'Before the worsening of Russia-Western relations in 2014, the Russian speakers of Narva, Estonia, and Riga, Latvia, in particular, were willing to leverage their sense of being excluded and neglected in the name of mobilizing constituencies for political impact. However, they show no enthusiasm now for exchanging membership of prosperous, democratic European states for Kremlin rule.
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Russia is waging a political war campaign of active measures intended to divide, distract, and dismay European states.
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The EU faces a campaign of Russian active measures—covert political subversion—that has been called “hybrid warfare” but is probably best understood as opportunistic political warfare. The aim is to divide, distract, and dismay the Europeans such that they cannot or will not resist Moscow’s wider political agenda. Against this campaign, in the words of an admittedly Euroskeptic British security official, “the EU is nowhere, simply nowhere.” '
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‘Security Insights’ on Russia, November 10, 2019
' "I'm a long-term optimist about Russia. I believe Russia is a great country which has a certain place in the future of Europe. The problem is in the shorter term, so that we have to find a mix of short-term firmness -- because some of the things Putin's Russia has done simply cannot be accepted by the international community -- but make it absolutely clear that strategically, in the long term, we do believe that Russia is a great country which has an important place in Europe and indeed in the world," offers Garton Ash.'
- Tony Wesolowsky,
'..We have a revanchist Russia .. And we have a China, which is still Leninist..'Context'..effective counter-intelligence services, proper oversight over the flow of funds and serious policing of corruption at home, media awareness for a new generation of citizens .. to increase the effectiveness .. of existing political structures.''..If a government cannot respect the basic rights of people it claims as its own citizens..'(Russia) - '..the wounds inflicted by the Soviet experiment have never healed..''..Putin’s Russia .. feudalism..' - '..The Byzantine choice was fundamental in the evolution of Russian society and state compared to Western Europe..''If Russia is to move forward, Pivovarov says, “we must cease to be Soviet people and overcome the Soviet in us.” '