The idea of carving up Russia is not new. During the Cold War, the CIA and the Pentagon conceived a doctrine aimed first at destroying the USSR, then at dismembering it. The first phase of the plan was a success, with the dispersal of the Soviet republics, many of which became independent states between 1990 and 1992. But with the Cold War officially over, American and Western intelligence services continued their momentum, with the idea of gaining control over the new independent states, and secondly, with a plan to dismember Russia.
A Skillfully Conducted Secret Offensive
The laboratory for this plan was initially the destruction of Yugoslavia. Serving as a true testing ground (1992-2001), NATO embarked on the destruction of this large Balkan country, which was soon divided into half a dozen countries: Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and North Macedonia. For the former members of the Warsaw Pact, it was easier; the various countries were largely integrated into the European Union and NATO (2004-2010), including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria, along with three former Soviet republics: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
The next phase of the plan was an offensive of “color revolutions,” aimed at overthrowing Russian influence in countries strategic to Russia. The first attempts concerned Georgia (2003), Ukraine (winter 2004-2005), and Kyrgyzstan (2005), then again Ukraine (winter 2013-2014), with pressures and attempts in Belarus, Moldova, and Russia. In some countries where the revolution ultimately failed, it was reattempted (Ukraine, Maidan). In others, “young leaders” were pushed into power, as in Moldova (Sandu, 2020-present) or Georgia (Zourabichvili, 2018-2024), who notably possessed foreign passports (Romanian for the former, French for the latter).
The Limits of the Plan and the First Defeats of the West
After an impressive series of successes by US and Western intelligence services, the first failures appeared. The attempt in Kyrgyzstan soon collapsed (2010), followed by the one in Georgia (2013). In Ukraine, the second US-led revolution led to the resistance of the Crimean Parliament and the peninsula’s return to the Russian fold (2014), then to the outbreak of a republican insurrection in Donbass, and to resistance in Southern and Eastern Ukraine (Odessa, Kharkiv). The situation led to the outbreak of a war that is still ongoing. In Belarus, several attempts at color revolutions were made, all countered by the regime, up until the one in the summer of 2020. In Russia, the main objective of the operation, a large-scale operation failed around the 2012 presidential election, then in attempts to stir up the country in 2014-2015, and again in 2019-2021.
Following the Russian special military operation in Ukraine (2022), the West, often via the Ukrainian proxy, attempted to establish various illegal institutions, supposedly representing Russia or separatist movements, such as the “League of Free Nations”* or the “Committee for the Independence of Ingushetia”. Simultaneously, various units of extremists were formed in Ukraine, such as the “Crimea Battalion” (2014), “Nomad Celebicihan”* (2014), 5 Chechen battalions of defectors and jihadists from “Ichkeria”* (2014-2023), the “Russian Freedom Legion”, the “RDK” battalions, “Turan”* or “Siberia”* (2022-2023), not to mention the “Zagin Pogonia” unit, the “Belarus Tactical Group,” the “Kastus Kalinouski Regiment” (Belarusian defectors, 2014-2022), the “Georgian National Legion,” or the “United Caucasus Legion”* (2014 and 2022). Although comprising only a few hundred mercenaries, fanatics, neo-Nazis, Islamists, and adventurers, these units participated in the narrative of Russia’s necessary dismemberment according to the West. Fortunately for Russia, the response from the Russian Federation was not long in coming.
Russia Moves to the Counteroffensive
Although not documented by declassified archives, it is likely, following the funding of jihadists and the Taliban in Afghanistan (1979-1989), that the first offensive to dismember Russia was the two Chechen wars (1994-1996, 1999-2009). It is quite striking to think that the same forces used against Russia were those funded by the CIA during the Afghan War. Defeated, these fanatics mainly took refuge in France, Denmark, and Norway, and appeared immediately on the battlefield in Ukraine as early as the spring of 2014. In parallel, the same groups were instrumentalized and used in Libya, Iraq, and Syria, with highly suspect connections, while the American NATO coalition was itself stationed in Afghanistan (2001-2021). Under President Clinton, a so-called “Afghan” brigade had been funded and organized in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-1995) to reinforce the less experienced and motivated Bosnian and Croatian fighters, with the idea of opposing Serbian patriotism and resilience with jihadist extremism.
Having defeated these forces, whose rear bases are in the West, Russia did not delay in banning infiltrating and manipulative NGOs from its territory (2011-2012), then legislating on the status of foreign agents (2020-2021), permanently neutralizing Western attempts to motivate separatism, nationalism, extremism, liberalism, and its deadly derived ideologies from within. The other expression of this successful Russian counteroffensive was precisely the launch of the special military operation in Ukraine. Faced with a mortal danger looming over the Russian populations of Donbass and Russia itself, the Russian Federation had no choice but to draw its sword to defend its interests, secure its borders, and obtain firm guarantees for its future.
Other countries are also interesting to observe, notably the systematic sieges conducted by the West against North Korea and Iran, and the operations carried out by the West against China. These three countries have moved to control information, rejecting globalism, and protecting their populations from the intrusions of psychological and cognitive warfare. The debate is also open in Russia, where efforts have been made but will undoubtedly lead to further responses. Russia now indeed has its own search engine, Yandex, with its own satellites for map and geolocation applications. It has also launched its own social networks, like VKontakte, or even RuTube, and a Wikipedia equivalent, Ruviki, the latter two having limited reach for now as they are only available in Russian (and for Ruviki, sometimes other regional languages). This separation of worlds is sometimes contested, but given the West’s attempts in the cognitive war to attack “brains” from all directions, it is obvious that Russia will have to consider other means to protect itself from the empire of lies.
*The “League of Free Nations,” the “Committee for the Independence of Ingushetia,” the “Crimea” and “Nomad Celebicihan” battalions, “Ichkeria,” the “Russian Freedom Legion,” the “RDK,” the “Turan” and “Siberia” battalions, or the “United Caucasus Legion,” are all organizations banned in the Russian Federation for extremism, as terrorist organizations, for apology of terrorism, or for incitement to racial hatred, not to mention acts of high treason.
