Russian Hybrid Warfare & Ukraine: Propaganda, cyberwarfare & hybrid war methods

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Description:
Often we think of war and peace as binary states - one is either at war or at peace.
But history is full of examples of the line between those two states being blurred, and in a modern world of nuclear weapons and globalised economic and military competition, that competitive state between war and peace has grown particularly prominent.
When Russia overtook Crimea in 2014 with its "little green men" the world got a high visibility view of what a hybrid war, combining information warfare, unconventional methods and conventional military force might look like. Today, I want to give an overview of hybrid war methods, their potential, and potential defences against them.
Patreon:
/ perunau
Caveats/comments:
As flagged in this video - the focus on Russian Hybrid war should not be taken as a claim that other countries do not have hybrid war capabilities
The discussion of commentary and writings on hybrid warfare in this presentation are, out of necessity, incomplete
Examples of phenomena like amplification are included for illustrative purposes only and all content within this presentation is presented primarily for entertainment purposes
For the avoidance of doubt, I am making no claims as to the intent, actions, influence, sympathies, or otherwise of any individual person or persons in this presentation (though I may refer to reporting by others on those topics)
Images may be unrelated to the text and audio presented
Sources & Reading:
Clark - Russian Hybrid Warfare
www.understandingwar.org/site...
Gearasimov - Presentation to the General Staff Academy 2018
www.armyupress.army.mil/Porta...
Gerasimov - Vectors in the development of military strategy
csef.ru/en/oborona-i-bezopasno...
JDN 1-19
www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Docume...
Kofman - Russian Hybrid Warfare and other dark arts
warontherocks.com/2016/03/rus...
Monaghan - The 'war' in Russia's Hybrid Warfare
press.armywarcollege.edu/cgi/...
Hofman - Conflict in the 21st Century: the rise of hybrid wars
www.potomacinstitute.org/imag...
The "Firehose of Falsehood" propaganda model
www.rand.org/pubs/perspective...
Tucker featured by RT
www.rt.com/news/568524-tucker...
Derleth - Russian New Generation Warfighting
www.armyupress.army.mil/Porta...
Russia Cyber Threat Overview - CISA
www.cisa.gov/russia
Russian military admits cyber war effort
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe...
WHy Russian Cyber Dogs have mostly failed to bark
warontherocks.com/2022/03/why...
Russian denial of operations in Ukraine
www.theguardian.com/world/201...
www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...
Matisek - imagining the future of russian agression
mwi.usma.edu/from-little-gree...
Russia on nuclear risk
www.reuters.com/world/europe/...
Little green men 2014
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe...
The IRA, social media and political polarisation in the USA 2012-2018
digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/vi...
CSIS on Russia and Brexit
www.csis.org/blogs/brexit-bit...
Russian military and security periodicals
www.eastview.com/resources/jo...
Bulgarian blasts
www.rferl.org/a/bulgaria-arms...
Wired reporting on cyberwar
www.wired.co.uk/article/china...
Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Open
00:01:37 - What Am I Talking About
00:03:03 - Sponsor: Ground News
00:04:09 - The Great Power Challenge
00:08:20 - Competition & Western Conception
00:13:51 - Russian Hybrid Warfare
00:22:13 - Cyberwarfare
00:26:09 - Proxy Use
00:29:43 - Ambiguity & Kinetic Operations
00:34:09 - Information Warfare
00:51:43 - Designing Hybrid Campaign
01:00:00 - Hybrid Warfare In Ua
01:08:21 - Countering Hybrid Warfare
01:12:40 - Conclusions
01:13:36 - Channel Update

[@PerunAU]

Thanks to returning sponsor, Ground News: Compare news coverage from diverse sources around the world on a transparent platform driven by data. Try Ground News today and get 30% off your subscription: ground.news/perun Also - thanks to those on Patreon who voted for this topic to be prioritised for this week. I always appreciate your interest and input. I'll also leave a footnote here saying that I'm aware there is a lot of interest in further discussion of the reported leaked documents - I've been relatively reserved in addressing that topic this week but may be able to say more in the future if interest remains.

[@thelazy0ne]

Ads God bless your sponsors. Leakes please! Thank you for your sustained effort to keep us well informed. 😊👍

[@Cubcariboo]

I signed up with GroundNews based on ypur recommendation and am pleased with what they do and how.

[@just_a_turtle_chad]

Slava Azov 🇺🇦💪

[@melkor3496]

@@just_a_turtle_chadYou are literally on pro Russian and pro Ukraine channels saying things on each that make you seem to support each side. You are just out for likes.

[@melkor3496]

@@just_a_turtle_chadRecently on HL and that’s one of the more mild pro Russia channels I remember seeing you on.

[@stevenkraft8070]

"Hypothetical hybrid warfare scenario" had me momentarily hoping for another tale from the eternal struggle between Kiwiland and Emutopia.

[@PerunAU]

I was worried some people won't have watched the small nations video - otherwise Kiwiland and Emutopia are going to become recurring characters

[@cv990a4]

@@PerunAU Hybrid warfare between those states on the superiority of Marmite vs Vegemite is utterly vicious. Emutopia has been known to resort to underarm bowling.

[@jumpergamer1913]

@@PerunAU The perun universe recurring characters only keeps getting better

[@p_serdiuk]

@@PerunAU Don't forget to include Elbonia's political meddling, too And maaaybe Cargonia's logistical services while we're at it. (praise z0rg)

[@rossfinman9148]

@@PerunAU you have a following of diehards. I would not be surprised if you have one of the highest repeat viewers on all of KZbin. That is to say, we would not mind hearing more of the saga of Kiwiland and Emutopia. ;-)

[@ryanreese8457]

I love the jokes in this episode. “Going up against the US and it’s set of alliances is about as one sided as Manchester United playing against a high schools reserve players” “Sometimes this might work, and other times you get the Afghan National Army.” “You might compete with one another, but you’re still on the same team so you won’t end up spiking their pregame water with laxatives.” Just priceless.

[@jimmieraper5807]

Afghanistan has never been pacified and pretty much destroyed three empires

[@gmw3083]

Everything perun does is a joke

[@stacey_1111rh]

@@jimmieraper5807 Afghanistan hasn’t destroyed any empires. Nice try but nope.

[@stacey_1111rh]

@@gmw3083 Must be hard when this video hits personal doesn’t it. Facts don’t care about your feelings. Perun is solid here must have ruffled up those tangled misinfo feathers ya got there

[@gmw3083]

@@stacey_1111rh i didn't watch or listen to much of it. I just riffed off the OP regarding jokes. Regarding empires, the American superVæmpire is biting the dust. It doesn't need any help driving stakes in its own coffin.

[@squidcaps4308]

Finland has been fairly successful combating Russian hybrid warfare. For sure the DDOS our stuff occasionally but when it comes to social media and media it turns out that education and having long trackrecord of delivering factual information pays out. In that role our national broadcasting company has been pivotal, not just for external but internal attempts of subverting the truth. Also, to be fair it is REALLY difficult to pretend you are Finnish, our language is so unique and difficult that you have to be born here to do that successfully. Just recently there was news about one bot account that translated the words "save NATO" as "save (this file called) NATO"... They had translated the word "save" as IT terminology which makes absolutely no sense in the context, we have separate words for those two meanings. The official strategy is fairly simple: do not chase after individual rumors but provide factual information about a topic in general. Education plays a big part in all of this.

[@andersjjensen]

Welcome to NATO, and may your first contribution to the alliance be a report and discussion summit on this particular subject. I would love to see all the top brass invited to Helsinki for a 5 day convention on a topic that would also greatly benefit the general population. There are enough summits on what benefits a certain deadly technology can bring to a defence force. We need more "how to keep our own population thinking straight" technoliges, as those inform everything else.

