Radical left borrowed playbook from Soviet Union

 

Radical left borrowed playbook from Soviet Union

From the 2020 election to DEI propaganda, the goal has always been total control

By Edward Haugland - Wednesday, July 23, 2025

OPINION:

Getting Russia to the negotiating table, and succeeding, requires more than sanctions, tariffs or weapons. Success requires penetrating, influencing and disrupting the Russian information environment. This is no easy task and is as complex as targeting and bombing the Iranian nuclear complex.

Russian ruler Vladimir Putin is playing by his rules, not those of the Western world. He is comfortable with the tactics and techniques of the old Soviet Union’s KGB. He is used to controlling things, especially the flow of information, and is adept at removing obstacles using assassination, terror or war. Still, he can be made to squirm.

The Soviets were adept at disinformation, advancing their desired perceptions using Western and global networks to drive favorable narratives. Mr. Putin understands the importance of influencing the primary battleground domestically and globally: the cognitive domain, the human mind and people. The tactics and techniques were successful for nearly 80 years.

Today, Mr. Putin’s task has become much easier. He needs only to influence and control the Russian people. He does so by locking down their internal networks, limiting access to outside information, and feeding the public the desired spin, perceptions and false narratives to maintain his power and support. How do we know he is effective? Varied polls show that Mr. Putin’s favorability rating among Russians ranges from 65% to 86%. Globally, who is challenging his control? No one.

Fellow dictators in China, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea use similar means to control the information environment and the cognitive domain. After all, the human mind is the most powerful weapon on earth. They know such control is critical to sustaining their dictatorships.

Therefore, success in negotiations includes proactive strategic communications and developing and implementing a long-term strategy to effectively convey those communications and disrupt his information environment. However, we must rebuild, sustain and maintain such capabilities, capacity and expertise along with a desired strategy. This applies not only to Russia but also to other dictatorships.

The parallels between Mr. Putin’s Russia and the U.S. in controlling the information environment are many. Russian people, pre- and immediate post-Cold War, retained a high respect and admiration for the United States. We were, as President Reagan noted, a shining light on the hill for freedom. With the Soviet Union’s fall in 1991, we blew our chances to influence Russia’s movement to a capitalist economy and a free, representative government.

The radical left in America understood how effective the Soviet Union’s tactics and techniques were. After the fall of the Soviet Union, they continued to implement them to gain control over our information environment and our diplomatic, national security, justice, education and legal systems.

The radical left in America succeeded in conducting the fraudulent 2020 presidential election and, with preplanned events on Jan. 6, 2021, drove effective false narratives that solidified the fraud. They expanded their control of our information environment during the China flu by redirecting what was left of our strategic communications capabilities, including the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America, to advance woke ideologies such as diversity, equity and inclusion, critical race theory, transgenderism and the Green New Deal at home and abroad.

They channeled government funding via the U.S. Agency for International Development to multiple nongovernmental organizations to further advance their narratives. Concurrently, they weaponized and politicized our national security. Their strategy to take down America enabled Russia to invade Ukraine, China to expand its global hegemony and terrorist elements to advance asymmetric threats. Their objective is absolute power. The shining light on the hill became a flickering candle ready to be blown out.

The radical left’s strategy and cover were blown during China flu lockdowns. Their attempts to control, indoctrinate and subjugate ended as Americans realized they had been duped. The stake in the heart was President Trump’s election in November. By the grace of God, Mr. Trump and our nation dodged a bullet. The insurrection by judges, assaults on police and amped-up radical actions show that the battle continues.

Mr. Trump’s frustration with Russia is understandable and no doubt parallels his frustration with the radical left in America. They seek absolute power at any cost. Still, we have not learned our lesson as our leaders remain unaware, unprepared and unarmed in this cognitive war.

How does this relate to successful negotiations? Mr. Putin fully controls the information environment and Russia’s legal, justice, military and economic systems. Until we can disrupt, alter and impact those controls and Russia’s information environment, he will retain power with few incentives to change.

What makes Mr. Putin squirm? The free flow of information, advancing the shining light on the hill and effective strategic communications. To effect such an outcome is not easy, as we must assess and then proactively engage the gaps, seams and weaknesses in Russia’s information environment to advance the truth. Among Russian citizens, we have allies who still believe in the shining light.

Such is also required in China, Iran and America, as the cognitive war is global and domestic. If we fail, we will see endless kinetic wars globally and domestically and a radical left becoming more violent, aggressive and unhinged.

Edward L. Haugland, © 2025, all rights reserved.

• Edward Haugland is a U.S. Air Force veteran and retired senior executive with four decades serving the intelligence community and the Department of Defense. He is the author of “The Cognitive War.”

This article first appeared in the Washington Times -23 July 2025 

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jul/23/radical-left-borrowed-playbook-soviet-union/

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