The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies Are Undermining America and Dismantling the West

by Malcolm W. Nance, Peter Ganim (Narrator), Rob Reiner (Foreword)

Listening length: 12 hours and 37 minutes

Retired Intelligence officer and bestselling author Malcolm Nance offers a provocative, comprehensive analysis of the Russian Federation’s master plan to destroy democracy, the methodologies used in the 2016 election, what will be their next steps, and how to stop them.

Malcolm Nance’s previous book, The Plot to Hack America, blew the whistle on Russia’s hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Vladimir Putin’s plans to undermine the 2016 presidential election, alerting the public to the full scale of the hacking and helping usher that story to the top of the headlines. Based on his original research and countless interviews with espionage experts, Nance’s new book, The Plot to Destroy Democracy, examines why Putin and his underlings aimed to sabotage the election, reveals the full scope of their plans—including how the hacking accomplished a crucial first step for destabilizing the West—as well as what they have in store.

The Plot to Destroy Democracy exposes how Russia has supported the campaigns of right-wing extremists throughout the United States and Europe, seeking to create antidemocratic sentiment around the world that can be leveraged to build a Russian-led alliance of nondemocratic autocracies. Nance examines how and why Putin’s associates have sought to bring fringe candidates in the West into the mainstream and how they have used the populist battlefield of social media to mount their vicious campaigns.

Revelatory, insightful, and at times shocking, The Plot to Destroy Democracy reveals for the first time how Russia’s recent hackings in the United States and Europe and its increasingly belligerent rhetoric fit into its master plan to unseat democracies around the world.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Russia, American History, Audiobook, Government

13 pages, Audio CD

First published June 26, 2018

About the author

Malcolm Nance is a globally recognized counter-terrorism expert and Intelligence Community member who has been deployed to intelligence operations in the Balkans, Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa.

He is the author of several best-selling counter-terrorism and intelligence books, including The Plot to Hack America, Defeating ISIS: Who They Are, How They Fight, What They Believe, and The Plot to Destroy Democracy.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hamilton said, “The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the country is by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion…” Throughout American history, those confusions and commotions have sprung forth in the form of rebellions, clashes, and civil war. Yet America had never been tested with a leader who had the same mindset of King George III; a monarch who ignored the voice of the majority, who ruled as he lived above the rest, and cared not a whit about the traditions of the free society in America.

It is a battle scene, two combatants, one, maybe, in brown, one in, let’s say blue. They are engaged in a to-the-death struggle. You are close enough to see the bloodstains on their shirts, the mud on their boots, the sweat pouring down their faces, veins engorged, teeth bared. The soldier in brown steps back, touches a device on his weapon and a pulse of light emerges. With that saber he swings a horizontal arc and dispatches his blue-clad rival. Then pull back. There are other one-on-one, two-on-one, three-on-one, two-on-two battles going on all around them. Soldiers in brown across the scene are halving their rivals. Pull back even farther and you see a sea of struggle. It becomes impossible to tell individual battles as each becomes subsumed in a Boschian scene of mass slaughter. Cast your eyes across the landscape and you might spot on a hilltop a clump of officers astride armored vehicles, spying the battle from afar, no blood on their hands. They wave instructions to nearby adjutants. Then, there, atop a hill at the other end of this landscape another group, a match for the first in all but uniform color. They see that they are overmatched and sound a retreat. But it is too late. The tide has already turned. The modern enemy, the one with the new, and unexpected weapons, has taken the field. News will travel back with the defeated general. The battle is lost, but there may be some hope that the war can still be fought another day. Some of the soldiers had found a way to fend off the death-dealing light, and brought down warriors in blue, but not in enough numbers to prevent a rout.


Malcolm Nance - image from his TAPSTRI site

Malcolm Nance has drawn our view back from the vision we have of individual battles, even of field battles, to gain a perspective that is, ultimately, global. When you see the contest from afar, you get a better sense of how it is going. In this scenario, most Western democracies are the brown clad warriors, fighting gallantly with weapons that are hopelessly outclassed by the new gear brought to the battle by the blues. There is some hope that they might make a comeback, but until they can do so with their entire forces, instead of just a few clever fighters, they will continue to lose. There are only so many battles you can lose before the war is over. Once we have a view of what the overall battle looks like, we can then zoom back in to see the details of how the battle is being fought, how the enemy is accomplishing its aims, and use that knowledge to construct defenses, and counter-actions that can keep us from losing the war.

As long as humans of whatever sort have vied over anything there have been revolutions in weaponry. Some combatant was the first to use a club of wood or bone to attack a rival. Another was the first to fashion a sharp object into an early knife, then spear, then sword. The bow allowed arrows to be launched without the danger of actual contact. The crossbow added power and a degree of mechanization. The longbow added distance. Every era has its new weapons, from chariots to tanks, from rocks to gunpowder, from mustard gas to bioweapons, from nukes to news. And there were certainly those who railed against every new arrival as somehow unfair or not cricket, but the only true measure of weaponry is whether it helps those who wield them accomplish their aims.


Early military technologist – image from SyFyWire

The United States and most of the nations of Western Europe are at war. This war has been waged without resort to howitzers, tanks, missiles or WMDs. It is a war truly deserving of the name “Infowar.” It is a Global War on Democracy (GWOD), and it is being waged, primarily, by Russia. While other nations, China, Iran, Israel, North Korea, et al, indulge in cyber war of one form or another, the character of their involvement is different. Nance does not go into these. His focus is on Russia.