[@squidcaps4308]

@@andersjjensen Factors that contribute are deep inside the society and there is no quick fix... and when one thinks about the factors it is EASY to see what political "movement" has done the most to make USA especially vulnerable: Finns have great trust towards government and other people. This won't be able to be accomplished with huge changes in US politics and society. Those who have spread the idea that government is evil and can't be trusted are DIRECTLY to blame, along with a government that honestly can't always be trusted... Also, all of those who cry about "fake news" while lying in plain sight are to blame. Every single one that has tried to get power by damaging that trust... Everyone who exploited peoples fears for their own gain... And of course, every politician that has done some nasty stuff, that have created the kind of atmosphere where toppling other governments is modus operandi.. Yeah. This goes very deep into realms that really are not about defense per se. Finland has Total Defense and everything is part of defense, including education and media. Our government has never had the luxury of eroding that fragile trust, nor being able to blatantly lie.

[@squidcaps4308]

@@andersjjensen And also: thanks for your kind words.

[@patchouliknowledge4455]

That's really interesting! Language that helps prevent external influence is something I haven't heard before

[@nicholasconder4703]

As an aside, Finnish is very close to a language group in Western Siberia and, believe it or not, Hungarian.

[@Metalblowing]

Ukrainian here. The information warfare part is really good. I'm working from Ukraine as a Business Consultant for a big UK company. Before the war I used to travel all over the world so I had a chance to view russian propaganda from EU, US, to Middle East and Africa. It's working quite well. A lot of the stuff that you're mentioning, I found in a book called "Disinformation". It covers quite a few methods that KGB used during cold war to wage informational war. And as I see it today, not a lot has changed. Giving a specific example of how russians manage to "poison" a few people and then poison the whole well. Take 2 famous and popular bloggers: Russell Brand and Jimmy Dore. Both guys are great when they're talking about worker's rights and corruption, but then suddenly someone mentioned a) NATO expansion b) Neo-nazi battalions in Ukraine c) russian is defending itself and a few more things... both of these guys simply start relaying this to other people in their sphere like, let's say, Dave Rubin. 6 months goes by and you have dozens of millions of people following russian propaganda about NATO and other nonsense because of few of their friends shared a tweet. They do the same in Ukraine as well. They basically use all mediums and channels to get their messaging across: bribing politicians/officials, running social media pages, running new websites, creating fake videos, publishing books, using the russian orthodox church. And they aren't necessarily always lying, that's the brilliant part. They are putting out so much information that people simply start to doubt anything. People that doubt everything become very suspicious and difficult to talk to because there's never a single issue that they trust or have a concrete opinion about. I think that US/EU are massively under China/Russian disinformation influence and it will take a lot of effort for them to stay on top. If you look at the social divide that is taking place, it does look scary from the sidelines.

[@Lusa_Iceheart]

I'm Ukrainian American and I see this all the time here in the US. I think part of the problem is most Americans (even the political pundits who are otherwise great on most topics) just don't know enough about Ukraine. Before the war, when people would ask me about my surname and where it was from they'd be like "where is that?" and I'd be like "it's the biggest country entirely in Europe, it's hard to miss on a map". Most Americans couldn't even find Ukraine on a map. Most still can't, tbh. In 2014 Ukraine was in the news then it was memory holed just as fast (cause Obama did nothing, yeah that annoyed the crap out of me back then). Other than that, the only other time Ukraine was in American headlines was in relation to the corruption and impeachment mess (where Trump was impeached for quid pro quo for investigating the quid pro quo Biden did while he was vice president). So now all most Americans even know about Ukraine is "something about Crimea in 2014, and there's corrupt DA's or something" and that's the extent of even the really politically savvy Americans knowledge. I don't think people are maliciously repeating Russian propaganda, it's more that (Americans in particular) have no knowledge whatsoever b/c we really haven't had to know anything about Eastern Europe in decades. No ones really paid attention to Eastern Europe, not while we've spent 20 years in the middle east sandbox. And like I fully understand why people don't want to get involved in another protracted war, we just got out of Afghanistan and still have Iraq to get out of too. So I try my best to explain to other Americans how Ukraine is NOT another Afghanistan quagmire, there's clear obtainable goals and a very clear "victory condition" that Afghanistan did not have. I also point out as often as I can that much of the supply we're sending Ukraine is stuff the US doesn't use and is more than likely just going to decommission anyway. People forget that Abrams tanks were first made in the 80s... to fight the soviets. The Abrams really first saw combat (and thus get noted as being a big role in) Desert Storm, but they had to be altered to fight in the desert. We can send Ukraine hundreds of Abrams we just have sitting around and will never use b/c the US Army wouldn't be caught dead fielding tanks from the 80s, even if they're Abrams. Our military is way too obsessed with the cutting edge, it would never stoop to using older equipment. A first production run Abrams, even unmodernized, is still gonna fuck up russian T-72s no problem. And then there's the money we're sending. I keep explaining to people that *somehow* small mountains of ammo and weapons from weird, nonaligned countries keep ending up in Ukraines hand and I have to explain to people that it's obviously the CIA going on a shopping spree to every shithole, war torn nation on the planet, buying out arms dealers and sending the soviet-made ammo to Ukraine. Obviously the US can't admit to going on a buying binge from the global weapons black market to supply Ukraine the calibers we don't have, so obviously there is going to be 'holes' in the budget that Congress gives for aid to Ukraine. It doesn't mean the money is getting laundered, it just means some asshole warlord in subsaharan africa is getting relived of his stockpile of 152mm shells in exchange for some taxpayer money. Unsavory, but the money is actually buying something useful, not just being pocketed by a politician like people fear it is. We have enough of that crap going on here in the US that we obviously suspect that everywhere else does the same thing too. I mean, we're supposedly the beacon of fairness and anti-corruption yet our own leaders pocket out taxmoney in front of our face, of course we're skeptical. US leaders have spent all the publics goodwill and then pissed on them. 20 years of a pointless war, taxes and spying on us and now people don't trust a thing the Federal Government says. If this was 20 years ago, Americans wouldn't blink an eye to defend Ukraine, Europe and the rules based system, but our leaders have been irresponsible and taken advantage of people for so long that skepticism is the natural reaction. 20 years of crying wolf (or in this case WMD) and 20 years of it being a lie. Now when a murderous bear shows up and attacks the neighbor, people aren't ready to jump to arms and defend the community. I wish our leaders hadn't been idiots for so long, perhaps then this invasion could have been completely averted and Crimea returned to Ukraine thro diplomatic means. I dislike the bloodshed, but I can dislike war and still be ready and willing to stop an invader. We did it during the Gulf War, it was right back then to save Kuwait. The second invasion of Iraq? A lot more debatable. Kicking Saddams ass out of his neighbor was totally justified tho the same way kicking Putins ass out of Ukraine is totally justified.

[@katanabluejay]

​@@Lusa_Iceheart I read your whole comment and bravo, it explains the anti-Ukraine movement in the west perfectly. Something I noticed about it that's interesting is how the isolationism propagated by the anti-Ukraine movement isn't necessarily right or left, but rather populist. And frankly it's something that populists are dead wrong about. The one thing I will disagree with is how Afghanistan didn't have a goal. It had two main ones. Neutralize Al Qaeda (basically achieved) and turn it into a western style democracy (we all know how that turned out). Although the idea may seem crazy now, it has been done successfully before (Japan and Germany post ww2). Iraq and Afghanistan failed for a bunch of various reasons, but even now it's unclear whether they had to fail or not.

