The Restless Wave by John McCain & Mark Salter

Author:John McCain & Mark Salter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

CHAPTER SEVEN

* * *

Nyet

(Know Thine Enemy)

I REGULARLY ATTEND AN ANNUAL security conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The only thing unusual about the November 2016 meeting was that it occurred just after the U.S. presidential election, and most of the formal and informal conversations among the conferees were about what to expect from the President-elect, Donald Trump. The subject was causing consternation among the governments, military, and intelligentsia of the West, including ours. I spent most of my time in Halifax reassuring friends that the United States government consists of more than the White House. Congress and, I hoped, the people the new President would appoint to senior national security positions would provide continuity in U.S. foreign policy, compensate for the lack of experience in the Oval Office, and restrain the occupant from impulsively reacting to world events.

Saturday evening, when the day’s presentations were finished, a retired British diplomat, who had served as the United Kingdom’s ambassador to Russia during Vladimir Putin’s rapid ascent to the Russian presidency, Sir Andrew Wood, asked to have a word. I might have been introduced to him before at a previous conference, but I don’t recall ever having had a conversation with him. Nevertheless, I agreed to sit down with him for a few minutes. We found a room off the main conference hall, with a few chairs scattered around a coffee table. Chris Brose of the Senate Armed Services Committee staff and David Kramer joined us. David is a former assistant secretary of state, who has extensive experience dealing with Russia. He was working at the time at the McCain Institute for International Leadership, a policy organization dedicated to preparing world leaders and advancing human rights founded by Arizona State University.

We briefly discussed Russia’s interference in the election, the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s and John Podesta’s emails, which U.S. intelligence services concurred had been part of a Kremlin attempt to sabotage Hillary Clinton’s chances and improve Trump’s. We speculated about what Putin hoped to gain by taking such a risk, and discussed how to dissuade him from similar mischief in the future. I’m of the opinion that unless Putin is made to regret his decision he will return to the scene of the crime again and again. Crime has most certainly paid for Vladimir Putin, while leaving his country underdeveloped and over-dependent on its oil and gas resources. I’ve heard it speculated that he might be the wealthiest person on earth, and every ruble of his wealth will have been stolen from the Russian people. Imposing sanctions on Putin and his closest confederates, freezing assets, travel bans, and financial and trade restrictions on Russian entities tied to the Kremlin are appropriate and helpful. But to make Putin deeply regret his assault on the foundation of our democracy—free and fair elections—we should seriously consider retaliating with the kinds of weapons he used. We are in an information war with Russia whether we want to recognize it or not, and in this war offense might be our best defense.

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