Vladimir Putin’s goal is to Make Russia Great Again. In a PBS interview, Nance described Russia as an economic disaster site, “a trailer park with nukes,” a bit of hyperbole, as he knows that Russia also holds petroleum reserves of 80 billion barrels, and has the world’s largest supply of natural gas, at over 47 trillion cubic meters. It is Putin’s aim to restore Russia to a position of equality with the United States on the world stage, return Russia to the Superpower status the Soviet Union held during the Cold War. As it is clear that his kleptocratic autocracy cannot manage a national economy, the only way to even the playing field is to cut down his enemies. This means NATO, the United States and European powers with the means to stand against him. How does one do that without having to worry about getting vaporized? Enter the advanced ordnance of our age, weaponized information, injected into the lifeblood of modern civilization, the internet.


DJT with his handler in Helsinki

Nance knows his way around these battlefields of night. He spent two decades in the Navy as a cryptologist and career terrorism intelligence officer, among other assignments, specializing in the Middle East. Since retiring from the military in 2001, he has served as a military contractor in diverse war zones, been a lecturer at an Australian university-based Policing, Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence Center, directed an anti-terrorism think tank (link in EXTRA STUFF), appeared on numerous news programs as an intelligence expert, contributed many articles to a wide range of newspapers and magazines, and written several books. Every time you see him on TV, he has something insightful, well-informed, and often prescient to say.

In Nance’s view, Vladimir Putin sees himself as a successor to Peter the Great, a charismatic leader determined to elevate his nation among the nations of the world. Like Peter he is looking to expand the Russian Empire, recapturing lands that were once part of the Soviet Union, by warfare if need be. But where Peter led a cultural revolution, bringing Russia into the world of the Enlightenment, Putin has already devolved the crumbling social and political structures of his country to those of a primitive authoritarian gulag. And if Russia is an economic basket case, it does not matter as long as the people in his circle continue to amass to themselves the wealth the nation still produces. Think Koch Brothers in the absence of Democratic Party opposition. What he aims to do is to undermine the West so that its economic advantage is considerably lessened if not removed entirely.


Peter the Great

So how does a nation go about accomplishing this goal? What is the strategy? What are the tactics?

The goal is to weaken his Western rivals. The strategy to do this is to cause internal turmoil, and weaken the ties between those nations. To sow doubt, not just about matters of foreign or domestic policy, but about truth itself. If there is no consensus on the truth there can be no consensus on policy. Part of this plan was to make use of American persons.

Based on my knowledge working in this field for years and the secret intelligence manuals of the KGB, Trump was the kind of quality recruit that spies always sought. Every Russian spy knew that it was the greedy, narcissistic, and self-absorbed conservatives that made for the best assets. Almost invariably, they thought they could handle any situation and rarely looked deeper than their financial pockets. Putin was going to push back against any chance that Hillary Clinton would become president. If that meant having to risk going from a cyber war to a hot war, so be it. Maybe it was time to just introduce a little chaos in America. The American Republican Party had been shifting to the far-right for more than two decades. Many of them supported a strong man and powerful national leader like Vladimir Putin. Putin’s own contacts with the religious right presented him with the opportunity to co-opt an entire party. It was far too tempting to avoid. If it could be done in the United States, it could be done everywhere else in the world—save China. A successful co-option of the American right would lead to an entire “wing of supporters operating the most powerful nation on earth and viewing Putin as its closest ally. Russian intelligence would go back and scrub every document and contact about Donald Trump from his overtures made in the late 1980s. If they could pull it off, why not try?

Nance offers a list of the sorts of assets there are, Unwitting Assets, Witting Assets, Useful Idiots and Fellow Travelers, and tells how assets are developed, and can serve the cause, even though they may sometimes be totally unaware that they are being used. Trump began as a Useful Idiot, later becoming an Unwitting Asset, and then developed into a Witting Asset, on seeing an alignment of his interests with Putin’s. And if you think that the too-frequent off-book meetings between Trump and Putin are anything but Trump reporting in to his handler, then really, you either need to stop taking drugs, or need to start taking more.

Nance tells of CIA director John Brennan learning early on about Russian hacking and attempts to influence Trump. He asked foreign intelligence services to look into this and got confirmation that Putin was all in to elect Swamp Thing.


John Brennan - image from RollingStone – This is about as cheery as Brennan ever looks, and for good reason

Putin’s attacks on the West are implemented through Hybrid Warfare, an amalgam of cyber, special operations, and intelligence activities. They were to carry out political warfare missions just short of open war and push back NATO’s influence. Georgia was the first unit on the test bed… Russia was eager to push back against the color revolutions that were paring away the buffer states that insulated it from European invasion. Of course, more kinetic elements were involved as well, as parts of Georgia (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) were hacked off by Russia, after it had spent years promoting ethnic turmoil. Russia also was able to turn off internet access while they were about seizing real estate.

The Hybrid Warfare model was applied in diverse European nations, manifesting in support of fascist presidential candidate Marine Le Pen in France, and Brexit in the UK. Thankfully the French have a media blackout period in the days leading up to elections, which dampened the impact of Russian social media interference. Their efforts were more successful in the UK where Russian intelligence agencies flooded the UK’s on-line media with vast quantities of false news. And using the expertise developed by Cambridge Analytica—a company funded in part by the far-right Mercer family and their super-PACS, and which includes on its board of advisors both Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner—to efficiently micro-target individual voters to receive their dishonest media products.