[@off6848]

Nope we remember Ukraine and it’s atrocities since the 2010s Russel Brand was an b list celebrity when we figured this out. The problem with anti-Russia propagandists like you guys is that you’re all elitists It’s always the case that the people are wrong, the populism came from some other source than common sense and the stupid masses just need to be re-educated with “good guy propaganda”. Go fight for Zelenski or shut up propagandist cowards

[@off6848]

This video is hybrid warfare. I have a better term for it though and that is metamodern warfare This is the use of everything from AI deepfakes to ww1 style trench rushes and suicide bombs, school shootings, trans and race issues etc..

[@MikeKay1978]

Judging from the pentagon leaks it seems the west has been busy spreading their own propaganda. So the saying still holds ”the first victim in a war is the truth”

[@DavidF3]

51:43 As a Hungarian I approve of you using this totally not corrupt, not power hungry, not destabilizing figure to illustrate the Bearland empires coercive efforts.

[@bishopofsahs]

I was hungry too and I just had a cheeseburger

[@sugandesenuds6663]

@@bishopofsahs you lucky guy, now i want a cheeseburger :(

[@Alex-hu5eg]

​@@bishopofsahs I assume you might be some kind of comedian. Never heard this one before, how original 😅 (Irony is a country, home of the irons)

[@Alex-hu5eg]

Nem tudom, hogy mivel foglalkozik a srác "civilben" de hihetetlen milyen jól átlátja a helyzetet. Ausztrál létére...

[@bandenere7774]

​@@Alex-hu5eg he's a civilian employed in the Oz military.

[@233DDR]

Amazing how many people are sitting around waiting to consume some Sunday am PowerPoint. Thanks again for the great Sunday routine!

[@jerbil9353]

Sunday PM for me. Are you an American by any chance?

[@andreaslach691]

Perun Sunday. ❤

[@233DDR]

@@jerbil9353 Yes. Nothing like some sitting down with my favorite Aussie, PowerPoint and a cup of coffee to learn something new every Sunday morning. Also, his takes on American politics crack me up. It’s just as dysfunctional, but when you don’t notice it as much when you’re part of the dysfunctional family. We’re not all the clowns on cable news. As a conservative, I agree with those with differing political views that Tucker Carlson SUCKS! 😂

[@dehydratedwatermelon4644]

The three geopolical arenas you mentioned were Russia, Ukraine and The West. However, a huge focus of Russia's Info Campaign has been targeted at non-Western aligned nations, e.g. India, China, African and South American nations. Could you discuss this and its impact more?

[@useodyseeorbitchute9450]

My impression was that it was moderately effective outside the West, at least with respect to India. Though in wider picture, I don't see whether they achieved that much, as those countries either way remained neutral and were making business with the highest bidder.

[@TheNobleFive]

​@Attila the Pun I'm not Indian, but Russia is a long term security and energy ally of India in the form of exporting major equipment like ships, aircraft, air defense, and oil, so successive Indian governments have also had their own incentive to promote good or at least neutral relationships with Russia. I don't think their relationship is solely caused by Russia information warfare.

[@katanabluejay]

​@Attila the Pun anyone can fall for propaganda, Indians aren't special. If anything that should tell you that it's an untapped market for our propaganda.

[@user-cx9nc4pj8w]

@@TheNobleFive yeah, this definitely set the stage, but that doesn't change the fact that most Indians in India at least seem to buy into the Russian propaganda without thinking twice

[@alwayscurious3357]

​@Attila the Pun Sometimes I wonder if there are people from India and other countries that are friendly to Russia that went there as foreign volunteers. A lot of these people could be so vehemently anti-west that maybe they see the war in Ukraine as means to fight against Western influence and imperialism.

[@paulsd9255]

"Highly advanced geostrategic technique known as LYING" That sounds incredibly familiar...

[@matthewmatthew638]

As somebody who lives near China with a population that has significant emigration to the west recently, this video (especially on propaganda and information warfare) hit very close to home...there's always a disturbingly high amount of uh, people promoting anti-western (though sometimes not strictly wrong) views and claiming China as a positive helper (not true in most cases) in local forums whenever world events are brought up..五毛 is definitely a real phenomenon.

[@First-Last_name]

Well nobody is perfect but I'd hope the west in general looks more favorable with an objective view. Not that I want China to do poorly, just they really seem focused more on the health of the Sate then they do Individuals inside it. Which seems like a worse option for most Individuals who aren't at the top. That's my take in a nutshell anyway.

[@williamgordon5708]

If you take a cab in China, and were lucky (or unlucky) enough to strike a conversation with a 五毛 driver (or any dude in their 50s), the sheer uniformity of their political rantings are simply uncanny. The two conversations could happen years or thousands of miles apart, their accents could be totally different, but their message would almost be the same. Scary how little individuality people truly possess, and how easily the mind is numbed by mass media.

[@hungrymusicwolf]

@@williamgordon5708 Some people crave being part of a group and will mould themselves towards it, others even the military can't force to obey rules because they refuse to be anything but themselves. I prefer the latter over the former when given a choice.

[@johndavies5985]

@@First-Last_name From my viewpoint Western 'freedom' and 'values' are only for the wealthy, the rest of us are expendable.

[@oohhboy-funhouse]

@@First-Last_name I do want China to do poorly both in that I do not want criminal activities to be profitable and that their system is BS. Be aware that your own moral code and empathy can be turned against you like calling you a racist because you don't like Chinese product or 'You don't understand' thus shape your opinion/reality in their favour.

[@zawiszaczarnysulima3700]

A retired IT Enterprise Architect here. When I was still working, analyzing and designing IT architectures for large organizations, frequently spanning multiple data centers around the globe, I frequently heard people commenting on the quality of my presentations, and on my ability to analyze, dissect and deliver conclusions and recommendations for complex topics and ideas inherently of the dry and boring realms in an approachable, easily digestible and engaging way. That, needless to say, made me feel rather good about my abilities to communicate. Then I met Perun. My hat goes off to you, good Sir!

[@krissteel4074]

I did corporate and engineering education for staff in telco for quite a few years and he's got a good mix of what I consider the broad brush of covering the necessary elements, but enough granularity to make sure that even if the subject isn't in-depth. The people absorbing it can in turn go look at those particular elements in their own time for research and have a good idea of what to look for and how it factors into the whole. What I found teaching highly technical and complicated processes is that for 'raw' students is that you can't bomb them with too much information at once, but if you can encourage them to find things on their own out of curiosity it can go a long way with guides.

[@tacitus6384]

Russian propaganda is incredible, they actually made us believe that they had the 2nd strongest army in the world, rather than just in Ukraine.

[@realCarlosMazda]

No, actually, Perun & western commentators made you believe Russia was weak - they are shit kicking us. You poor blind boy

[@vaultdweller966]

Are you implying that Russia uses the majority of it's fighting power right now?

[@FirstNameLastName-wd8gn]

​@@vaultdweller966 yes, yes they do.

[@deniskosta1080]

@vaultdweller according to western intelligence 97% of all Russian ground combat forces are committed to Ukraine.

[@danielmorgner1169]

​@@vaultdweller966 Not only the majority, but all of their power. Russia is pathetic, a failed third world dictatorship and in a year or two a Ressource colony of china without a say in their own borders. Sad.

[@Warszawski_Modernizm]

Watching and listening carefully from Warsaw, Poland

[@HanSolo__]

Yeah, tell me about it. Populists. Extremists. The worse, the better. Politicians in charge trash domestic law and freedoms. Yet, failing abysmally when it comes to economics and foreign affairs. Because: "You can always loan more", and "You don't win local elections by keeping foreign affairs in good shape."

[@paulpenne2799]

I have never written anything in the comments section before. But I really want to thank you for giving a serious understanding of what is going on. I live in the US and it seems that American TV has forgotten the war unless it has pictures and can be dumbed down to the point of a 5 year old. I truly appreciate the analysis.

[@Morally_Immoral2]

And stuff like this is why american mainstream media is on a steep decline

[@0816M3RC]

@@Morally_Immoral2 Blame the education system..

