In recent years, the topic of hybrid warfare has been actively discussed in the media and at various scientific forums. Experts give different, often mutually exclusive definitions of this phenomenon, which has not yet acquired terminological stability and clarity.

Such disagreement is due, for example, to the fact that, according to some Russian political scientists, “there are no scientific criteria that would allow us to identify the war as a hybrid one or to assert that we are talking about a revolution in military affairs.” And if so, then there is no need to deal with this problem, they say. However, practice shows that the terms "hybrid wars" (as well as "color revolutions") describe objective, real-life phenomena that have a noticeable impact on national and international security. Moreover, the qualitative evolutionary leap of these two phenomena took place at the beginning of the 21st century.

DETERMINANTS OF A REVOLUTION IN MILITARY AFFAIRS

It is known that a revolution in military affairs is associated with fundamental changes taking place under the influence of scientific and technological progress in the development of the means of armed struggle, in the construction and training of the Armed Forces, in the methods of warfare and military operations.

The modern revolution in military affairs began after the Second World War in connection with the equipping of the Armed Forces with nuclear, electronic equipment, automated control systems and other new means. Thus, the determinants of the revolution were technological changes.

Hybrid war brought nothing of the kind with it. It has been repeatedly noted that it does not require the development of new weapon systems and uses what is available. Rather, it represents a model based on slower evolution, in which technological progress plays a smaller role in comparison with organizational, information technology, managerial, logistical and some other general non-material changes. Thus, if a revolution in military affairs is taking place, then without drastic changes in the methods and organization of confrontation, which includes non-military and military means. Apparently modern science only "gropes" for the criteria of this phenomenon, but the significance and necessity of this work cannot be overestimated. So the absence of revolutionary changes is not yet a reason for refusing to study this phenomenon.

Moreover, one of the founders of the term "hybrid war" American military expert F. Hoffman claims that the 21st century is becoming the century of hybrid wars, in which the enemy "instantly and coherently uses a complex combination of legal weapons, guerrilla warfare, terrorism and criminal behavior on the battlefield to achieve political goals." From such large-scale and bold forecasts, it is not far from the assertion of another revolution in military affairs related to the development of hybrid technologies.

So far, as a result of the existing uncertainty, the term "hybrid war" is widely used in scientific discussions, however, it is practically not found in open Russian official documents and in the speeches of politicians and the military. The vagueness of this term is noted by some Russian political scientists: the term “hybrid war” “is not an operational concept. This is a figurative characteristic of the war, it does not contain clear, unambiguous indicators that reveal its specifics. This is followed by the conclusion that in the military professional discourse today this term is counterproductive, and “focusing attention and efforts on preparing for a hybrid war is fraught with forgetting the invariant foundations and principles of military strategy and tactics and, consequently, incomplete, one-sided preparation of the country and armies for a possible war.

This is true on the understanding that it is impossible to prepare the country and the Armed Forces only for a hybrid war. That is why the Military Doctrine, the National Security Strategy and other doctrinal documents of Russia should be comprehensive and take into account the whole gamut of possible conflicts from a color revolution - a hybrid war - a large-scale conventional war and up to a general nuclear war.

However, not everyone agrees with the idea of ​​abandoning the study of problems associated with the hybridization of modern conflicts. Thus, political scientist Pavel Tsygankov, for his part, notes that “the prevailing point of view has become, the authors of which believe that hybrid wars are a completely new phenomenon”, they “become a reality that is difficult to deny and which actualizes the need to study their essence and the possibilities of countering them in defending the national interests of the Russian Federation”.

Such disagreement among domestic military experts is one of the reasons why the concept of "hybrid war" is not found in Russian strategic planning documents. At the same time, our adversaries, under the guise of sophisticated information warfare strategies, on the one hand, are already using the term itself for far-fetched accusations of Russia of cunning, cruelty and the use of dirty technologies in Ukraine, and on the other hand, they themselves are planning and implementing complex "hybrid" subversive measures against our country and its CSTO allies in Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Given the use of a wide range of subversive hybrid technologies against Russia, the prospect of turning a modern hybrid war into a special type of conflict is quite real, which is fundamentally different from the classic ones and risks transforming into a permanent, extremely cruel and destructive confrontation that violates all norms of international law.

