Reeling in Russia.

• Author: Waller, J. Michael
• Position: WORLD WATCHER

THE WEST never insisted that Russia make a permanent break with the Soviet past by releasing USSR archives and uprooting the old KGB. Many of the old CCCP political subversion agent networks remain in place. Specifically, Russia never disclosed the extent of past Soviet "active measures" (i.e., nonviolent and even violent influence operations) and we must presume that the continued secrecy is to maintain agent networks and retain a Soviet-like subversion capability.

Following the Helsinki Summit in July 2018, Pres. Donald Trump acknowledged the depth and scope of Russian subversion against the U.S. and said he would not tolerate it. "I let him [Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin] know we can't have this. We're not going to have it and that's the way it's going to be." He noted on Twitter that "President [Barack] Obama knew about Russia before the election. Why didn't he do something about it? Why didn't he tell our campaign?"

While it looks as if the midterms have come and gone without any major Russian interference, there always is another election cycle to worry about--if not next year, then in 2020, as the presidential campaign, especially from the Democrats' side, already has legs. Trump cheaply and quickly can build his own enforcement tools without an act of Congress, as the President retains the ability to retaliate against Putin for any interference in the American political system. Like nuclear deterrence, that ability has to be on par with the threat. Nuclear deterrence has helped prevent the Kremlin's aggression for more than six decades. The U.S. can apply a similar strategy against Russian subversion of America's political system.

Putin's hold on power is more fragile than it seems. Strict information controls and news censorship, combined with the occasional murders of investigative journalists, show that the Kremlin fears exposure of the systematized corruption of Putin's rule. The territorial and political integrity of the Russian Federation also is vulnerable. Russia's control structure is plagued with unsustainable strains. Centralized power in Moscow has come at the expense of the rest of Russia, much of which is seething over Putin seizing political authority from the regions and sucking out their wealth to the corrupt oligarchs in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Autonomy and independence movements across Russia are growing--not only along cultural lines, but among ethnic Russians who resent the police state controlling them from...