[@davidmclean357]

If you look at this video, the idea of hybrid warfare and how the social/political polarization and negative evolution of media - I can't but feel like a multitude of foreign powers may have been engaging in very successful hybrid warfare against the US for quite some time..

[@als1023]

Great comment, thanks for posting !

[@speggeri90]

Congrats on your first comment 😁 the Finnish media also seems to dumb down topics, especially the war right now.

[@ReZpawner]

"Tasty Period". So much for my morning tea not being spilled all over my desk.

[@wh8787]

Вкусно и точка. Basically all the McDonald's franchises in Russia got bought by some Russian businessman and turned into this instead. It started out as McDonald's in all but name but has apparently degraded in quality as various ingredients have become scarce.

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

@@wh8787 it hasn't "degraded", it was a failure front the very start. They also got a net loss of 11 billion rubles in 2022.

[@wh8787]

@@BoraHorzaGobuchul even better.

[@Guibod12]

Week after week, I’m baffled by the pertinence, frequency and quality of your analysis. It’s really impressive.

[@peezieforestem5078]

Awareness about this hybrid warfare is what brings it down, which is why it is important to have videos like this.

[@nomoss9600]

“Think about how much damage an IT professional can do by accident.” Ok, I’m feeling targeted now. 😂

[@ndazza]

I resent this! I haven't caused that much damage... At least not that many times 😅

[@bmunson4920]

WIRED had an excellent run down a few years back about how Russia was constantly attacking the power, banking, and government infrastructure on a daily basis……at the time Ukraine was saying they were the test bed for all Russia was trying to achieve via cyber, which it knew it couldn’t either economically, or militarily….

[@homomorphic]

Russia successfully got a puppet elected in the US and got the UK to leave the EU. Two absolutely massive wins. I can see how the fact that democratic institutions successfully fought back with the election of Biden and derailed their plans for Ukraine and forced them to switch to a conventional kinetic attack (for which they were ill prepared) at the last minute.

[@machintelligence]

Hybrid doesn't seem to be working well either. Perhaps they should go back to proxy war.

[@Cryin_Lion]

Is there anything you recall from that piece that might help me find it, or could you retrieve a link? I'd be grateful for any help.

[@westrim]

Which ironically has really boosted Ukraine's economy in the cybersecurity sector from all that experience, and they now have well regarded firms offering those services internationally. Even when Russia tries to damage Ukraine economically it has benefits.

[@blackcatdungeonmastersfami5311]

Yet the effort Russia puts into this kind of thing is minute compared to what the Americans do.

[@Mechawizard]

My key takeaway from this video is that social media was a mistake and I’m never going on Twitter ever again.

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

Well that should at least save you a whole bunch of time.

[@caseygoddard]

I'm not sure if it was a mistake or not, but it certainly has outlived its usefulness. And by that I mean it is causing far more harm than good. Time to put it down because it's basically a brain-eating zombie at this point.

[@sijul6483]

Interesting tidbit, the internet was intended for use as a weapon by the DOD. Forget where I heard that, but that always stuck with me.

[@NexusBreeze99]

Extremely nuanced take on the information campaign. I love Tucker, but he's dead-wrong on the Ukraine question. Extremely high quality commentary as always Perun.

[@tudorstefan_321]

Always look forward to these every Sunday. Thanks for all the hard work Perun!

[@phincampbell1886]

I'd like your comment but it's on exactly 300

[@gmw3083]

Peruns so good at spewing bunk

[@mckitsune7600]

@@gmw3083 stop being a coward in the comments and make a video and debunk him

[@gmw3083]

@@mckitsune7600 i definitely can't be bothered putting that much effort into trying to clue in the sheeps. Keep bleating....

[@nicolasolton]

​@GMW can you elaborate? If you are right I'll have to stop watching.

[@alexl266]

I like analysis of physical warfare, and didn't think I'd like this topic as much. I was wrong, this was one of your best videos yet, and makes SO MUCH of what we've seen the last decade make sense.

[@andersjjensen]

If you want to delve deeper into the psychological methods employed in the information injection campaigns by Russia I cannot recommend Vlad Vexler enough. He's a former USSR citizen who moved to the UK two decades ago. Formally he has a degree in philosophy, but he is very psychology heavy in his analysis. But the philosophy part really does come in handy when trying to understand WHY Russian leadership sees itself the way it does and manages to think that they're the good guys.

[@typacsk]

What I always tell people is, this war started in 2014 and hasn't stopped.

[@CMY187]

@@andersjjensen I second this. Anyone who is interested in Russia and/or Ukraine and even in politics in general should watch Vexler.

[@alexl266]

@@andersjjensen Vlad Vexler is a scholar and a gentleman. Listen all the time.

[@andersjjensen]

@@typacsk Strictly speaking this war started in the minds of the Muscovites when Ukraine told the USSR to go f@ck itself. Ukraine was in many ways the technological powerhouse of the USSR. If Moscow had listened to Kyiv the USSR wouldn't have fallen so far behind technologically but they didn't truly realise this until after the dissolution of the Soviet dystopia.

[@xt6wagon]

Some bots are powered by vodka and stupidity instead of electricity.

[@daiakunin]

A deep dive into a complicated topic that frankly I haven't heard anyone else discuss. Superbly done Perun!

[@just_a_turtle_chad]

The vast majority of KZbinrs in this category don't provide their sources which leaves them totally unaccountable. I really appreciate that you are one of the precious few that do Perun.

[@jamesmorrow1646]

You’re the original Just a turtle? Your doppelgänger is one of the most persistent Putin trolls on KZbin.

[@melkor3496]

Here again? You are on Pro Russian and pro Ukrainian channels making contradicting comments… yeah you are definitely a bot.

[@jdawg8487]

Yes. I’ve seen so many takes on the Ukraine war that have made me question if my IQ dropped by reading them. There are people unironically suggesting that there really isn’t a war going on.

[@melkor3496]

@@jamesmorrow1646t’s actually the same channel I’ve checked. Not a copy. I looked at the same profile picture in a recent HL community post and it’s the exact same and not a copy.

[@jamesmorrow1646]

@@melkor3496 I just saw Just a turtle post a comment of Moron of Asshat’s Lotus Eaters with the same thumbnail. You’re correct. Maybe he has multiple personality disorder.

[@Subsandsoda]

Arguably hybrid warfare and disinformation is the thing Russia is truly best at, so thank you for covering this

[@TheIfifi]

Was, maybe. I'd argue that we have hyped up their ability to conduct this type of warfare to make them greater than they truly are. The invasion of Crimea in 2014 is considered a "golden stroke" of hybrid warfare, however it truly wasn't that impressive. A lot of troops were lost and flaws were exposed dramatically.

[@krishendo9433]

The U.S takes the cake when it comes to disinformation and propaganda. By a longshot.

[@lubomirdoukov6975]

Not really, their narrative only works upon people that are emotionally attached/ brain washed, or having IQ of 40 or below

[@badluck5647]

You know Putin is effective when he has the leading Republican presidential candidate and the top-rated, cable news host spreading Russian lies.

[@alwayscurious3357]

There's a channel named Redacted that amusingly fits the bill. Seemingly western channel that got quite a large number followers too with content revolving around Qanon and conspiracy theory stuff and parroting pro Russian and Chinese content. Makes me wonder who's bankrolling those guys

[@TheJudoJoker]

It wouldnt be a Perun video without a very "hypothetical" scenario happening on a very "hypothetical" map.

[@mikkosaarinen3225]

I think Ukraine has done a pretty good job at information warfare. We tend to only remember Zelensky is an actor in negative connotation, but I think he got his role from the start and has been playing it admirably. Editing for clarity: I'm not saying Zelensky is acting when it comes to his principles. What I'm saying is he has been using the skills he's learned in that profession to absolutely enchant crowds at some of the most powerful institutions in the world.