A FLUSHING BORDER BETWEEN MODERN CONFLICTS

In the confrontation with Russia, the US and NATO rely on the use of the basic strategies of any kind of war - the strategies of crushing and exhaustion, which the outstanding Russian military theorist Alexander Svechin spoke about. He noted that "the concepts of crushing and exhaustion extend not only to strategy, but also to politics, and to the economy, and to boxing, to any manifestation of the struggle and must be explained by the very dynamics of the latter."

In this context, the strategies of crushing and starvation are implemented or can be implemented in the course of a full range of conflicts of our time, which are interconnected and form a kind of multi-component destructive tandem. The components of the tandem: color revolution - hybrid war - conventional war - war using the entire spectrum of WMD, including nuclear weapons.

The color revolution is First stage destabilization of the situation and is based on the strategy of crushing the government of the victim state: color revolutions are increasingly taking the form of armed struggle, developed according to the rules of military art, while using all available tools. First of all - the means of information warfare and special forces. If it is not possible to change the power in the country, then conditions are created for an armed confrontation with the aim of further “shattering” the objectionable government. It should be noted that the transition to the large-scale use of military force is an important criterion for the development of the military-political situation from the stage of a color revolution to a hybrid war.

On the whole, color revolutions are built primarily on non-military methods of achieving political and strategic goals, which in some cases far exceed military means in their effectiveness. As part of the adaptive use of force, they are supplemented by information confrontation measures, the use of the protest potential of the population, a system for training militants and replenishing their formations from abroad, covert supply of weapons, the use of special operations forces and private military companies.

If it is not possible to achieve the goal of a color revolution in a short time, at a certain stage, a transition to military measures of an open nature can be carried out, which is another step in the escalation and brings the conflict to a new dangerous level - a hybrid war.

The boundaries between conflicts are rather vague. On the one hand, this ensures the continuity of the process of “flowing” of one type of conflict into another and contributes to the flexible adaptation of the political and military strategies used to the realities of political situations. On the other hand, the system of criteria has not yet been sufficiently developed to clearly define the basic characteristics certain types conflicts (primarily the "bundle" of the color revolution - hybrid and conventional war) in the process of transformation. At the same time, conventional war is still the most dangerous form of conflict, especially in terms of its scale. However, conflicts of a different kind are more likely - with mixed methods of warfare.

It is for such a confrontation with Russia that the Ukrainian armed forces are preparing the West. To this end, in the southeast of Ukraine, conditions are being created for a further escalation of violence from a hybrid to a full-scale conventional war using all modern weapons systems and military equipment. Evidence of qualitative changes is the transition to the tactics of sabotage and terrorist actions on Russian territory. The authors of such a strategy seem to underestimate the threat of outgrowth of the local conflict into a large-scale military clash in Europe with the prospect of its expansion to a global scale.

THE HYBRID WAR AGAINST RUSSIA IS ALREADY ON. AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING...

The intensification of subversive actions of the West against Russia in the early 2000s coincided with the refusal of the new Russian leadership to obediently follow in the wake of US policy. Prior to this, the consent of the ruling "elites" of Russia to the role of a slave country for a long time determined the internal and external strategy of the state in the late 80s and in the final decade of the last century.

Today, in the face of increasing threats, much more attention needs to be paid to multidimensional conflicts or hybrid wars (it's not the name) than has been done so far. Moreover, the preparation of a country and its armed forces for a conflict of this type should cover a wide range of areas and take into account the possibility of transforming a hybrid war into a conventional one, and later into a war using WMD, up to the use of nuclear weapons.

