This is a story of one mans wounded pride and his revenge a man who experienced russias loss of superpower status and who wants to restore his homeland to its former glory. In twenty twelve bloody mere putin was elected russian president for another six years. The former k. G. B. Agent had now already ruled the country for twelve years during which he restored order to a country facing disintegration silence the opposition and brought the media into line but the pomp of the inauguration ceremony was deceptive the election had less. Putin weaker than ever before. The largest demonstrations since the collapse of the soviet union spread across the country the protesters condemned alleged Election Fraud and called for putins resignation Falling Oil Prices were causing widespread Economic Hardship and corruption was rife in himself was accused of becoming one of the richest men in the world through graft. The ruler in the kremlin was very worried and hid himself in his palace. And he started to fight back using a tried and tested method accusing the west america and the cia of conspiring against him. And we do have serious concerns about the conduct of the elections russian voters deserve a full investigation of all credible reports of electoral fraud and manipulation and we hope in particular that the russian authorities will take action on the recommendations of come forward and had heard this statement by the american secretary of state on t. V. The night before as have most of russia he called it a declaration of war. And used it signal solution. To maintain his power and mobilize the russian public putin wanted to make russia a world power again and recover the status lost to the west twenty years earlier with the collapse of the. Soviet union but in order to achieve that he first needed to reconfigure his own power structures. He shut out liberals and surrounded himself with hard liners many were either former k. G. B. Agents like him or loyal. His friend vladimir a former k. G. B. Officer a wealthy businessman and pious creditor joined the inner circle that unofficially advises the russian president. Rid the supervision of the School System it seemed that there were no any grounds for more i just struggle when somebody decides that he possesses the troops. To everyone. That is the malaysian bet can lead to actual error over you war water or you know or your logical warm or cold war whether. This new cold war is of course directed against the winners of the previous one against the u. S. And its armed extension in europe nato. Since the collapse of the u. S. S. R. In one thousand nine hundred ninety one the Transatlantic Alliance has encroached on moscows spear of influence poland romania and the Baltic States which were occupied by soviet forces sought nato as protection. Nato carried out a series of large scale maneuvers in response to putins nationalist rhetoric a rhetoric that worried his neighbors. The United States pushed ahead with plans for a new state of the art Missile Defense system throughout Eastern Europe putin saw that as an unacceptable challenge to his quest for power. In june twenty twelve he confronted the western alliance at the g twenty in mexico and economic summit that brings together heads of state once a year. Behind the scenes these summits give the participants a chance to weigh each other up to negotiate and to display their own strength a modern equivalent of the battle grounds on which the great powers used to meet. This is the military and political system of the western world from this point a few if you know the threat of communism disappeared this simple question is why why that talk is growing. Cotton hoped natos de facto leader would listen to what he had to say he was meeting u. S. President barack obama on the International Stage for the first time three years earlier obama had signaled a desire to reset relations with russia. It was a tense meeting it was not warm and anyway putin lectured president obama at length about all the misdeeds of the United States over the years going back to the Clinton Administration in nato enlargement president obama always engaged mr putin a spirit of logic and the logic that we saw in the relationship was not necessarily the same logic that mr putin saw when some boarder is trying to assure you this i come with my package say come with my you know military equipment to your big heart but because that is not against you would you believe and then there was also i think a geo political argument that the west should take advantage of this time to move east and to make sure that poland and hungary and a stone are for ever outside russias sphere of influence free states should be able to say were in nato were not in nato were in the e. U. Were not in the e. U. Who is russia to tell them how they should behave. The deployment of the Missile Defense system was no longer negotiable thats what obama told putin the press conference was frigid. It was good to be. Noticed he also discussed International Affairs at all interested parties in trying to find a resolution to this problem. From obamas point of view how important was putin the leader of a country with a Gross Domestic Product that barely matched that of spain. The meeting ended on a no to deep discord. They did not concede that russia the equal papa good nor bad good but equal. Did to me own behavior was a clear sign who for the feeling of superiority and kind of fear in all. Would you languish to show this is your wrong with like me so if i did not feel that there was a good personal relationship between president obama and Vladimir Putin i know that for some reason that relationship was straight and the result was that i think in part it contributed to a breakdown in the relationship between our two countries. Put in is very