[@macmcleod1188]

And staying in Ukraine instead of running wasnt acting. It showed he was brave and he loved Ukraine and its people. It showed undeniable character and courage.

[@grahamstrouse1165]

Actors and comedians tend to have a good grasp of how to play to a crowd. Sometimes that’s a very important skill.

[@peterwebb8732]

As a certain very quotable British politician said during WW2…. It was the British people who were the lion, and his job to give the roar. Zelensky is the representative of Ukraine. It is his JOB to both focus and reflect the attitude of his people. Doing this is a good thing, not a bad one.

[@jimmieraper5807]

The Iron Joker. I am jealous

[@jimmieraper5807]

@@peterwebb8732 Churchill is the standard. "History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it". That's State Craft

[@jakobc.2558]

8:00 "If mercinarys do a coup in a foreign country then you can't be held accountable" Less then 24 hours ago the RSF, a russian backed and funded paramilitary with help from the wagner group started an attempted military coup in sudan because the sudan government was trying to implement moderate democratic reforms.

[@nancydelu4061]

We shall see, no?

[@lindsaycole8409]

It's got it all that one. RSF is Wagner backed with a pay off to Wagner/Russia of proceeds from gold mining. Wagner as a force is getting depleted from Ukraine, also the West is doing it's best to sanction Wagner and Russia which includes trying to stop what's flowing out of Sudan. This basically means RSF act now while Russia can still covertly back them, also fits the MO of Russia to create another crisis to draw attention away from Ukraine.

[@smoadia85]

instead of Jagged Alliance, it's Russian Alliance.

[@Rellana1]

I thought the wagner group would have cut out that crap due to when they tried posing as insurgents last,they got artillery dropped on them in large amounts.

[@Otterdisappointment]

So can someone explain to me what the RSF actually is? What’s their ideology?

[@conserva-chan2735]

A vid on Taiwan/ROC military history and modernization would be fantastic

[@checktheplaylist101]

The enemy forces, inspired by the evil spirit, ever wage war on the Christian name. They join forces in this endeavor with certain groups of men whose purpose is to subvert divinely revealed truths and to rend the very fabric of Christian society with disastrous dissent. Indeed, how much damage these cohorts, as it were, have inflicted on the Church is well-known. And yet, the spirit of all previous groups hostile to Catholic institutions has come to life again in that group called the Masonic sect, which, strong in manpower and resources, is the leader in a war against anything sacred. - Pope Leo “Once more we shall see freemasonry, Judaism and communism secretly associated in an operation of revolutionary subversion to bring off a gamble, which, for some years was to place the American government at the service of the Kremlin…” ...the West's main weakness remains unchanged: it cannot grasp the fact that it is facing an acceleration in the unfolding of Soviet convergence strategy which is intended to procure the subservience of the West to Moscow under an ultimate Communist World Government. -Anatoliy Golitsyn "It has been universally admitted by the order that to part Masonry and Judaism is impossible - Judaism is Masonry, and Masonry is Judaism." -The Jewish Chronicle (Dec 20) Dugin, “I think that the best thing in Polish history is the Jewish tradition in small towns in eastern Poland. Actually, I am interested in everything that was anti-Catholic in Poland: Polish freemasons and occultists, Jan Potocki and Hoene-Wroński, Mienżyński and Dzerzhinsky..” Ex-KGB agent Vlad Popov "Obviously, the special services assigned Dugin the role of a popularizer of ideas hatched among special services. In this, the KGB was invaluably benefited by several other people connected with Dugin through the special service"

[@BenSalernoMedia]

Living in Taiwan, the whole "do everything short of kinetic war" thing sounds very familiar to what comes to us from our big angry neighbor, though I'd say the Chinese are comparatively artless about it. Anyone bilingual in Mandarin and English can see the same propaganda and fake internet comments cropping up, practically literal translations of each other. Their propagandists are pretty high on their own supply, and not particularly good at lying or understanding what motivates people beyond the wall, so even when it's an empire vs a little island nation, they can't make much headway. The Russians are far more formidable in that one regard.

[@repposhpress1633]

Great video as always. The "bot" and "troll" use is one of the best (worst?) tactics. Make bots and propaganda > Do what Perun describes > Have real people share the bad info > People opposed to the disinformation react by pushing back often calling the real person the bot/troll > Make the sharer embarrassed and possibly double down or better yet call the people who push back against the bad info a "troll" or "bot". It ultimately makes the water so muddy someone who isn't informed or paying attention thinks both sides are a mess and become apathetic. Bonus points to the original propagandist if they can get it so muddy a reputable news organization share the disinformation due to lazy, uninformed, etc. humans working there.

[@MrCharlier88]

In many ways it’s similar to corporate actors when faced with an “enemy”. For example big tobacco or oil and gas companies. Amplify confusion push doubt set up proxies to act on their behalf for deniability etc.

[@useodyseeorbitchute9450]

There are clearly limiting factors. Right now, anyone in Polish forums who dares to say something even remotely looking pro-Russian is assumed to be Russian troll unless there is strong evidence to the contrary.

[@raidermaxx2324]

bot.

[@mrobocop1666]

Calling your opponent a troll or bot is dehumanisation which only worsen the ability of normal conversation and opinion exchange

[@useodyseeorbitchute9450]

@@mrobocop1666 Well, to be honest I don't see other way when you deal with people who lie for money.

[@martinivers489]

Exported corruption is a geopolitical weapon, the most important one in the Russian arsenal of hybrid warfare.

[@johnd2058]

The old Cold War I disinformation ops in intelligensia, Sputnik-turned-RT, useful idiots, &c. are even more important. It's how we got a US president spouting commie propaganda lines like "deep state".

[@jeckjeck3119]

Number 1 exporter of corruption world wide.

[@NoManOdysseus]

The real trick is "corruption" is designed to evade measurement and detection, like "doctors invited to a seminar on your new drug, with complimentary hookers and open bar etc."

[@markwilliams2620]

We in USA call it foreign aid.

[@pantalaemon]

@@markwilliams2620 woah so edgy

[@milton42083]

Perun, I've tried so many times to make PowerPoint interesting. When I was in college and in my professional, it's always been a snooze fest. You've got something I'll never have and I admire you for that!

[@hgman3920]

It's all in the accent

[@STROONZONY]

It's all the Aussie accent

[@thefisherking78]

Listened to this while on duty. Wish I had time to comment on specific stuff, but in lieu thereof... I loved it. Great analysis as always, and thank you.

[@ClaesWahl]

Freedom of Speech is a Western core value. An arguments - no matter if true or false - should stand on its own legs, not be regulated by government censorship. That may be seen as a Western weakness but is in fact one of the Western worlds greatest strength. If we abandon that core values, we have already lost.

[@laisphinto6372]

the vast amount of western backed dictators beg to differ

[@deezboyeed6764]

I would argue its one of western worlds biggest weakness too (especially in relation to usa). Its why we see large scale climate change denialism and why we see growth of movements like anti vax these are just two of the biggest examples of movents built entirely upon lies. In the west because of the concept of freedom of speech people have mistaken this to mean all speech is equal and that everyone should be listened to. (Hell even bill nyes show had to have a climate change denialer on to try and appear 'fair')

[@PRAR1966]

The attention to detail (+ humour) is outstanding ❣

[@utunga]

Except for "distrupt" 😅

[@tengkualiff]

As someone working in communications, appreciate that you are looking into this aspect too. Can't wait to get into this video. 💪

[@jtgd]

Can’t win a war with imprecise information

[@edmurth]

Possibly one of the best high level walkthroughs out there, particularly on propaganda which is so hard to keep brief. Looking at history is also extremely worthwhile with regards to propaganda, looking at the political and economic circumstances of the world in the 1920s and 30s and German propaganda for example.