It is in this context that Russia's allies in the CSTO have begun to speak seriously about the phenomenon of hybrid war in recent years. Thus, the real danger of a hybrid war was noted by the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Belarus, General Andrei Ravkov, at the 4th Moscow Conference on International Security in April 2015. He emphasized that “it is precisely the “hybrid war” that integrates in its essence the entire range of means of confrontation - from the most modern and technological (“cyber warfare” and information warfare) to the use of terrorist methods and tactics that are primitive in nature and tactics in the conduct of armed struggle, linked by common plan and goals and aimed at destroying the state, undermining its economy, destabilizing the internal socio-political situation. It seems that the definition contains a fairly clear criterion that determines the difference between a hybrid war and other types of conflicts.

Developing this idea, it can be argued that a hybrid war is multidimensional, since it includes many other subspaces (military, informational, economic, political, sociocultural, etc.) in its space. Each of the subspaces has its own structure, its own laws, terminology, development scenario. The multidimensional nature of a hybrid war is due to an unprecedented combination of a set of measures of military and non-military influence on the enemy in real time, the diversity and different nature of which determines the property of a kind of "blurring" of the boundaries between the actions of regular forces and the irregular insurgent / guerrilla movement, the actions of terrorists, which are accompanied by outbreaks of indiscriminate violence and criminal acts. The absence of clear criteria for hybrid actions under conditions of a chaotic synthesis of both their organization and the means used significantly complicates the tasks of forecasting and planning preparations for conflicts of this type. It will be shown below that it is precisely in these properties of hybrid warfare that many Western experts see a unique opportunity for using this concept in military studies of past, present and future conflicts in strategic forecasting and planning of the development of the Armed Forces.

FOCUS ON US AND NATO MILITARY PREPARATIONS

So far, there is no consensus on the issue of hybrid warfare in the US military circles either. The US military prefers to use the term “full-spectrum operations” to describe modern multi-dimensional operations involving regular and irregular forces, using information technology, cyber warfare, and other means and methods characteristic of hybrid warfare. In this regard, the concept of "hybrid warfare" is practically not found in the strategic planning documents of the US Armed Forces.

NATO demonstrates a different approach to the problem of future conflicts in the context of complex non-traditional or hybrid wars. On the one hand, the leaders of the alliance argue that a hybrid war in itself does not bring anything new, and mankind has been encountering various hybrid variants of military operations for many millennia. According to the secretary general of the alliance J. Stoltenberg, "the first hybrid war known to us was associated with the Trojan horse, so we have already seen this."

At the same time, while recognizing that there is little new in the concept of hybrid war, Western analysts see it as a convenient tool for analyzing past, present and future wars and developing substantive plans.

It was this approach that led NATO to move from theoretical discussions on the topic of hybrid threats and wars to the practical use of the concept. On the basis of Russia's far-fetched accusations of waging a hybrid war against Ukraine, NATO became the first military-political organization in which this phenomenon was discussed at the official level - at the summit in Wales in 2014. Even then, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, General F. Breedlove, raised the issue of the need to prepare NATO for participation in a new type of war, the so-called hybrid wars, which include a wide range of direct hostilities and covert operations carried out according to a single plan by the armed forces , partisan (non-military) formations and also includes the actions of various civilian components.

In the interests of improving the ability of the allies to counter the new threat, it was proposed to establish coordination between the ministries of the interior, to involve police and gendarmerie forces to suppress non-traditional threats associated with propaganda campaigns, cyber attacks and the actions of local separatists.

Subsequently, the alliance made the problem of hybrid threats and hybrid war one of the central issues on its agenda. The 2016 NATO Summit in Warsaw took specific “steps to ensure its ability to effectively address the challenges posed by hybrid warfare, in which state and non-state actors use a wide, complex range to achieve their goals, combining closely interrelated conventional and non-traditional means, overt and covert military, paramilitary and civilian measures. In response to this challenge, we have adopted a strategy and substantive implementation plans for NATO's role in countering hybrid warfare."