Russia has been ahead of the rest of the world in developing internet intelligence capacity, and weaponizing that to cause the most mayhem in the West. It may not be bullets, but it most definitely is warfare.


Whether you think of them as trolls or agents, Russia’s info-warriors are many, smart, and very effective

Europe has not exactly ever been short on xenophobic political parties. But now those creatures had a sponsor, a nation (Russia) and a leader (Putin) who offered material support and provided as well an image of white, Christian, ultra-conservative leadership.

These European xenophobic parties have the universal characteristic of openly aligning themselves with Moscow and accepting their overt and covert political patronage including being openly funded by Moscow. As a sign of their gratitude, Moscow has become the de facto capitol of the anti-Atlantic, anti-globalization, white conservative world. These groups all have the same ideological worldview. They see themselves as the opponents to the NATO-European world order. They want to realign the world with Moscow as the Christian cultural protector who helps them smash the establishments that kept stability since WWII.

Nance identifies these players in an alarming number of European states.

The goal is Russian dominance, the strategy is to undermine democracy, forge alliances with authoritarian regimes, break up NATO and Western alliances, where possible, and prevent the USA from acting to prevent it from realizing its expansionary dreams. To get what it wants, it is necessary not just to turn a few potential traitors into assets, not just to further corrupt the already corrupt, but to undermine democracy itself in the West. Nance shows us how it is being done, just like so many of Trump’s lies, right out there in public, all the better to hide the other crimes that are taking place in the darkness.

Populist dictators and strongmen use divisive techniques and attacks to foster splits in their societies and to break the hold of establishment norms in order to rise to national leadership through a negative form of “people power”—to assert that the system “is rigged against you,” where in many cases, the system is built and working properly for these very same people. The populist authoritarian is the master of the rant, a demagogue of the highest order, and runs an agenda which generally brings about ruin.

Just as an intelligence officer would do, Malcolm Nance, in The Plot to Destroy democracy lays out the facts, offering evidence where available, and analysis where called for. Just as the president does when presented with such information, you choose. You decide. Do you believe the guy who has been studying this all his life, or dismiss it as fake intel? Unless you are in the thrall of someone who is holding the lure of a fabulously lucrative real estate deal as encouragement; unless you are terrified that that same person might release to the world recordings of your many crimes; unless you are concerned that your election might be formally tainted by proof of foreign interference; unless you have a good reason to deny the facts, it seems pretty clear which way your decision will go. The sirens are sounding, the alarms are going off. The enemy is inside the gates. It is time to identify and remove those who would do us harm, time to devise better barriers to infiltration, and reinforce what means we have at our disposable to fight back, to push back, to save our democracy.


Published – June 26, 2018

Review first posted – February 15, 2018





==========In the summer of 2019 GR reduced the allowable review size by 25%, from 20,000 to 15,000 characters. In order to accommodate the text beyond that I have moved it to the comments section directly below.

[Cristie Underwood]

Wow! This book should be read by all Americans whether they approve of Trump or not. Personally, I am not a fan of Trump and have always thought he was a shady person. This book gives background information on how Putin and his people manipulated the American people. The intensity of this plot reads like a spy novel, but unfortunately it is what happened during our last presidential election. I strongly believe that our Country should have stronger internet security, especially when it comes to official use, such as for registering to vote, etc. The author did an amazing job laying out the facts of what happened.

[Radiantflux · Rating 5 out of 5]

71st book for 2018.

Nance lays it all out. The corruption. The lies. Putin as puppet master behind every fascist in Europe and the US; with the long-term intention of destroying the the EU, the US and NATO; the gun nuts of the NRA and Christian wackjobs becoming fellow travelers; with millions in funding for Republicans politicians washed through the NRA and other useful cutouts.

Read this and remove any doubt that Trump is a Russian Asset. And be scared.

5-stars.

[Linda Branham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Today, July 4, seemed like a good day to finish this book... a threat to democracy
It clarified some things, and also validated some of the beliefs that I already had. (Yes, I know "Confirmation bias")
I have read several books about Trump and Putin - so some of the material I had read before. But Mr. Nance gave the reasons and history behind some of the behaviors we are currently seeing. I have been trying to understand why the rpublicans are standing behind someone who is so blatanly unAmerican and pro-Russian. Why would they vote to undermine our democracy.... after reading this book, it all makes sense. For money and power - they are being rewarded by Putin backed agencies
I was surprised several months ago when I saw a documentary about how much the NRA and evagelicals loved and supported Putin. Yes, I actually saw these NRA and evangelical leaders with pro-Russian material, and speaking pro-Russian sentiments themselves. Not someone reporting that they said it . but I actually heard them saying it with my own ears, and saw it with my own eyes. Money is being funneled to the republicans through the NRA. The gop is supposed to represent American democracy and its people - not sell itself to Russia
Trump is a very narcissitic, and greedy, who is easily taken advantage of because of this- Putin manipulated that - and still is. Putin wants to be "the" world power ... and Trump is helping him in that goal

[Paul Szydlowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Career intelligence analyst and self-described lifelong Republican Malcolm Nance makes a compelling, if at times sloppy, case that Russia and Vladimir Putin have long been cultivating Donald Trump as an unwitting tool to be used to Russia's advantage if ever the opportunity arose. Beginning with a Moscow visit in 1987 (shortly after which Trump took out a full-page ad in several prominent newspapers attacking the relationship between the U.S. and its allies), Nance looks at historic Soviet and Russian methods to play to a target's weaknesses to unwittingly rope them in until it is too late to back out. The larger goal is to split the western alliance, weaken liberal democracies and create a world of autocracies with Russia in the lead, thereby supplanting the U.S. Putin's plan involved cleaving the European Union by persuading France to leave the EU. It is eerily coincidental that President Trump suggested just that to France's Emmanuel Macron during his April visit (http://bit.ly/2m9zNAB), adding weight to the suggestion that the U.S. president is under Russian influence.