russian. Theres a thing inferiority complex about how the west doesnt take a seriously daisy s. As the kind of retarded little brother that they can just kick and insult all the time they had been a great power. That was on par with the us those calling the shots all over the world and now people dont even listen to them. Not only was the west not listening to russia it was also moving closer and closer to russia with its bases in summer two thousand and twelve the syrian president Bashar Al Assad an old ally of russia faced an uprising his opponents received weapons from europe and the us. There was no doubt in putins mind that the west had ordered a regime change as it had done in two thousand and three in iraq and in libya where the deposed president won or gadhafi had just been killed. When Vladimir Putin got a hold of the video of khadafi being killed lynched in the streets. He watched that video on repeat he just watched over and over and over again. And apparently he did the same thing with the video of saddam husseins execution i think he takes these things very personally i think putin was watching it to understand that should someone stand up to the United States should there be a real fright real confrontation well should expect no mercy. The events of the arab spring also reminded putin of the demonstrations against him that had taken place a few months earlier in order to counter western ambitions in syria he threw his weight behind a regime on the verge of collapse. Two years later ukraine twenty fifteen. In the capital city kiev the population rebelled against a corrupt and pro moscow leadership the crowds loudly called for closer ties with the European Union. Even worse for putin the americans were there and obama adviser personally handed out food to opposition activists on my town square. Or to putin believes that after the fall of the soviet union the United States should have committed itself to never integrating ukraine into the western camp. Certain ridiculed the. Estate in. Some some people would prefer to interpret it as their current over. Reaction of the whole population of ukraine against corruptive authorities and this is a false description by. February fifteenth everything came to a head the Russian Hockey Team played a decisive match against the United States. In ukraine the pro western opposition was increasingly undermining the government it was a nightmare for putin who feared that the country would soon turn towards nato which would place the Alliance Just over five hundred kilometers from moscow. To the russian president s great anger the u. S. Won in the penalty shoot out. Putin called a meeting of his Security Council in moscow his plan was to invade crimea which was part of ukraine its population is russian speaking and there is a Russian Naval base on the peninsula. But a military invasion of a european country was not an easy step to take. Put into liberated and sought counsel. In the upper echelons of power the hardliners demanded that he take the offensive. One of those making the case was constantine malouf a of. A young only garc and an ultra nationalist champion of the great christian russia. That was hes decision. And i can again you know just to tell you what i heard that it was not easy and of course you know dead horse debates it and realize there what would happen after and what would be their reaction from from the west from our from americans who sponsors. This in kenya and of course you know there is their reaction soldiers not three nine year old jamie. Watching believe that obama would not dare to oppose him and gave the green light. On the twenty third of february put in attended the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games and three days later the crimea awoke to find itself in the hands of Russian Special forces went landed during the night. One sovereign state ukraine had been invaded by another russia. When he went into crimea we saw that this was a potential. But it was a surprise that he did in the way he did his goal is to keep ukraine destabilized and to make sure that it never completes any kind of western orientation hes not as we like to think of him especially here in the us a grand strategic thinker and chess player he plays blackjack. You know its a very high acceptance of risk and thats a very russian mentality theres a russian called a voice which is like basically a wing it and see what happens. Obama called putin and talked for more than an hour threatening him with sanctions if he went ahead and annexed crimea but put in ignored the threats from the west and went even further. In the summer of twenty fourteen Russian Troops without uniforms started arriving in donbass and Eastern Region of ukraine to support progress in separatist rebels against the new government in kiev it started a dirty war. What do they want five hundred miles from moscow they wanted us to stay and see how they would kill our people there so we have to protect ourself and it means that to protect our interests near our borders the west suspected malouf a of a financing separatists and imposed sanctions on him. For put him and his entourage the war came at a price. Nobody knew was remake allegiance mission should be. No brainer little room for the timber but it was at the u. S. Election of some and around fifty people from putin circle were banned from traveling to the west and their Assets Abroad were frozen both europe and the us imposed heavy sanctions on oil exports banking and armaments used. Stupid. Enough to put in front. Of. Us. To be finished. In feb twenty fifth scene put in finally agreed a ceasefire negotiated with the western powers in minsk he had the upper hand in a conflict that he could ratchet up at will he had ensured that ukraine wouldnt join nato or the European Union in the