The text of this strategy did not appear in the public domain. However, the analysis of a fairly large reservoir scientific research and NATO documents on the issue of hybrid warfare allows us to draw some preliminary conclusions on the alliance's approaches.

An important place in NATO strategy is given to the question of how to convince the governments of the allied countries of the need to use all organizational capabilities to fend off hybrid threats and not try to act only on the basis of high tech. In this context, the special role of ground forces in hybrid warfare is emphasized. At the same time, it is considered necessary to develop the potential for cooperation with non-military actors, quickly build military-civilian relations, and provide humanitarian assistance. Thus, it is planned to use the hybrid war format for a kind of up and down play, the use of “soft and hard power” technologies on the blurred border between peace and war. Such a set of means and methods provides the aggressor state with new unique tools for putting pressure on the enemy.

One of the main tasks of a hybrid war is to keep the level of violence in the state-object of aggression below the level of intervention by existing organizations for ensuring international security in the post-Soviet space, such as the UN, the OSCE or the CSTO. This, in turn, requires the development of new adaptive concepts and organizational structures for the creeping collapse and suffocation of the victim state and its own defense against hybrid threats.

TRANSFORMING NATO SECURITY THREATS ASSESSMENTS

Challenges, Risks, Dangers and Threats (HRDS) are a key, system-forming factor in the current NATO strategic concept, and the results of the VRDS analysis in the document "Many Threats in the Future" provide a scientific and practical basis for strategic forecasting and planning of the military component of the alliance's activities. Some of these threats have already become real.

According to analysts, the most significant are the threats associated with climate change, lack of resources and a widening gap between states with a developed market economy and countries that have failed to fit into the processes of globalization and innovative development. Friction between these countries will increase due to the growth of nationalism, an increase in population in poor regions, which can lead to massive and uncontrolled migration flows from these regions to more prosperous ones; threats related to the underestimation of security issues by the governments of developed countries. It is believed that many NATO countries are paying unreasonably much attention to solving internal problems, while the supply routes of strategic raw materials are under threat or have already been violated, the actions of pirates at sea are becoming more active, drug trafficking is growing; threats associated with the unification of technologically advanced countries into a kind of global network, which will be subject to increased pressure from less developed states and authoritarian regimes in the face of increased dependence on access to vital resources, increased terrorism, extremism, and aggravation of territorial disputes. And finally, the threats associated with an increase in the number of states or their alliances that use economic growth and the spread of technologies for the production of WMD and their means of delivery to pursue a policy from a position of strength, deterrence, ensuring energy independence and building up military potential. The world will not be dominated by one or two superpowers, it will actually become multipolar. This will take place against the background of the weakening authority of international organizations, the strengthening of nationalist sentiments and the desire of a number of states to improve their own status. It should also be noted that the threats in each of the groups are of a hybrid nature, although this term was not used in NATO documents at that time.

In recent years, alliance analysts have clarified the geography and content of the ARDU that NATO faces in modern conditions. These are two groups of strategic challenges and security threats, the sources of which are located on the eastern and southern borders of the bloc. Threats are of a hybrid nature, due to different subjects - the sources of threats, the scale, composition and density of the threats themselves. The definition of hybrid war is also given, which is seen as “a combination and mixture of various means of conflict, regular and irregular, dominating the physical and psychological battlefield under information and media control in order to reduce risk. It is possible to deploy heavy weapons to suppress the will of the enemy and prevent the population from supporting the legitimate authorities.”

The unifying factor for threat complexes is the likelihood of using ballistic missiles against NATO forces and facilities in the east and south, which requires the improvement of the European missile defense system. At the same time, if in the east there is an interstate confrontation in which the alliance deals with a fairly wide range of threats with different characteristics, then the threats in the south are not related to interstate contradictions, and their spectrum is noticeably narrower.