One passage I found uniquely interesting and puzzling was after listing all the people and institutions the president has insulted, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Jeff Sessions, H.R. McMaster, the entirety of the FBI, the CIA, the Democratic Party, 65% of America, the Pope and Oprah Winfrey, he points out that he did not dare criticize two people on this planet (the author's words), those being Vladimir Putin and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. He is right, of course, but I have to wonder why Rachel's been spared. Fear of God, I suppose.

In any event, the book is thought provoking, but certain aspects leave the reader uncomfortable, none more so that when a fairly lengthy passage regarding a death threat against the author and the workings of virtual private networks is repeated nearly verbatim in quick succession. Such sloppiness may be a function of a rush to publish, but it makes one wonder what else might have erroneously slipped through the cracks. All in all, an interesting read, but one that serves better as a guide for further research than as a definitive indictment.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could get all cliche and say this book should be required reading, but I won't (Ha! Just did.) The overwhelming message here is that we (the western democracies) are in deep doodoo and our whole way of life (our culture) is under attack by Putin and his oligarchic cronies. And it is not just Trump, who is basically dismissed as a narcissist, functional illiterate, low IQ lapdog for any strongman who scratches him behind his ears. No, the author takes us through each of the European countries and identifies the Putin "running dog" in each one. He opines that if Marine Le Pin had beaten Macron in the French election, then France and the U.S. would have disbanded NATO and initiated a new world order -- The U.S.,France and Russia. If that sounds now too out there to be believed, then it won't after you read Nance. He is certainly no wild left wing conspiracy theorist. This book should be taken very seriously by all people who believe in democracy because it is clearly under attack.

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is, without a doubt, one of the most terrifying books I've ever read. I saw one reviewer (in Publisher's Weekly) called it: "an overwrought work of conspiracy theory." I'm sure that's how Trump's supporters want us to view it, but Nance has an uncomfortable tendency to be ahead of the curve of current events. Like many Americans, I feel frightened and discouraged as I watch Trump dismantle Obama's achievements and move the country in what feels to me like the wrong direction. After Trump's performance in Helsinki and his planned second summit with Putin in Washington, I wonder and worry about just what the two of them are planning, and I do not understand why it feels as though no one is able to stop them. I think Nance lays out clearly what is going on and what is at stake. This is not a fun read, but I think it's an important one.

[Deborah Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish Americans would read this book. I read Russian Roulette first, then Michael McFaul's book, from Cold War to Hot Peace, then this book. I have become convinced that Americans are under a sustained cyber attack from Russian across multiple social media platforms. Using a bandwagon effect is critical to their methodology. They have been using "redpilling" techniques to gradually pull Americans into racist ideology. They have been using these sustained attacks to move white Americans slowly over to white supremacy through meme baiting. Their methods are primarily designed to create divisions in American society so that we will crumble. Meanwhile, the Russians are taking over our leadership by coordinating with the Republicans after taking over their email server and keeping the email contents private to themselves for blackmail purposes. They also suggested to the Republicans that it was better for them to be Caucasian, Christian allies instead of enemies. I believe they took the deal. It's a frightening proposition to see the Republicans choose authoritarian dictatorship because it is white and Christian instead of democracy because it is diverse. I have finished all the books, and I have to add that life under kleptocratic, authoritarian, rule is absolutely desolate and nasty. You lose all your freedoms. Someone was just fined by the Russian government for called Putin a derogatory name online. People are jailed and tortured constantly. If you watch cable TV, they were running commercials begging for money for elderly Russian Jews who were literally starving, because there are no social programs anymore. Instead, they set up a government where the rich steal everything, control everything, take away everyone's freedom, dictate how life is going to be lived, very homophobic, racist, violent society with an authoritarian force of both civilian and government enforcers. Religion is dictated to the people such as telling everyone they have to be Christian. I think Americans need to quickly decide just what it feels like to live in freedom versus what it feels like to live in a theocracy like Iran, a kleptocracy like Russia, and a dictatorship like North Korea, because we are trading our values for those lives right now by allowing so much of our population to go down that path. We have to do dramatic things like dancing flash mobs, marches, door-to-door knocking, the production of movies, whatever your skill, now is the time.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended for those interested in knowing all of what Putin has been up to. None of it good. It is a gangster government running Russia now. The words autocracy and oligarchy have been blended together into one. America is on the decline and the world is worse off because of it.

There is no such thing as a "Russian hoax."

Mitch McConnell answered "Absolutely!" when asked if he would vote for Trump in 2024. Why? Fetuses? Automatic weapons? It is all about tax cuts for the filthy rich who are making out like bandits. They are in control.

There are three levels to Russian spydom: 1. Useful Idiot, 2. Unwitting Agent, and 3. Witting Agent. Donald Trump went through all three stages. But, let's face it, he will always be an idiot.

