1 - Russian policy is one of "masking". Spread uncertainty, get people distracted, don't let them know what you're actually doing. It is a doctrine they have used for decades and it has a name in Russian. Maskirovka.

Later versions of the doctrine also include strategic, political, and diplomatic means including manipulation of "the facts", situation and perceptions to affect the media and public/world opinion, so as to achieve or facilitate tactical, strategic, national and international goals.

Sounds pretty familiar so far.

2 - in 1997, a book was released named The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia by Alexander Dugin and General Nikolai Klokotov of the General Staff Academy.

Written in 1997, it calls for Russia to make the following happen directly or indirectly. For an idea of how Russia does the "indirectly" stuff using Fear / Uncertainty / Doubt, there's your Maskirovka / masking techniques. So: that list of what Russia should do in the world, and remember through all of this that this was written almost 20 years ago...

cut the U.K. from Europe (do I need to link to Brexit articles? You already mentioned that, so let's move on)

annex Ukrainian land (from the 2014 invasion up to now...) remember how Russia denied for the longest time it had people involved in Crimea? "Oh, those soldiers? They're Ukrainian people friendly to our cause is all. They got the uniforms with no identification badges at a store or something"... yeah. That, basically.

ally with Iran (this one is growing right now)

Georgia split apart (this has already happened as the book's plan suggests in Abkhazia and Ossetia)

political shocks in Turkey (happening now)

China, as the big threat to Russia's plans, taken out of the picture. The drumbeats of a trade war are already being sounded by Trump's appointments.

And their plan for America: strip it of its position of power by starting all the shit we've seen on the rise.

Russia should use its special forces within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism. For instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics."

The way I've described it previously: You know when the bad guy in a James Bond film goes to great length to tell you his master plan? Well, imagine if he published it in a book first. And it's not a work of fiction.

here's a forum discussion from 2012 on a European forum where they ask if it's coming true. It's interesting to see how certain things had happened already (Iran deals being made), how things were in the process of being done (the UK and the post-Eurozone situation under Cameron), and how things weren't yet evident (the support of a pro-Russia ruler in Turkey). We're now four and a half years down the line in history, and it's becoming more apparent.

(originally posted by /u/Jackpot777