According to NATO military experts, the set of threats on the "eastern flank" is characterized by a sophisticated, integrated adaptive approach to the use of force. A combination of non-coercive and coercive methods is skillfully applied, including cyber warfare, information warfare, disinformation, the surprise factor, proxy fighting and the use of special operations forces. Political sabotage, economic pressure are used, intelligence is being actively conducted.

NATO member states, as a strategic key task, are required to timely uncover subversive actions aimed at destabilizing and splitting individual members of the alliance and the entire bloc as a whole. At the same time, the solution of this problem is primarily within the competence of the national leadership.

Threats on the "southern flank" of NATO are fundamentally different from the confrontation that is developing in the interstate format in the east. In the south, NATO strategy aims to prevent and protect against threats civil war, extremism, terrorism, uncontrolled migration and WMD proliferation. The detonators of these types of threats are the lack of food and drinking water, poverty, disease, and the collapse of the governance system in a number of African countries. As a result, according to NATO, in the arc of instability that stretches from the countries of North Africa to Central Asia, a pronounced “European offshoot” has appeared, which requires the alliance to increase its ability to respond immediately. NATO's Rapid and Ultra-Rapid Response Force, designed to be used in all directions from which hybrid threats originate, is the most important tool for planning operations taking into account the specifics of threats from the east and south. In the southern direction, to parry threats, it is planned to additionally attract partners after they are appropriately equipped and trained.

INTERACTION OF NATO AND THE EU

Hybrid warfare involves the measured use of arsenals of hard and soft power. In this context, NATO, as a military-political organization, is aware of the limitations of its own capabilities in the field of "soft power", economic sanctions and humanitarian operations. To compensate for this systemic shortcoming, the alliance is actively enlisting the EU as an ally in countering hybrid threats.

As part of a unified strategy, the United States, NATO and the EU intend to unite the efforts of their governments, armies and intelligence agencies under the auspices of the United States in the framework of a "comprehensive interagency, intergovernmental and international strategy" and to make the most effective use of the methods of "political, economic, military and psychological pressure, taking into account the fact that that hybrid warfare is the use of a combination of conventional, irregular, and asymmetric means combined with constant manipulation of political and ideological conflict. The Armed Forces play a fundamental role in hybrid wars, for which NATO and the EU agreed in 2017-2018 to deepen the coordination of plans for military exercises to develop the task of countering hybrid threats.

The joint efforts of the US, NATO and the EU are bearing tangible results. Lost (perhaps temporarily) Ukraine. Under the threat of Russia's position in Serbia - our only ally in the Balkans, where there is not a single party in parliament advocating an alliance with our country. The possibilities of “soft influence” of the Russian media are poorly used, public organizations military, educational and cultural contacts are insufficient. Correcting the situation is not cheap, but the losses will cost more.

In this context important direction counteracting the build-up of “soft power” pressure on Russia, its allies and partners should be coordinated measures to create an appropriate “soft barrier” against the penetration of disruptive technologies aimed at the collapse and disunity of both Russian society and Russia’s ties with allies and partners. The task is to unite and coordinate the efforts of the expert community.

The urgency of such a step is determined by the fact that today NATO is actively developing strategies for the so-called transition period from the relatively vague military-political situation typical of a hybrid war to a classic conventional war using the entire spectrum of conventional weapons. At the same time, the possibility of events getting out of control due to an erroneous assessment, an accidental incident or a deliberate escalation, which can lead to an uncontrolled expansion of the conflict, remains outside the brackets.

CONCLUSIONS FOR RUSSIA

The most important component of the containment strategy, approved at the NATO summit in Warsaw, is a hybrid war waged against Russia and the CSTO member states with the aim of weakening and disintegrating them. The strategies of information warfare, which cover the cultural and ideological sphere, interfere in sports, educational and cultural exchanges, and in the activities of religious organizations, have reached a special scope and sophistication today.

The hybrid war against Russia has been going on for a long time, but it has not yet reached its climax. Inside the country, in large cities and regions, with the support of the fifth column, springboards for the color revolution are being strengthened, preparations are underway for the deployment of large-scale actions in all areas of the hybrid war. Alarming "calls" have already sounded from a number of central and southern regions.