Now the question is What excuse do all of the enablers have for promoting Russian interests? I am talking about Fox News, One America News, Newsmax, and the following among many others:

the Republican Party
A word about the Republican Party. Let me try and express my feelings about the Republican Party in as few words as possible: What the fuck? What are you all thinking? Is this what it means to be "conservative"? Being lackeys for Putin? Right now you have one thing to do. Each and every last Republican: Come out and say the election was fair and Biden was elected President. Instead all I see is trying to make it more difficult to vote. Another win for Putin.

the National Rifle Association (NRA)
A word about the NRA. Let me try and express my feelings about the National Rifle Association in as few words as possible: What the fuck? Seriously, people. Why are you in this group? It is just a front for the gun makers. They don't care about the second amendment, just making millions at our expense. Couldn't you find something better to do with your dues money? I have been fighting the NRA all of my life and it has only gotten worse. When NRA leaders visited Moscow, the reason was why? Did you think they were going to spread gun rights with Putin in Russia? No, it was only for Putin to transfer money to the NRA coffers to help Trump win and defeat Hilary Clinton. Oh, I forgot, NRA people don't "like" Hilary. Like is that how they vote? She was only one of our most qualified candidates ever.

Here is an article:
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/764879...

And another from the NY Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/us...

And this one:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/politi...

Jill Stein:
A word about Jill Stein. Let me try and express my feelings about Jill Stein and the Green Party in as few words as possible: What the fuck? She visits Moscow to talk to Putin? Did she think the biggest monster in the world was interested in the environment? All he was doing was looking for ways to funnel money into her campaign to siphon votes away from Hilary Clinton. And he did just that. The result was a Trump win in the 2016 election. The damage to the environment in Trump's four years as president has been incalculable. And it will be hard to overcome. Then when William Mueller wants to speak with Stein about her visit to Putin, she gets all snotty and pouty and says, "The nerve of that man! He wants to talk to me! Moi! The Green Party candidate! How dare he!" You know. Talk to the guy who's supposed to be investigating Russian influence on our election? Bill Mueller?

I am sick and tired of third party candidates on ego trips. The same thing happened in 2000 with Ralph Nader. He helped to knock out Al Gore. Please stop doing that!

Here is a link to a story about Stein:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nati...

And check out the photo in this one:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...

America Haters
A word about America Haters. Let me try and express my feelings about America Haters in as few words as possible: What the fuck? I heard someone at a Zoom event recently saying it was a good thing that America was on the decline. What? And the replacement is? Russia? China? Right now those two nations are splitting the continents that each one controls. Russia is determined to destroy democracy throughout Europe and anywhere else for that matter. China wants to control Asia. It is only a matter of time before they actually attack Taiwan. They would love to see someone run America just like them.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I imagine it is hard to write a book about events currently happening which is what Malcolm Nance did with his book: The Plot To Hack America. The Plot to Destroy Democracy: … is written in much of the same vane. The author discusses how Putin and his minions are undermining the US and other nations to undermine democratic governments. He discusses Donald Trumps role in this. This is a book that should be read by everyone who wants to remain living under our current system of government. Unfortunately, those who should read this will not or if they do, would not believe it. I hope they enjoy living in an authoritarian fascist country. I'm 78 so I've lived my life and hopefully, I won't be around long enough for it to affect my life for long.

[John H · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's a lot of interesting material in this book, but there are so many errors that ultimately it made me discount pretty much everything in here. It's obvious that it was rushed to print, but did an editor even look at this book? There are errors in here that a 4th grader wouldn't make. Here are a few:

Book states that the downing of the Malaysian Airlines flight over Ukraine was in 2017. It was actually in 2014.

On page 240 the author refers to the "Dallas News". It's actually the Dallas Morning News. On the very next page he refers to it as the "Dallas Morning Herald", and in the Notes the two sources for those references actually come from the same website (The Dallas Morning News website)!

On pages 142 & 143 there is repetition of most of a paragraph.

Page 257: "Days before the election of Donald Trump, on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday..." - the election was in November, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday is in January. I suspect he meant "inauguration" instead of "election", but by this point I was too checked out to try and parse what the author meant every time a mistake was made.

Awful writing and editing that made me ignore most of this book. If the author gets so many simple facts incorrect, what makes you think there aren't errors in the stuff you don't know off the top of your head?

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's ironic to finish this book the day after Mueller indicts 13 members of the Russian RF-IRA. The story Nance tells is aligned well with current events.
A lot of the first half of the book is a history of Russian/Soviet espionage activities, their various goals, strategies and alphabet soup of organizations. This is a fascinating introduction to support the current situation and provide an awareness of the many avenues Russia utilizes to its covert goals. The latter half spends more time talking about their current operations around the world in what Nance calls operation Global Grizzly to destroy democracy everywhere. Within that context he discussed in the last section of the book the current attack we are under today in the United States.
It is a grim story given the uncertainty in our country surviving this attack as a whole healthy entity.
The story is told with a great deal of authority of facts and figures. It is somewhat confused at points and could use some further editing. In particular, there are a couple of needless repetitions and some places where the timeline is hard to discern in the story as the description seems to loop forward and backward. Overall, the material is so important and germane that it deserves 5 stars even with these difficulties. It is a wake up call to democracy everywhere.

[Sherry Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone interested in the truth behind the Trump Administration. Reads like a spy novel. Malcolm Nance writes, "Trump never really won his seat in the Oval Office--he is a cardboard cutout for the real power behind him, the former Russian KGB spymaster turned American Republican. Trump could possibly fill the role of President, but Vladimir Putin would always be the shadow broker that put him into power. This thought so terrifies Trump that he would spend every waking day of his time in office refuting the accusation...His most utterly terrifying thought must be that even as one of the most powerful men in the world, everyone believes he was owned lock, stock, and barrel by the Kremlin. He was right." Nance's book puts the whole story together. Published in late June, he presciently forecast Mueller's latest indictments and the disgraceful Trump behaviour in Helsinki.