[@umjackd]

It's interesting to compare because how they do it is totally different but the goals are the same. It was easy to control a mass narrative with mass media like radio and film due to them being easy to control. Now you have hashtags and algorithms, but you can still game those...

[@edmurth]

@@umjackd some of the themes remain the same though, Hitler raged about how the collective West wanted to destroy Germany, they attacked the free press, Goebbels called mass media the “Lugenpresse” meaning press of lies, whilst their own propaganda pushed crazy conspiracy theories about shadowy elites who controlled the world. All this was in the wake of a global depression and not that long after the Spanish flu of course.

[@hgman3920]

I've been waiting for this video for over a year and it's so much better than I'd hoped for!!!

[@Jj-xl3xg]

I keep forgetting why I stick around youtube at this time of the week, and then the latest Perun video pops up in my recommended, and I remember all over again! Thanks for the great videos, Perun!

[@Chemobob]

I love your "hypothetical" scenarios. You should launch a merch campaign with Team Kiwiland/Emutopia t-shirts ;)

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

Yeah yeah yeah, hiring a designer to make a few "why we fight" style posters/t-shirts would be super easy, barely an inconvenience.

[@Marinealver]

🇪🇪

[@johnathanhughes9881]

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

[@raidermaxx2324]

aaaaaaaaahhhhh "emu- topia" HAHAHA i just got to that part lol

[@KPx-ke8bg]

Can we just give props to Perun's audio quality for a sec? I mean, damn, Hi-fi dulcet tones from the crispiest, most soothing voice on KZbin

[@peez9187]

I just listened to this and I fell asleep in the middle (just come back from a long hike). I just woke up from a dream in which I, as well as thousands other people were listening to him live. Perun could make a living doing seminars, 1000%.

[@oliwyrm]

i was literally just watching the previous vid, this is a godsend, thank you man

[@8calcifer]

me too, how very lucky of us. Perun does great videos

[@Maplenr]

It's pretty sad how an entire generation that warned mine about the dangers of the internet then fell for every bit of bullshit they ever saw online. Appreciative of your videos good sir

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

Russian saying: while we feared the internet would ruin our children, the tv has ruined our parents.

[@erichewes3288]

You're one of a small number of high quality channels i genuinely trust on youtube, so much is hyper biased but your perspective and pro-western position are planely stated and your positions are always well sourced & reasoned. Thank you for taking the time to put this together and for sourcing everything so clearly, i always learn something new.

[@zhshsG7]

I think you've made a mistake there: at 16:40 your slide cites "Kislev" as a source. Though I have to admit, they are an awesome nation :D

[@PerunAU]

I didn't think enough people would get it and so Bearland was born before recording

[@MikeTheBeastsVideos]

I always start my day off with a Perun Powerpoint Presentation (PPP) and I am never disappointed. I look forward to next week's presentation!

[@AXharoth]

never disappointed always powerpointed

[@p_serdiuk]

that is a very long pp

[@michaelramon2411]

The "wide net" approach of spamming out your B.S. claims to as many places as possible is not solely about making it look like people agree with you (though that is part of it). It also means that the least sensible people in your target audience are more likely to see it. It's the same reason spam emails aim wide and don't check their spelling too hard - they WANT to find the people who won't notice the warning signs.

[@ohmightyzeus6135]

Yes. It is a terribly bleak realisation that the spam emails that are obviously fake AF are not mistakes. The obvious scam aspect is the first filter being applied. What a world.

[@deezboyeed6764]

It also plays a part in clogging up the machine.

[@andersjjensen]

I'll maintain that Ukraine has won the information space war absurdly hard. When practically every English speaking Ukrainian takes to the keyboards, each with their own points of view and ways to express them, the Russian equivalent is so easily detectable. The whole "Rapid and repetitive" angle Perun covered here dawned on me fairly quickly, to the point that I've often jokingly told Russian spammers that they forgot a few of "today's talking points". You don't need to follow many channels before the pattern emerges, and you even start recognizing screen names.

[@W_Bin]

"you even start recognizing screen names." - yes, pretty funny when you realise how many accounts are out there.

[@vision2080]

Well said. And the fake western screen names (or even the obvious Russian names) are quite funny to see. I have experienced the same things you mentioned.

[@macmcleod1188]

You also look at the account. Under a year old and no content. 10 or 11 years old and no content. These appeared last September. I suspect the Kremlin took them out years ago and never used them.

[@blackcatdungeonmastersfami5311]

No, I think Russia has won the information war decisively. If you think Ukraine has won it's probably because you only watch pro-Ukraine channels. When the war started, the whole world was at best sceptical towards Russia. Since then, important countries are drifting from their American aligned position. China is clearly backing Russia as is Iran. The Middle East is orientating away from America most importantly Saudi Arabia but also Turkey - the fact that Saudi Arabia and Iran have restored relations now is huge. Putin is amongst the most admired people in the Arab world and Africa. BRICS+ is becoming a serious force attracting the interest of many large countries. India is trying to play both sides but improving relations with Russia. Even in the Western world support for Ukraine is dropping. Throughout Europe especially France and Italy, there have been huge anti-government demonstrations though barely reported and hostility to NATO is an important factor. In the English speaking world, only a huge American government effort at narrative control is holding up the pro-war narrative at all. See the University of Adelaide study which found 90% of the bot accounts commentating on the war were pro-Ukraine, not pro-Russia. It's ironic that Perun, an Australian himself makes a video accusing Russia of using social media bots (which is true) but doesn't mention that the America effort is an order of magnitude bigger. I don't speak Scandinavian languages so I'd guess in Scandinavia the narrative is strongly pro-Ukraine. But it seems to me in Germany, the pro-NATO narrative is starting to crumble.

[@Grimdarkog]

@@macmcleod1188 "anyone who disagrees with my narrative is a russian bot"

[@homomorphic]

Another piece of quality work. I have become a patreon supporter. I try to support channels that put a lot of effort into their content.

[@phincampbell1886]

I wish I had the money to do that. His channel is great isn't it!?

[@hztn]

- By the way: Patreon is pro-russian. It's management banning Ukrainian supporters, and ignoring the russian terroristic organizations in it.

[@melkor3496]

I’ve been waiting your your upload all day. Probably the only channel I crave long essay style videos from. I feel like that’s how you know something is off when people are actually wanting longer videos from you.

[@PapaOscarNovember]

What surprises me is how hybrid war is being viewed as something 'new'. Sun Tzu's art of war discusses great power competition and winning without fighting. If you read Romance of Three Kingdoms, you see once three kingdoms are established, they go full hybrid war with all the elements covered in this video, to weaken and misdirect each other. Hybrid war is so well established, it's even in strategy computer games. If you look at a game like Europa Universalis IV, in action menu under 'Cover Actions', you have 'Build Spy Network', 'Fabricate Claim', 'Support Rebels', 'Sow Discontent', 'Sabotage Reputation', 'Infiltrate Administration', which a player can employ to shape balance of power, shape the power landscape, engineer advantageous conditions, and initiate a conflict on your terms. This is old stuff. How are people surprised by this?

[@TevelDrinkwater]

Social media seems like gasoline to hybrid warfare techniques targeting the general populace. Now instead of pamphlets or something, it's in everyone's news feed.

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

None of the techniques are new, the only novel aspect is how the Russian Federation made the decision to run an entire country under the doctrine to pursue their goals.

[@dh1380]

It's simply the coining of the phrase that has garnered attention

[@jintsuubest9331]

Remember how he say when leadership has nothing better to do but still want to appears to be doing things? Just restructure the whole damn thing. Making up new names for stuff is part of the restructuring.

[@W_Bin]

Nobody knew about it. It's an eye opener and a game changer.