The cumulative effect of military preparations and subversive information technologies forms a real threat to the national security of the Russian state.

For structures to ensure national security, important organizational conclusions from the current threatening situation should be to ensure the adaptation of doctrinal documents, personnel The RF Armed Forces and other law enforcement agencies and equipment to a changing range of threats and the build-up of military training activities with the decisive role of intelligence based on both new technologies and humanitarian and cultural tools. It is important at the state level to ensure a balanced balance of "hard and soft power" potentials. Particular attention should be paid to the protection of the Russian language and its study in Russia and abroad, especially in countries historically and culturally gravitating toward Russia.

In this context, a discussion in the Russian military scientific community on the issues of hybrid warfare and countering hybrid threats is certainly necessary and is already laying the foundation for more detailed assessments and recommendations. Taking into account the real danger of modern subversive actions of the West, within the framework of creating a state system of advanced research and development in the field of science and military technologies, it is necessary to provide for the creation of a special center with the task of in-depth study the entire spectrum of modern conflicts, including color revolutions and hybrid wars, as well as strategies for combining them with information wars and controlled chaos technologies.

The development of information technology has affected not only public relations, technological progress and an increase in the well-being of people, but also made adjustments to military doctrines, plans and strategies for military operations.

This process also affected our country, as changes in the international arena forced Western countries to begin counteracting the Russian revival from the ashes of the USSR. Hybrid war against Putin's Russia concerns public relations, includes political processes and affects the economies of the warring countries.

The essence of the hybrid war against Russia

This type of struggle does not involve the direct unleashing of hostilities with the help of the army and other armed formations.

during this period, the Americans introduced the concept of "hybrid war"

The main factors of influence are special services, agents of influence, state corporations and political actions. For 15 years, the list has been supplemented by the informational impact on the public opinion of the enemy and his active groups of the population.

The first application of the foundations and principles in the history of hybrid warfare occurred in the Republic of Iran during the overthrow of the local Shah. An information campaign has been prepared in the West to discredit the local political regime; agents of influence within the political and economic elite of Iran have betrayed their leader and taken the demonstrators to the streets.

The military leadership, bribed by the American special services, ignored orders and did not resist the demonstrators. European banks have frozen the accounts of the Iranian government and the assets of its leaders. These factors led to the fall of the regime and the establishment of a pro-American leadership.

The first use of hybrid warfare occurred in the Republic of Iran.

The essence of modern hybrid warfare is:

• Use of "soft" power in conflict through economic and political leverage.
• Application of modern technologies propaganda and information processing enemy population. Creation of a negative information field of the local government and the existing regime, discrediting the leaders and asset managers of the state.
• Agent nomination influence from the local population. Providing them with financial and organizational support in creating a negative image of the local government. Organization of protest rallies, provocations of the authorities and mass events aimed at the image political system in a negative light. If possible, the organization of civil disobedience on a large scale, provocations and mass actions of a hooligan nature and riots.
• Economic "enslavement" political leaders of the enemy country. In modern times, the European and American banking systems have absorbed the financial assets of many political elites. This financial instrument is an effective way of influencing specific recruitment persons and fulfilling the interests of the enemy. The financial side consists in the introduction of economic sanctions, a ban on the issuance of foreign loans and other financial financing.
• Creating a negative information perception among the local society through the creation of news agencies in enemy territory and the expansion of broadcasting among the local population. Influencing through the media and conveying a different view of social processes forms a distorted perception of reality in the local community and prepares support for subsequent political changes.

These factors and methods have been used by Western countries in relation to Russia and its political leadership for 20 years with varying success.

Officially, the "hybrid war" was recognized 5 years ago.

A successful case of foreign influence and the implementation of the parameters of a hybrid war is considered to be the overthrow of the legitimate government in Ukraine in 2014, after which pro-American forces hostile to Russia came to power.

