Putin started a “Maskirovka” war, discrediting his western opponents

Written by – Elijah J. Magnier:

Russian President Vladimir Putin is leading the “Maskirovka war” with nerves of steel, silently convincing the hysterical West that is meant to believe that war could happen “any time.” The Kremlin’s opponents ignore that they have fallen into the trap of psychological warfare.The skilful Russian chess player has launched and mastered the plans to make his enemies believe that the war has almost begun in Ukraine without firing a single shot. Russia’s objective is to receive a steadfast Western commitment that Kyiv will not join NATO, posing as it does a severe threat to Moscow’s national security.

President Milos Zeman of the Czech Republic said that “five days before the 16 of February”, he had received a “secret CIA message about alleged preparations for a Russian invasion of Ukraine”. The West and Ukraine have been echoing allegations about an “imminent” Russian invasion of Ukraine for some time. President Putin has taken several steps to deceive his enemies, stimulating active European diplomacy. The old continent is the biggest loser in this dangerous game, and European leaders are more interested than their American allies in solving the Ukrainian-NATO crisis. 

The danger of this game is that Putin said he has “nowhere to retreat to”. Therefore, he plays all cards in his hands with minor damage to get away from the gaming table without loss or bloodshed, if possible, and without damaging his relationship with Europe. But Moscow faces an American player with nothing to lose because Washington is escalating and jeopardising the European interests, not its own.

The old Art of War book of Sun Tzu said that all warfare is based on deception, which involves false manoeuvres, feigned attacks and creating deceiving indications of strength or weakness in an attempt to influence an enemy’s action. The Russians called it the doctrine of Maskirovka (masking) developed in the 1920s. It includes numerous forms of military deception, camouflage, and denial. This doctrine was adopted at Stalingrad, Kursk, and in Operation Bagration in Bielorussia.

Also, the use of psychological warfare is characterised by having far-reaching effects. It uses propaganda, threats, and psychological methods to mislead, intimidate, or weaken the morale to influence the opponent’s way of thinking and behaviour, to make him less confident and feel despair or fear. The price of food and oilhas risen since the drums of war began to beat in Ukraine when Russia deployed over 100,000 men on Russian soil at the Ukrainian borders. The entire western world is talking about a war in Ukraine that is just about to start, sending hundreds of millions worth of weapons to Kyiv to “stop Russia’s advance”, that did not happen. That is because the Kremlin has started a psychological war so it can accuse its western opponents of unfounded hysteria.

Western military experts said that Putin does not intend to send the Russian army to war because he did not bring the necessary medical support on the Ukrainian borders. A week later, the Russian military erected a large tent with a red cross over it and moved blood supply to “complete” the army’s medical needs in case of war. The Russian leadership is making every effort to contribute to World leaders’ thinking that war is possible in order to mock and accuse those who predict the war on Ukraine of creating a useless state of panic. In fact, US officials had alleged that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine on February 16 by instigating a provocation in the breakaway region of Donbas or launching an attack on Kyiv.

On the other hand, Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministery of Foreign Affairs, mocked the US-Uk media. “I invite the US and UK disinformation media to announce the schedule of our (Russian) invasion for next year because I would like to organise my vacations.” That response is a severe blow to the West’s credibility and a failure of intelligence gathering and prediction, notably when Anglo-Saxon newspapers actually wrote about specific hours for the beginning of the war in Ukraine: in the middle of the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. 

Proofread by: Maurice Brasher