The U.S. and Global Security Review - Blog by Michael Novakhov

Russian hybrid warfare: what are effects-based network operations and how to counteract them 2015/01/17 Article by: Vitalii Usenko and Dmytro Usenko The strategy of a hybrid or irregular war followed by real war was developed in the USSR. The same scenario was used by USSR during the ‘liberation’ of Poland, Bessarabia, Bukovyna, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the attempt to ‘liberate’ Finland in 1939-1940. This liberation is now being justified as a Soviet attempt to secure its borders against Hitler, which is the same justification Russia uses now, 75 years later: “to secure its borders against NATO”. Not only USSR experience was essential in development of new Russian hybrid warfare concept. Russia in developing its hybrid warfare strategy used scientific developments of US think tanks and lessons learned by US Army and Nato. This review tries to cover possible origins of Russian hybrid warfare strategy for better understanding and forecasting possible Russian moves.