And despite the deterioration of economic indicators, the fall in the standard of living of the population, the political course towards the deterioration of relations continues.

A good example of what a hybrid war is in Ukraine was a demonstration of the classic methods of unleashing it. First, protests of civilians, and then rivers of blood in the east of the country. The West provides economic, political and military support to the current regime. Russia, in turn, helps the unrecognized republics.

US and NATO strategy

The peculiarities of NATO's hybrid war involve the use of available means of influencing the enemy without declaring an official war. Such a strategy against Russia justifies itself, since in the event of a declaration of war and the outbreak of an armed conflict, NATO forces will suffer unacceptable losses, and these actions will also lead to the outbreak of a conflict with the use of weapons of mass destruction and the total destruction of the warring parties.

Therefore, the conduct of a hybrid war to achieve a change in political leadership and the establishment of political and economic control over Russia is a priority and the main task of the NATO military bloc.

Information subdivisions have been created within the structures of the alliance for propaganda and informational impact on the Russian public.

Public funds are being created on Western funding, which aim to change information space, financing agents of influence on the territory of Russia and discrediting the political and military leadership of the country.

The political leadership of the Western countries and the NATO bloc is fighting against the influence of the Russian mass media, banning broadcasting and limiting the distribution and increase in the audience of the RT and Sputnik agencies.

Cyber ​​troops have been created in the military units of NATO countries.

Who are engaged in espionage on the worldwide network, the dissemination of defamatory information and the formation of the necessary public opinion in in social networks, specialized political forums and other places of mass visits on the Internet.

On the battlefield, the use of NATO forces in accordance with the concept of military conflict is carried out through the interaction of various formations and branches of the armed forces with agents of influence on enemy territory - traitors in the military sphere and political leadership.

The foundations and principles of NATO's hybrid warfare on the battlefield are developed during the armed conflict in the Donbass. NATO forces provide military instruction to Ukrainian army units, supply weapons and uniforms, and in some cases instructors take part in armed clashes.

The media of the NATO countries support the course of the Ukrainian government and present the actions of the unrecognized republics and Russia in a negative light and discredit the political leadership of the country, exposing Russia as an aggressor and violator of international norms.

The supply of weapons and uniforms is designed to weaken the armed forces of the republics of the LPR and DPR and draw the armed forces of Russia into an armed confrontation. The concept of hybrid warfare on the battlefield has been implemented for 5 years and has not achieved successful results.

Features, theory and practice of management

The theory of hybrid war does not provide for the open use of armed forces. It became a priority in the US and NATO strategy for advancing the interests of corporations on the world stage in the 70s. These theories were put into practice during coups and the displacement of the political leadership of the countries of the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.

Hybrid methods of war preclude the use of the armed forces of NATO countries. The destruction of the political system is carried out through internal interference in the affairs of states and the financing of collaborators on the territory of the enemy's country.

In Iraq and Russia, hybrid warfare has not been successful.

In the first case, the action of the armed forces of the NATO countries and the military overthrow of the regime were required.

Putin's classic hybrid war is now being waged in Syria against Western countries. The leaders of Syria and Russia act as opponents of international terrorism organized by the countries of the West.

US actions are aimed at overthrowing Assad and weakening Russia's influence in the Middle East. The theory of action of NATO countries at the domestic political level in Russia is as follows:

• Bribery of public figures, scientific leaders and political leaders to apply direct influence on the country's leadership and the public.
• Increasing information influence on Russian society by spreading the broadcast of its own information sources to a wide social audience. Creation of new channels, radio stations and Internet resources to promote their own point of view.
• Information field distortion through provocations, the creation of fictitious news and the use of unverified sources that discredit the Russian government.
• Creation of community groups and associations that aim to spread democracy, protect the interests of social groups. In fact, these associations are financed by Western governments and defend the interests of US structures.
• The introduction of economic sanctions, impact on partners Russian state, the imposition of an embargo on Russian companies and a ban on doing business abroad. An effective tool was the ban on the issuance of financial loans to Russian enterprises and the freezing of individual assets.
• The secret financing of the armed Islamist gangs in the North Caucasus and Syria that oppose the Russian armed forces.
• Support for the destructive forces of the opposition and organizing rallies and civil disobedience actions.