near future but at what cost. May twenty fifteen saw great celebrations to mark the seventieth anniversary of the soviet unions victory over national socialism. But the pomp was deceptive. Western sanctions had had an impact on the economy the ruble had collapsed and even the military budget had had to be cut back. And had promised the russians glory but they had paid dearly for that vision. Prices were rising poverty was increasing but he remained deaf to the worries of russian business leaders. What mainly preoccupied him was the fact that he had become a pariah at the head of an ostracized state. The refusal of western leaders to participate in this important anniversary was a devastating humiliation. Still the man who wanted to rebuild russia as a world power was even excluded from the g eight the summit of the worlds leaders. He fancied himself a great world leader when he was denied a platform around the world and when people wouldnt meet with him i think that had an impact. So putin was left with only provocation to remind the world that he at least still had a powerful army. For the First Time Since the cold war russian jets buzzed american ships in the baltic. But that brought putin nothing but contempt from the president of the worlds only superpower losses i think the overwhelming majority of the world rejects russia is a Regional Power. That is threatening some of its immediate neighbors. Not out of strength but out of weakness see crazy you know it could play best of both to watch the little desk and look at the globe for a few read anything in the history botstein growth you know he really believes that we are a Regional Power they are the only poet in the world we share is equal. Power minister power. To the United States of america if least it would be wise even if you think so dont tell it then yes but i see you dont. Just look at the look you you dont even you do in the neediest even using you yet but if you didnt i shes good for you to sit still sort of middle of shit which is who do you slangy is it because of the thoughts that. At the end of summer twenty fifteen in his luxurious villa on the black sea putin suddenly seemed quite relaxed. He had understood that direct confrontation was not a good strategy for breaking out of isolation and he had a plan. The time for revenge to come. North of the middle going to be used as water was what is really. The only field that is up was in the area that was the better war it was first of all he pushed ahead with a daring move in syria. Hooten ordered a massive intervention in support of Bashar Al Assads regime. Hundreds of missions were flown to destroy any resistance against the syrian dictator in months of bombing. The west was surprised but nevertheless allowed putin to carry on not without its own all teary motives our calculation was that russia risked being in a situation where it was stuck like afghanistan where over time it would have to spend more and more resources to prop up assad and thus far russia has not become unfortunately exhausted by its intervention in syria. Although the russians wanted to avoid getting bogged down in syria and their intervention enabled the assad regime to fight the rebels the war in syria was also a war of images. During the syrian conflict putin saw how much he could use communications for his own ends. When your military budget is ten times lower than that of the United States then it is a weapon of the weak so he asked his new chief of staff general valery gas him off to come up with a new military doctrine that we knew was coming but should hold on the ship was working with the Resource Companies for the people to do it sure as a musician to the students with the issues you suffered should not stand she said you know some of doctrine is one of hybrid warfare subversion espionage propaganda and Cyber Attacks are designed to influence the shape of an opponents political and social landscape conditions the most important one i think that that information was there. The west primarily the United States of the designated enough the story or even in many pushing used the computer i got home. There was dozens of numerous guests putin celebrated the success of state television which he had created to spread russian ideas throughout the world only because of the curse of the onion smugglers there were nearly every so forth start this thread to me and other up to the north of if you just see me through the media all of the thirty you see when they go to this. Because im slow. And you know there was a little bit of wash in. The washer by you to sleep. Just like rockets and pipelines russia today is seen by moscow as a strategic instrument. Russia today is broadcast in five languages to about one hundred countries different on the internet the technology at the heart of russias strategy more people view its video clips than those of c. N. N. And the b. B. C. For. A primary target of russia today is the us. Its where the station has its most important bureaus worldwide. New report shows viewers are leaving the Mainstream Media by the dro so it looks like people are turning elsewhere to get their news for example a couple days after i had started they there was a protest movement here called occupy wall street and they had covered that we were we covered actually extensively. Police brutality running wild in new york we blew it out of proportion and now i realize why its there a jury of. Americans protest and americans themselves voicing their distrust of the system of american democracy and capitalism and americans themselves saying that the system isnt working. Guten had understood that Public Opinion was the achilles heel of western democracies. In the early summer of twenty sixteen he surely had this lesson in mind when obamas secretary of state visited him