Weakness not strength

With the furor over the Trump campaign and the on-going DNC et al. hacking story, I've become increasingly interested in what was already a pet interest of mine: the growing list of Russian propaganda networks operating in the West and Russia's growing embrace of asymmetric warfare, particularly information warfare, whether in the form of hacking, surreal state-sponsored trolling operations or news and propaganda networks operating more or less openly with state sponsorship. But before getting into a series of posts on the subject, I wanted to start with one key and often overlooked point.

Quite simply, Russia is a weak and declining power and its various forms of mischief and aggressive behavior are far more signs of weakness than anything else. I mentioned before that notwithstanding the fact that a number of Russia hawks grabbed on to my recent writing on Trump and Russia, I'm not one of them. Going back many years I've thought that through a mix of overreach and myopia the US has been needlessly and counterproductively aggressive in extending its geopolitical reach up to the borders of the current Russian state. This doesn't mean I think Russian intentions in say Georgia or Ukraine or the Baltics are benign. Far from it. But what are our intentions exactly and what are our interests?...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/weakness-not-strength