What is a hybrid war against Russia

To understand what a hybrid war against Russia, unleashed by the leaders of the NATO countries and the United States, is, it is necessary to understand the tactics of its conduct on the external and internal political fronts.

For example, in the international arena, the Western opponents of our country do not miss the opportunity to carry out aggressive actions aimed at reducing the international influence of Russia and its external isolation.

The latest act of hybrid actions at the external level was the exclusion of Russian athletes from participation in the Winter Olympics without presenting strong evidence of the guilt of the participants.

Hybrid wars damage Russia's international prestige.

They reduce the internal prestige of the political leadership and, accordingly, directly affect the election results.

Foreign policy actions also affect decisions in the UN Security Council. Opponents block the decisions put forward by Russia in the international arena and do not allow the implementation of initiatives and humanitarian solutions, pursuing their own interests.

In the economic sphere on international markets, Western countries use hybrid attacks as levers of unfair competition, blocking the work of Russian companies, by imposing sanctions and restrictions on work under fictitious pretexts.

By implementing the decisions of political forums that have become the main weapon for a hybrid war, Western countries are trying to reduce Russia's political influence outside its borders, discrediting the country's leadership and its socio-political structure through the media.

A popular topic among the Western press is the distortion of historical events, the presentation of Russia/USSR in a negative light. This work is bearing fruit, as in Western countries the vast majority of the population misinterprets the participation of the USSR, in World War II downplaying the role Soviet army in defeating the enemy.

Reducing and distorting historical events Western leaders are changing the attitude of their own public towards Russia, thereby preparing society for a possible military conflict.

In the eyes of the West, Russia is an aggressor and a violator of international law.

In the eyes of the vast majority of the Western population, Russia is an aggressor and a violator of international law. This opinion was strongly influenced by the events in 2014–2015 in Crimea, which were widely disseminated by the Western media as unconditional acts of aggression.

Also on international level there is a blocking of economic initiatives for Russia's interaction with other countries in the military sphere, the provision of loans, and the construction of infrastructure.

Forecasting and planning for future operations

With the development of information technology, the emphasis in the conduct of hostilities in indirect hybrid warfare is on the development of information networks, especially on the Internet.

On the Internet, most young people get information about events in the world, so the impact through the network allows you to set public opinion in the right direction and form trends in the perception of social events and political phenomena through the prism of Western perception.

The fields for hybrid warfare remain economics and politics.

In the economic space, the impact on the enemy's economy can lead to a deterioration in the well-being of citizens, a decline in production and the financial sector, which will subsequently lead to a regulated change in political leadership.

Also, economic wars will allow you to take the resource base and control of the country into your own hands.

The political component lies in the introduction of agents of influence into power structures to include the influence of Western structures on political life countries.

Also, the creation of various political movements and the management of the opposition affects the public opinion of the population and forms a negative perception of power.

Terrorist formations and other paramilitary groups aimed at active military opposition to state power.

Such cases in relation to Russia are the financing and supply of military equipment to terrorists in the North Caucasus in the 90s, as well as the arming of Islamists and the training of militants in Syria and the supply of weapons to the hostile Ukrainian regime.

The military component includes funding for radical groups.

The main difference from the conduct of conventional military operations is the absence of a direct clash between the warring parties. The armed forces of the parties do not enter into direct confrontation, but instruct the opponents of the parties and finance hostile groups.

This type of confrontation is aimed at the displacement of political leadership in a relatively peaceful way without destroying production assets and infrastructure. In relation to Russia, such a war aims, in addition to overthrowing the existing system, to seize economic control over the country and control the use of natural resources.