in the kremlin. Well this president were very pressured with the opportunity to have a serious very serious issue. With john kerry dampen putins hopes of a relaxation of sanctions if he did not change his policy in ukraine and syria. Or worse still he announced the imminent completion of the Missile Defense bases behind russias borders but what worried putin even more was that six months later he might be dealing with an individual who was even more intractable when he had publicly accused of sending a signal to his opponents back in two thousand and eleven putins red rag Hillary Clinton the Firm Favorite to win the twenty six thousand us elections hes a very arrogant. Person to deal with like many bullies he is somebody who will take as much as he possibly can russia is trying to move the boundaries of the post World War Two europe weve got to get nato back working for the common defense. Faced with this prospect putin was surprised to see an outsider appear on stage a populist who position to himself as well disposed towards russia and critical of nato you know hillary likes to play tough with russia putin looks at her and he laughs ok he laughs russia doesnt like isis any better than we do would it be nice if we actually got along with russia and you could knock them out together that you. Choice for us was between money ask whos clinton made the reach and pull again who straub whom you put preferred to meet at the street money of course you can wholly going to of course because this was whole again you have a chance and raise money act there is no chance the things she was out of the k. T. Was a no fly zone in syria to me that was indeed an invitation to a shooting match between the us forces and the Russian Forces in syria because clinton was so resource for because soul train and this now conservative style that im now the leader of the global walt and i favor rival province called to russia who is you know doing something wrong. Of course we prefer truck. A type of hybrid war was launched against Hillary ClintonRussian Hackers pretending to be americans generated more than a million hostile tweets against the democratic candidate. Over several weeks on facebook their messages were shared with one hundred twenty six million users. The pro Russian Media spread rumors and misinformation. The following video alone got nine million hits. Now in twenty vincy ninety six percent of the claims charity went to themselves the rest of their charitable donations from that year went to what i thought was really a desert classic terry that failure that same charity made us seven hundred thousand dollars out here so much surprised to see how frightened the socalled west became receiving just why ive seen go on the channel for from the eastern throw from russia. And putin kept going what followed next with what the k. G. B. Calls active measures. A total of ten advisors and associates from the trump team were approached. The American Intelligence Services were facing an unprecedented scenario. In any what they call active measures would call covert action in that states efforts to influence an election or to influence the way a Foreign Government acts is going to involve a Human Element so i can say with certainty the russians will be looking for people. Weve seen information on the edges of suggests that perhaps some people are on the truck team theyve been engaging with the russians the notion that hey. We can help you with information that we have on Hillary Clinton and. Political opponents if in turn you take the idea of ukraine off the agenda you know as we can make a deal here. At the end of august twenty sixth seen three months before the elections putins hybrid war was stepped up even further hackers gained access to the clinton teams computers to steal emails containing content that compromised Hillary Clinton. As the. Voting machines were also the target of attacks the heart of american democracy was under threat this time u. S. Secret services were no longer in doubt as to who was behind it our Intelligence Community was able to conclude that there was a serious effort underway by russia to interfere with the election they say that Vladimir Putin directed an Information Operation against the United States elections and that his goal was first to weaken american democracy to get us to fight amongst ourselves and second to increase the chances of donald trump and decrease Hillary Clintons chances. The Obama Administration was perplexed by this unprecedented attack how do you defend yourself against it. A cyber attack on russian infrastructure is was under consideration. You spend a lot of time on to decide whether there should be some. Price paid for what theyve already done some punishment. That last piece we thought could wait and we could say we could work on it and think about it the most important thing was to get them to stop and prevent them from doing it again. The white house decided to treat the case with the utmost secrecy. Because we thought the main russian objective was to create doubt and accelerate a crisis of credibility and legitimacy about our institutions we have to be very careful in how we talked about this in public because even if we had said the president had said this is what theyre trying to do but they wont succeed it still might have created the very doubt russia was trying to so they thought that Hillary Clinton would win under any circumstances they didnt want to. Develop a whole new political issue lastly obama you know it was paralysis by analysis lets talk about it lets think about it lets lets get it just right you know its the exact opposite of putin who doesnt consider all the strategic implications they want to consider every possible angle every possible repercussion there are a lot of lawyers in the room to make