[@knpark2025]

I remember Destin visit a US general and talk about the similar concept about information and cyberwarfare. The general jokingly said that the SmarterEveryday video he was asked to star in can arguably be called an example of it, one to spread the narrative that the US military wants the public to agree on. It was good to learn about it in detail. Edit: What I mean by US military thinking about it lowkey for several years I meant it by that everyone other than Russia must be already using it so it should be the actors and their purpose that matter more than the means they use to try to subvert me. I don't care if every single US veterans on KZbin were just DoD propaganda apparatus as long as they are against dictators and war crimes.

[@knpark2025]

@@chooseyouhandle I just wanted to add stuff and be clean about it. I am not good at pressing "upload" and then stop thinking about more things to comment.

[@coopmaxxxer325]

Tasty Period. Holy fuck Perun, i almost spilled my tea. As a russian i always wondered how the westeners would translate "Вкусно и точка". TBH i prefer the version "Tasty and that's it" , but your version is much funnier.

[@smartguy360]

The reason Russia uses hybrid warfare is because it is too weak to use regular warfare to achieve its goals

[@aliasalias8433]

True!

[@TheFirebird123456]

Regular warfare plus other tools of diplomacy such as investment access to markets etc.

[@MaaveMaave]

Hybrid warfare is just more effective. It's the new regular warfare. Not like propaganda is new ... but you get it.

[@smartguy360]

@@MaaveMaave I disagree because they used real warfare on those small countries outside of NATO instead those ones inside of NATO like the baltics

[@laisphinto6372]

Wrong Russias goal was to take over Ukraine not flatten it. now they are boxed in a shitty position since when they take over ,they have to rebuild , deal with partisans and every other eastern european joining NATO or the slavs disregard Nato and counterattack together since they caught russia slipping and smell blood.

[@sixstringedthing]

Nearly a full hour-and-fifteen, as befits a pretty mind-popping kind of topic. And bang on schedule as per usual. Perun never disappoints, I look forward to watching this and listening to it several times over until all the nuances have had a chance to really sink in. heroyam slava AU🇦🇺🤜🤛🇺🇦UA

[@AleksandreMzhavia]

I think you are among the very few truly competent Military Analysists online, I think you should do a report on Hybrid Warfare against Georgia (esp. 2004-2008, 2009-2012 and 2022-2023+), it was on ULTRA+ settings for many years now, I am amazed how the west still falls for it, even in 2023, even people like Stephen Kotkin, who is among the few competent people in regards to Russian history and politics.

[@badgertheskinnycow]

He's not a military analyst. He just reads up on a subject for a week and then makes a video of what he found. The thoughts he presents are not independent thought.

[@AleksandreMzhavia]

@@badgertheskinnycow Who is a military analyst then in your opinion? I say Perun does a pretty incredible job with very in-depth analysis.

[@MrKIMBO345]

He is more on the military economic and sometimes, policy than the geopolitics and tactics. That is okay as there are KZbinrs who has channel on the tactics and geopolitics.

[@badgertheskinnycow]

@@AleksandreMzhavia an analyst is someone who has qualifications or direct experience in the subject in question. Reading a book on birds and then googling about birds does not make me an an analyst upon birds - if I don't have any other expertise to bring to the subject.

[@robbabcock_]

Fantastic video! We really need this content and it's not something the media will be willing or able to provide, especially at the level of depth and detail you give us here. Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦😎🙌

[@7secularsermons]

Sunday. Other people go to church. I refresh Perun's channel every few minutes.

[@carstenthies9597]

@PerunAU , How about a review of theimpact of the Ukraine war and Russian deployment of it's military to Ukraine on the security of Russia' other borders? In particular does Russia actually still guard the border to China? I would not be surprised if some chinese planners in the PLA look at Russias military situation right now and are updating their scenario estimates with some very favorable outcome predictions.

[@MTerrance]

You just identified what had to be a topic of discussion for Xi and Vlad during Xi's state visit. My guess is Xi was offering Vlad assurances that the PLA would refrain from active engagements during the Ukraine war.

[@oohhboy-funhouse]

Russian units are probably extremely thin. The question is, why buy the cow when you can have the milk at or near cost. A 'No limits' relationship doesn't mean they aren't at risk of getting nuked. Russia is becoming vassal/client state of China. All bets are off if RF disintegrates.

[@grahamstrouse1165]

China’s got to be interested in getting access to some of that former Chinese real estate Russia took from Japan at the end of WWII. One of the largest freshwater lakes in the World, Lake Baikal, sits just inside the Russian border. China’s desperate for fresh water.

[@bmunson4920]

When Russia disavowed the ‘little green men’ in Crimea, the west should have smacked them…

[@canitbu6217]

Another absolutely stellar presentation, esp. re a particularly difficult subject content to define, articulate and analyze. BRAVO!

[@Mradrianbailey]

Sunday isn't complete without Perun's weekly video

[@JoeyCarb]

All my unfinished projects breathing a sigh of relief as soon as the notification from Perun come through early on Sundays.

[@smartguy360]

Same, I use his videos to complete long chores like ironing or cooking

[@relwalretep]

Arguably your best video yet, Perun. This one will well stand the test of time relevance. Bravo, cobba.

[@sballantine8127]

This was SO good, thank you for all the time and effort you put into making it.

[@DonetskiLetsplayshik]

Just recently started reading a book by the Ukrainian scholar Evhen Magda about this exact topic! Great book and I highly recommend

[@kevak1236]

I think I need to take you to task over part of this. Labelling a Tuckyo Rose Carlson message as that "MIGHT be complete bullshit" is one of the grossest understatements of your entire video series. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Keep up the good work!

[@randomuser5443]

Tuckers legitimacy is purely on domestic politics making it extremely easy to point his points at a completely different beast and watch it burn

[@JillLulamoon]

Hes the human equivalent of a backed up toilet. All he does is spew shit.

[@c1ph3rpunk]

What’s unfortunate is that many of the TTP’s leveraged during combined ops, that include a cyber element, aren’t publicly discussed because they can’t be.

[@nicholasconder4703]

Your section on "Proxy Use" (26:10 - 29:44) is EXACTLY what the Soviet Union did from the early 1950s to late 1980s on every continent, barring Antarctica, to destroy liberal democracy and free market economies. I always like pointing out that the number of ongoing civil conflicts in the world dropped by around 50% as soon as the USSR collapsed in 1991. I doubt very much this is a coincidence.

[@ivanthetj]

Nothing like a new Perun release every Sunday :)

[@ObeySilence]

On the topic of cyberwarfare and Russian propaganda I would love to hear more from you. I think this topic is quite under-researched. Especially looking at things how they bought German Facebook pages like the Anonymous Germany page and what specific channels and pages are out there. What purpose they serve etc. Until recently I did not know Red Fish was a Russian channel.

[@elektrotehnik94]

Red Fish is legit a russian-funded media. They also perfectly show show the "don't look at how bad Russia is, look at any other societal problem we might throw at your face".

[@littlekong7685]

I too would love to hear just how damaging Russian bots have been to Western nations. I recall when Russia was taken off the global net for a few days, right wing rhetoric was so crippled in the USA, that facebook and Twitter had to re-engineer their algorithms to compensate for the almost complete and sudden absence of anything not liberal. It was to the extent that they were worried even within right wing exclusive groups there might not be enough traffic of a certain type to retain users through daily activity (One popular meme was a woman asking why out of some 500 members on an America first, nationalist right wing page, only 2 people were active during the Russia blackouts). That just goes to show how much sheer volume Russia can pout out into certain sectors at one time.

[@laisphinto6372]

i dont buy that because how much especially US politicians throw that russian are behind my political enemy around. most of it is just bullshit and more like the red scare and insane fear about russian stuff that isnt real

[@jamesrowlands8971]

"Everything Russian is somehow bad" -Idiots.