[Dorian Huerta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book that lays out the history of espionage and propaganda techniques employed by the KGB and now by FSV. Recommended read if you want to find out how Russia hacking our elections was just the tip of the iceberg of its long game war on sowing chaos in democratic institutions and establishing a new autocratic world order under Putin.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this Book

Nance did it again. This is an excellent book. I recommend it to everyone. What is happening in this country is serious. We must realize what is going on or we will lose our democracy.

[Roger Briggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

COLLUSION COLLUSION...Russia is the iceberg, we are the Titanic

A clear and present danger, POTUS45. Nance's book makes a clear case for collusion, Trump as a writing participant, and an argument for treason in the Oval Office. Important!

[Travis Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Malcolm Nance is an American Hero

This book is the wake-up call and call to action we've all been waiting for. When the final history of this awful period is written, this book will be required reading for its authors.

[Israel Macario · Rating 5 out of 5]

A patriot provides insight on how Russia attacked the US

Malcolm Nance explains how Russia was able to attack the United States. He provides insight that only an intelligence officer can offer. A book that has to be read by all citizens.

[Don Watkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read even if it is very discouraging to someone who truly loves the USA. Malcolm Nance is a master writer.

[Geoffrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

An important book but it is so badly edited with misstatements of facts, repeating arguments already made, etc. I can only give one star. Maybe the second edition will be better.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought Nance was a little over the top at first. The idea that the US President is a Russian asset is just too preposterous to take very seriously, despite Trump's obvious admiration for dictators around the world. But then I saw Trump on television, explaining that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a response to terrorism. Terrorism? No one thinks this, but it is the current revisionist view promoted by Moscow state media. Who is planting this idea in Trump's head? Is this the same voice that told him that Montenegrins, after joining NATO, are "aggressive" and about to start the next world war? During which season of The Apprentice did Trump's position on Montenegro and Soviet-era military disaster begin to form? This is a man who doesn't even read his intellligence briefings, who according to his former Secretary of State, doesn't like to read at all. He can barely read a teleprompter. So where are these opinions coming from?

None of this means that Putin is whispering sweet nothings in Trump's ear at night as we turn in our sheets. It could be that Trump is independently in favor of weakening NATO and letting Russia annex former Soviet states. He may approve of Russian meddling in US elections, when it accrues to his benefit. Trump insults his own cabinet members on a regular basis, but he treats Putin like the Godfather. That doesn't necessarily mean that he's under Putin's control, but the coincidences keep piling up, and the smoke keeps getting thicker.

Nance provides a lot of useful background for how Russian intelligence and propaganda operates, and how it fits in with what we're seeing on the news almost every day. There is the whiff of conspiracy theory behind all this, but as the facts fall into place and the veil slowly lifts, it looks more and more like a validation of Nance's law: Coincidence takes a lot planning.

[Jill Deutsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again Malcom Nance has scared the crap out of me. He methodically lays out Russia and Putin’s history, motivations, and methodology that led to the rise of white nationalism throughout the United States and Europe and ultimately to the election of Trump. It was like watching a slow moving train wreck. You know there is going to be destruction and devastation, but you cannot look away. This was an enlightening read which was informative but in light of Trump’s election and the failure of the Republican led Congress to reign him in, I cannot say it was an enjoyable read. Nevertheless, as Malcolm advises, we are the frontline in the protection of our democracy. We have to continue to protest, be heard and most importantly vote. There are more of us. We only lose through apathy. The only reason I did not give 5 stars is that this book needs a lot of basic editing. There are numerous misspellings i.e, one section is entitled “America Under Seige (sic) ... From Within.” It’s misspelled both in the table of contents and the chapter heading. There is also a lot of repetition with whole paragraphs almost verbatim within pages of each other i.e there is a paragraph on page 144 which discusses the death threat against Malcolm as appearing as coming from Denver, but really being a Russian bot and the same information and verbiage 3 pages later on page 147. Because the information is so fluid, I assume there was a rush to publish. Otherwise, a worthwhile book to the ever growing evidence of Trump and Putin’s coordination to destroy democracy.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly an outstanding overview of what Russia has accomplished not only in America, but globally. My only complaint is that the editor should be fired immediately. Not only are there multiple spelling errors but I found at least one paragraph that was obviously intended to be cut and pasted but was not removed, resulting in duplicate sections. The second half of the book is far cleaner in this regard.