sure they dont break any laws. Obama therefore decided to clarify the matter hisself in private with putin on the sidelines of a g. Twenty meeting in china which had long been planned for september fifth twenty sixteen. But the president was very direct and very clear with mr putin that we knew what they were doing it had to stop and if that if it did there would be consequences. And nobody. Neither mr obama nor any Security Service in the growth has ever provided us is any kind of evidence of russian interference. Blue. You know that if you have interfered. Its very difficult to deal with someone who again. Lies on a regular basis. Hes a former k. G. B. Officer i think Intelligence Officers around the world have very similar way of looking at the world theres a bar at our Training Facility that has sort of a funny phrase up above the bar to says admit nothing deny everything make counteraccusations so there are so many of very sensitive really delicate issues which could have them its the election can be both my them cleaned them theres some genius in the in the in the here and miscreation in amanda vs that we out blaming press are for for meddling. Everything we saw after that suggested that as far as we could tell russian efforts to exfiltrate information. And then turn around and use it in some fashion seemed to stop but at that point it was actually too late because they had given it to third parties. And at the end those parties could put out the information whenever it was convenient for months and months to follow. This third party was the whistle blowing website wiki leaks. On october seventh twenty sixteen one month before the election his cia finally published its information on russian influence was secretary clinton mr trump the russian government has engaged in espionage against americans in the following hours wiki leaks released the house emails from Hillary Clintons team weakening the candidate considerably to run for the presidency chinas knowing details that there is russia china already i am not in this close election in which every vote counted the months of russian interference were of great importance for the outcome of each fortune. Was. An arrow. Seger showing him. The. Colonel of the k. G. B. Had pulled off a masterly crew by influencing an American Election now he even played the role of godfather to the new president of the worlds leading power. His revenge. Guten had come a long way since the collapse of the soviet union in the one nine hundred ninety s. Washington had made his predecessor. Its vicarious agent but putin now still had to get what he was after from the newly elected us president first the lifting of sanctions against his country secondly this is of nato enlargement in july twenty seventeen he finally met donald trump. Nice to be with. You. I level with an american president at last this personal meeting which putin considered crucial had been carefully orchestrated with the american team. To do the russian protocol and ceased it for a longer time after that that meeting. President putin called himself a master of human relations who is vamping to establish some kind of personal chemistry. You see if you meet with him one on one if you are able to give him the impression that you click with him that you understand him that you think hes you know brilliant if you flatter him. Hell give you what you want americans to see sits on shorter time most of the meeting. That would give you the key why. Meeting him in was interrupted because nobody want to president putin in order to talk to that so that was their point there we go thank you. Thank you. Putin had to face facts trump couldnt commit to anything and remain divisive. He is kind of being bombast if you know what i mean and he cannot do what he promised to the no agreements were reached still far far away from each other and they believe that the new story. Putin had not expected that by trying to thwart tillery clinton he may nevertheless still face a weakened president and a United States that was more hostile than before. Trumps hands were tied by an investigation into his relations with russia rather than lift sanctions against Moscow Congress reinforced them furious over russian interference the former head of the f. B. I. James comey testified before the Senate Intelligence committee were talking about a Foreign Government that using technical intrusion lots of other methods tried to shape the way we think we vote we are that is a big deal. But putin had no intention of stopping moscow is now also suspected of having interfered in the twenty six thousand bricks and referendum and in the french president ial elections in the spring of twenty seventeen. Because theres your question but. You know i think that putin is a very complicated mix of someone who is tactically quite shrewd. But at the same time he he is caught up in his own rhetoric in the long run is this a win for russia that its isolated that it faces economic sanctions this is undoubtedly the price putin has paid for his revenge on the west for now it has allowed him to hold on to power in russia but where will his desire for revenge leave. How far is president Vladimir Putin prepared to go. To continue to do. 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On top of programming good. At that our innovations magazine for in asia the us from every week and always looking to the future on d w dot com science and research for asia. The o. L. Ally of the United NationsSecurity Council has postponed until saturday a decision on whether to call for a cease fire in syria hundreds of people have been killed in recent days in the damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta including many children russia had earlier blocked a resolution on a thirty day humanitarian cease fire now russia