Thread by @JMichaelWaller

Six years ago, I proposed that Ukraine develop a secret weapon against Russian attack: The ability to take the political & psychological fight into Putin's home turf.

The Obama administration rejected the idea. Ukraine considered it but rejected it also. kyivpost.com/article/opinio…

1) Excerpts from 2015 Kyiv Post article: "Like no other country, non-aligned Ukraine has an untapped capability to defend itself against Russian aggression – with or without support from the West.

"It’s an old idea that doesn’t require guns or bombs."

2) "All that it needs is the will to harness the aggressor’s internal vulnerabilities. While Russia is militarily far stronger than Ukraine, it shows signs of much greater weakness inside its borders."

3) "Ukrainians know Russia’s political cultures, national fears and paranoias, socioeconomic divides, and other vulnerabilities that are ripe for adroit strategists to exploit."

[This presumed, for the sake of charity, that the Ukrainian government had adroit strategists.]

4) "In its own special way, Ukraine can magnify the many voices inside Russia that, together, form the disorganized nucleus of a movement that could do to Putin what the Maidan movement did to the pro-Moscow regime in Kyiv one year ago [in 2015]."

5) "ordinary Russians resent & fear the growing political repression & unchecked corruption under Putin’s mafiocracy....Censors are powerless to stop the viral spread of a popular protest video calling for a 'Russian Maidan' movement against the Kremlin’s 'totalitarian monster.'"

6) "Conditions are developing for a national anti-war movement [2015]...Ukraine should exploit this issue. No army can accomplish its objectives with a robust anti-war movement at home – especially when that movement is integrated with a global diplomatic offensive ...."

7) "Ukraine can become a platform for leaders and movements across Russia’s 11 time zones that are seeking autonomy – and even independence – from Moscow....

"That autonomy would threaten Putin’s control complex. It would allow rival political factions to flourish."

8) "All this human capital is Ukraine’s secret weapon to push back the invaders – while showing solidarity with ordinary citizens of the Russian Federation who, like Ukraine, suffer under Kremlin abuse."

9) "The key is for Ukraine to serve as the sponsor, integrator, and magnifier of Russia’s voices for freedom and autonomy. That is Ukraine’s secret weapon."

But Ukraine chose not even to try.