[Stephen Shank · Rating 4 out of 5]

A damning indictment of how a sitting U.S. president conspired with a foreign adversary to conduct a massive information warfare campaign against the American public for personal gain. Meticulous attention given to people and events surrounding what's described as the greatest intelligence operation in world history that no reasonable person can ignore.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an important book that should have been properly edited. It was clearly thrown together too hastily. That said, it is essential reading to understand what is going on in our political culture.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book wasn't very well-written, it did convey quite a bit of information on the current Russiagate scandal, as well as a lot of background and context as to the methods and reasons for the Russian government attempting to overturn the Western system of alliances of liberal democracies. The reason being that Russia is trying to claw its way back to superpower status and thinks if the alliances such as NATO and the EU are destroyed, it may have a chance to pick up allies in the ensuing destruction, especially in those countries that are, similarly to Russia, undergoing disenchantment with globalization, the ravages of world-wide capitalism on local industry and manufacturing, paranoia because of globalization and mass travel enabling a cosmopolitanism some conservative people cannot handle, the reaction to modernity - how the communications revolution has brought people together via the smart phone etc and in a way erased borders, and many other things that certain people find uncomfortable or dismaying - such as the falling away from the church and the disintegration of the traditional family with the acceptance (for many years now) of divorce, single parent families, and so forth. Even gay rights bothers these people, and they seek to demonize them in a particularly hateful and backward reaction to social progress and modernity - or at least tolerance. They tend to be racist and wish to preserve Europe as a bastion of their white race - which is an anomaly to say the least in the today's world of mass travel and instant communication. The racism inevitably leads to antisemitism. Given Europe's horrific history of Jewish persecution, then, the connection between the reactionary right-wing forces in Russia and the various right-wing movement throughout Europe is extremely concerning to put it mildly. As well, the rise of Donald Trump - who became president because of the multi-year effort of the Russian government pouring manpower and millions of dollars into the project - is disturbing, as is the money that the Russian government poured into other GOP campaign coffers as well, more or less recognizing certain Republican law makers as "kindred" bigoted spirits. It is a disaster that American politics has succumbed to the same sort of paranoia and racism that beset many European countries - that the GOP politicians, conservative organizations and think tanks, didn't stop to consider that racism and antisemitism is utterly contrary to what it means to be an American, conservative or not. They took money from Russia - money that was intended to increase their influence and help them win elections, and thereby exacerbate divisions in our society, they played into Russian objectives of destabilizing the country. Russia seems to think the US will somehow collapse or fall apart just like the USSR fell apart - and has unleashed sophisticated disinformation, agitation and propaganda techniques on the internet taken directly from the playbook of the KGB under communism. The updated version of creating mayhem in the West (ironically, the West that Russia was supposed to have joined when the USSR fell apart) simply re-orients the propaganda line to hype Trump and bigotry, while also deploying trolls to take the opposite point of view so as to stoke controversy, disorder, dissension, and confusion. Trump of course either wittingly or unwittingly is doing the same thing with his unending divisive rallies, and his off the wall tweets - both of which seem to be designed to sow chaos and tear the US apart or even tear it down. The other day, Trump indicated that he supported the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan although both Democratic and Republican administrations supported the insurgency against the Soviet occupation. Trump even takes a pro-Soviet line - actually, eerily enough, the line adopted by Putin in an attempt to rehabilitate aspects of the Soviet Union. I am certain that if asked, Trump would probably even find a way to support the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian uprising of 1956.

There are a number of Russiagate books available - of the ones I've read so far, I would say this is one of the more informative, but also not very well-written - entire chunks of text seem repeated in the middle of the book although the ending is more carefully written and edited. I would advise the reader to be patient with the editorial glitches plaguing the first two thirds of the book - the ending definitely is worth it.

So here are the quotes:

From Chapter 1 - "Shots Fired"

"...Putin [got Trump elected] .. with the aid of Americans who ... turned on their own values."

From Chapter 3 - "Make Russia Great Again"

"...the decision by George W. Bush to invade a former client state, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, eroded the US/Russia relationship." "A series of cultural revolutions called "Color Revolutions" took former Soviet states [including the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic countries, and Kyrgyzstan's Tulip Revolution] quickly out of Moscow's sphere and into NATO's. As a buffer to future interference from the Kremlin [the Baltic States] all joined both the European Union and NATO in 2004." "The Serb grip on Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro had been broken due to NATO, and Moscow did not like it." "...Putin's spies in the FSB, GRU, and SVR were exercising his new strategy of Hybrid Warfare, an amalgam of cyber, special operations, and intelligence activities." "Putin believed that the democratic movements that were building in these former Russian states were orchestrated and/or supported by the US via the CIA and nongovernmental organizations." "[Putin] ... openly claimed [that]... America [was] ...pushing liberal democracy worldwide since the end of WWII, and ... Look what it wrought: America's embrace of ethnic diversity, a gay sexual revolution, and slovenliness had sought to wrench Russia apart. To Putin, America and Europe represented weakness." "The Ukrainian Orange Revolution occurred in 2004 when people demonstrated in the streets at Maidan Square after an election where it was found that the results were rigged in favor of Victor Yanukovych, a pro-Moscow strongman whose campaign was financed with Russian money. ...an estimated $500 billion..." "In 2008, Ukraine had begun discussions with the European Union to create an Association Agreement that would ultimately allow Ukraine a special trade arrangement with the EU. ...Putin offered large gas discounts and loans to Ukraine if Yanukovych didn't sign the deal. In February 2014, when Ukrainians learned ... that Yanukovych dropped the deal, ...protesters ...in Maidan... Square grew to tens of thousands. After a ...crackdown ...that left many bloodied and included government-controlled snipers killing over 100 protesters, Yanukovych agreed to new elections, but the next day ... fled to Russia. ...Russian [then] moved troops into East Ukraine and provided heavy weaponry to Russian-supported militants in Luhansk and Donbas; both were ethnically Russian border areas... After Russian separatist fighting commenced with Ukrainian army forces, the US and EU added a second level of sanctions against Moscow. On July 17, 2017, with Moscow's direct assistance, Russian-backed militants targeted and shot down a Malaysian airliner, an MH-17 that was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. ... The US and EU added more sanctions against Russia. .... ...Putin......was determined to seize Crimea from Ukraine..." "In 2014, Russia sent Special Forces without insignia to take over governmental administrative buildings in Crimea. ... The UN did not recognize the annexation of Crimea as Russian territory, and Russia's actions resulted in the EU and US sanctions against the Russian government." "The UNHCR estimates that there are more than 1.6 million peole who have been internally displaced." "Putin decided [that] .... If he could not get rid of sanctions he would get rid of the political systems that imposed them." "...former KGB and FSB officer [and Putin loyalist] Viktor Ivanov.... ... [ordered] the killing of former KGB officer turned Putin critic, Alexander Litvinenko, in which Viktor used a rare poison called polonium-210. Litvinenko had accused Ivanov of being involved with organized crime..." "Nikolai Patrushev [is].... an ex-KGB officer and the successor to Putin at the Russian intelligence agency, the FSB. .... when "terrorists" blew up apartments around Russia that killed hundreds [it]... allowed Putin to easily win the presidency on a counter-terrorism platform. It was ... [Patrushev's]... men that were captured planting one of those bombs." "After a decade running the FSB he became the head of the State Security Council, where he advises Putin and gets the intelligence agencies and the oligarchy to do Moscow's bidding without question." "Yevgeniy Prigozhin, ... a colorful ex-criminal... ...became involved in multiple covert operations for the Kremlin. ...he opened a fake news factory called Kharkiv News Agency." "Putin tapped Prigozhin to set up and operate all of Russia's off-the-books black operations under the guise of the civilian news company. He would also establish the primary generator of fake news in the West, the secret Russian Federations's Internet Research Agency (RF-IRA)." "If the EU could be disassembled through alluring offers of unilateral trade agreements with Washington, then all the better for Moscow." "The American Republican Party had been shifting to the far-right for more than two decades." "A successful co-option of the American right would lead to an entire wing of supporters operating the most powerful nation on earth and viewing Putin as its closest ally." "Sergei Kislyak served as the Russian Ambassador to the United States from 2008 to 2017." "The VEB [Russian state investment bank, Vnesheconombank] is considered to be Putin's personal bank for special projects. It is also under US sanctions related to Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea and for its reputation as "The Bank of Spies." Many Russian intelligence activities were funded from their coffers."