[@zionpsyfer]

Another great video. Thank you, Perun. +1 on getting your game on; we don't want you to develop burn-out.

[@selfawaretrashcan4594]

Absolute top analysis. Always appreciate your hard work on producing quality videos, top stuff mate

[@marlowc2324]

So important to cover and for people to understand. Thank you for doing this so adequately. Sincerely, A proud Ukrainian/CIA/NAFO bot 🤖✌🏼 Beep boop!

[@jukebox_heroperson3994]

NAFO is partly responsible for pushing me to the other side. Good job.

[@SeamusCameron]

NAFO might not have the resources that the Russian apparatus does, but they do have the best memes.

[@Xian-dd3sl]

​@jukebox_hero person oh no! You were the most important and powerful ally we had...how devastating to the cause

[@jodyfulford8215]

Much love and aloha to you from Hawaii!

[@oohhboy-funhouse]

NAFO expanision is non-negoitable.

[@vishrutbansal2535]

This topic was my vote on your last community post. I've eagerly been awaiting it and it did not disappoint! You've managed to crystallise so many ideas that I had picked up based on my own experience just being on the internet since the invasion. It has given me tonnes of food for thought. At the same time, I find that a lot of the channels I'll visit for Indian news are very susceptible to tactics such as this. You need only remind people of India's long standing relationship with Russia and all critical thought goes out the 12th story window in favour of death chants to a foreign people. I know you covered the topic of countering such efforts briefly on an institutional level but I'd love to hear your thoughts on any steps an individual can take when they recognise such tactics being deployed on an average day on the internet. As for the institutional response, I'd also love to know what NATO and their allies have done to counter such efforts by not just Russia but China and other such actors as well. This, I suppose, also leads to the Ukrainian efforts to wield similar tactics and my sense is that they have been effective, thanks in no small part to the goodwill afforded to them by virtue of them being both the defenders and the presumed underdogs. I recognise this topic is rather nebulous and at least for me, rather frustrating to contend with. It'll also be difficult, by its very nature, to find reliable information and data on how propaganda and the like have impacted ground reality in the face of their blatant disregard for it. Even so, I feel comfortable imploring you to explore it as deeply as you can because you and your work have lived up to that standard time and time again. Thank you very much for your efforts and I look forward to some casual war crimes on the gaming channel, you know...just to relax.

[@jamesbohlman4297]

A difficult subject to cover, but an excellent presentation. Thank you Perun.

[@garyswift9347]

Yay! Hooray for the return of Perun Gaming. I've missed you man. But thanks for all of this great content in the meantime.

[@jacafren5842]

What is better for a Sunday, than a long well-researched and presented PP-show :-)

[@hereigoagain5050]

A cup of morning coffee and Russian tanks competing in the turret toss put me in the mood for Perun PP-show.

[@swj719]

Ahhhhh the simple joy of a KZbin PowerPoint presentation. My week is now complete.

[@jmaldo68]

Your analysis are becoming the top standard on KZbin.

[@wyskass861]

This was a huge topic to undertake and fit into 1 hour, but well done. I think Foreign Internal Defense would have also been interesting to mention here, as practiced by just a few western nations. The US Army Special Forces afaik are unique in the world as primarily given the role of FID. While Special Forces are often confused with other Special Operations Forces, the Army SF, core training involves training, directing, supplying and motivating a host nations or sub group to fight. Especially useful for the USA which both needs to shape world affairs yet technically requires Congress to approval to wage war. Unlike Russia which doesn't require any democratic approvals. SF can also do covert operations, and may be the reason mercenaries for offense aren't used by USA for deniable operations, as they can get others to fight for their interest with appropriate motivation. Of course there are CIA paramilitary, Delta, ST6 as well, but for larger scale non-attributable military action it's Army SF., who get others to do America's fighting

[@mukklan.]

Your videos are a lot of people only chance to get good information about the war right now. Thank you for doing your part //Me and my fellow slide show enjoyers

[@JP-JustSayin]

No need to "take control of the narrative" if one can raise enough dust in the information space that the public can't assemble a narrative in the first place.

[@Alex-hu5eg]

If someone says A, I dont say B. But B,c,e,d,e,f,g. It's about creating context

[@paulhartman5683]

Hey Perun, this is the kind of video, I value the most from you because it has wide ranging importance outside of the field of war. Your videos are always interesting, and intriguing, but it is this kind of video that I find most beneficial personally.

[@michaelchomiczewski7937]

Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth veto power in the 18th century. Wow. VERY impressive depth of knowledge.

[@captainyossarian388]

Wasn't a big fan of Sundays until Perun came along. 👍

[@hopr]

Another great sunday PowerPoint from Perun. Looking forward to see it (yes, in that order ;) )

[@MarkBanas]

Congrats on reaching 400k subscribers! That's a lot of eyeballs for your slide decks and insightful Aussie-accented commentary. Well deserved.

[@wildamerica-nj6jl]

I very much appreciate your level-headed and reasonable approach to this war. I always look forward to your videos, thank you and keep up the good work!

[@njaalsturlasson2351]

Another great video, Perun. You do us all a fantastic service. Keep them coming.

[@ricardoospina5970]

The most famous version is the Chinese entry into the Korean conflict, where dozens of Chinese divisions entered Korea. Was China attacking UN forces, no no, these units volunteered to defend Korea, entire army divisions with tanks, artillery, and jets.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

Well... Not tanks and Arties included. The PRChinese People's Volunteer Army is rather almost composed of infantry...

[@jeffreyskoritowski4114]

​@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 Half of whom weren't even armed.

[@mockingbird0901]

Quality stuff as always. And congrats on hitting 400k

[@bro_dBow]

THIS is outstanding clarification and information, one of your best presentations! Keep it coming!

[@spitezor]

Thanks for regular content. Don't be afraid to take a break. I see it's been a while since you posted something on your gaming channel.

[@Gorboduc]

If you want a good take on old school psychological warfare, check out the book of the same title by Cordwainer Smith. (He went on to write sci-fi, but started out in WWII psyops.) The first few chapters in particular have much to say about utilizing preexisting schisms. It's free as an audiobook too!

[@Gorboduc]

PS - the hypothetical Bearland campaign from 51-59:00 sounds suspiciously like a Colour Revolution. 😎

[@piersonjamesa]

and as always the comment section of perun delivers, thank you!

[@TheRezro]

@@Gorboduc If you ask about ones from Ukraine, it was actually a conflict between pro-Russian oligarchs, who start accusing each other of being "Western" spy and as result Russia intervened, faking election of own candidate. Problem is that as result of that society actually start seeking support of scapegoat forces. And after corrupted politician was kicked out in corruption scandal and directly Russia invaded. Everyone realized that Ukraine in fact was assaulted by Russia whole time. Even then most of supposed Western culprit prefer to pretend that nothing happen, because it didn't affect them. But others actually start support Ukrainian government, purely to spite Russia false accusations. More direct example of that is direct attempt if attempt of faking election in US. It is also worrying that those same people show weird pro-Russian sympathies. And will of acting against interest of the State.

[@Otterdisappointment]

Schisms are what Russia creates and promotes as much as exploits while still not believing any of it. Dresden, USS Liberty (while “supporting” Israel because the devil can cite scripture to suit his purpose), WACO, MOVE, homosexuals, Byzantium/Rome, the terms “Catholic” and “traditional” together both subjectively and erroneously, the IRA, Lehi, PLO, Mormons, other Evangies, British legacy, Assad, Chechnyan Legion, Paganism, Satanism, Eastern Orthodoxy over local Miaphysite (Imperial Cult), Pharisees, anything to destroy the Free World and all assets are expendable. It’s not that they’re still communist even when they were and are it’s because they’re pagans.

[@mongopoju]

Your most significant production to date. Well done!