action Committees, dark money and astroturfing (the creation of fake grass roots campaigns or opinions).
Written by Dr. Andrew Wilson
The Russian government is comparable to a combination of “The Lost Boys” and “Lord of the Flies,” with their leaders acting like “toddlers with nukes.” Centuries of misrule have resulted in the government favoring the objectives of criminal networks and employing FSB-directed/military-style corruption in place of governance.
Only two kinds of people on earth respect Russia: evangelical Americans and white nationalists. That is because the political technologist in Russia is working with Rupert Murdoch and Fox News to promote the agenda of Putin and the fossil fuel industry to break Democracy globally.
It is akin to how a film director reshapes a script to influence the audience’s point of view — they control the editing, camera angles, music, and lighting to shape the story is the story.
But this week’s Putin-Xi summit showed that these two leaders are not simply trying to reframe democracy for domestic purposes. They are claiming ownership of the concept of democracy as a key plank of their proposed new world order — one where the actual struggle for democratic progress is demonized and negated. (Source)
The powerful and wealthy are attempting to convert our liberal Democracy into an authoritarian one, denying citizens their right to have a say in the functioning of the government and blurring the boundaries between church and state to grant white supremacists control over our Democracy.
Putin and Xi want to have it both ways; they want to run their systems as dictators while claiming the mantle of democracy in the 21st century. The fact they are pretending shows that they know their actual model is neither popular nor just. Leaders in open societies must ensure that democracy isn’t defined by those who oppose it. (Source)
We should not let Putin, or the fossil fuel industry pretend we don’t know what they are doing. We need to stop them now before it’s too late. We must unite to stop their selfish, destructive plans and protect our future from them.
The “Chekist takeover” of the Russian state and economic assets has been allegedly accomplished by a clique of Putin’s close associates and friends[6] who gradually became a leading group of Russian oligarchs and who “seized control over the financial, media and administrative resources of the Russian state”,[7] and restricted democratic freedoms and human rights. According to Julie Anderson, Russia has been transformed to an “FSB state”.
Republicans are helping Russia destroy American Democracy from within.
Daniel McIntosh, PhD. wrote an incredible article that details the rot within the Republican party.
We must safeguard Democracy and ensure it remains resilient. To do so, we must familiarize ourselves with the methods of our enemies, anticipate their moves, and prevent them. Putin seeks to tear us apart, spread lies and misinformation, and bring a fascist regime under Russian control.
To counter this, we must unite as Americans, talk to our neighbors, show respect for our differences, and strive for peace and equality. We must invest in our future, create an atmosphere of inclusivity and embrace diversity.
Join me, and together — let’s be the best damn America the world has ever seen!
#WeAreTheGuardrails
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What’s my motivation? To stand for everyone who can’t stand for themselves, we can change the future together! #YouMatter