From Chapter 4 - "Putin's Philosophy"

"Vladislav Surkov ... .... strengthens Putin's control in Russia through media power." "In 2016, Surkov was put on the US sanctions list for his role in helping fashion the rebellious Donetsk and Luhansk "People's Republics" and agitation in Eastern Ukraine." "...Konstantin Malofeev has been likened as "Putin's George Soros"... "Malofeev was sanctioned by the Obama administration for being the principal funder of he Ukrainian separatist groups fighting in Donetsk that helped facilitate the seizure of Crimea."

From Chapter 5 - "A Rising Russia, a Failing America"

"Putin was committed to a quiet but decisive plan to revive the national standing of the Russian Federation." "This would include ...dealing with his opponents: the assassination of Nemtsov; the beating and imprisonment of the band Pussy Riot for exercising free speech when they allegedly defiled an Orthodox church by playing music in it; and forbidding electoral candidates to run against him." "...Russia...is an economic backwater." "...by 2016, Russia's economy was half of the State of California... ....Russia remained one of the most corrupt countries in the world." "Lawlessness and corruption in a kleptocracy are what have contributed to little faith in the Russian economy and investment." "In the era of Putin, the Nashi [youth group] replaced the Komsomol and were known for their public displays of affection for Putin and their public scorning of the designated enemies of the state, which included journalists, human rights activists, and anyone who was a critic of Putin and Kremlin policies."

From Chapter 6 - "Active Measures"

"...at the peak of the Cold War, Robert Gates defined [Active Measures] ... as: "Soviet active measures are covert operations designed to shape public opinion in foreign countries on key political issues. these measures are targeted at opinion-makers, such as political leaders, the media, and influential businessmen, as well as s the public at large."" "Extremists strong in biases and prejudice were considered the easiest targets for disinformation." "In the early days, the KGB sought to find and use Kompromat on Eastern bloc defectors and dissidents." "The Soviet Union historically lagged way behind the American technology curve when it came to computers." "Litvinenko had grown ...critical of the corruption of Russian law enforcement." "...former Russian spy Sergei Skripal [poisoned on 3/4/18 with a military grade nerve agent known as Novichok] .... was a close friend of Christopher Steele, famous for his work on the "Trump dossier."" ...the Kremlin never forgives. "Traitors will kick the bucket," said Putin...in 2010."

From Chapter 7 - "Fake News"

"...the Russians specifically use the words "massive brainwashing" in their armed forces doctrine when discussing social media information warfare." "Over the years, the Indian press was flooded with KGB propaganda products from ten Russian allied or operated newspapers and one press agency." "...under Putin state television and controlled social media are the big drivers of Russian opinion." "Spearheading Putin's national disinformation agencies is Dmitri Peskov...the Presidential Press Secretary and the Deputy Chief of the Presidential Executive Office."

From Chapter 8 - "Internet Research Agency & Russian Cyber Weapons"

"The Russian goal was to ... harness the power of personal access that social media gives and craft meta-narratives and distribute in such a way that the enemy population can be turned against their own government." "It's a Meta-narrative Cold War: Democracy or Autocracy?" "The use of trolls in modern active measures resembles the use of human agent provocateurs during the pre-Bolshevik era to incite riots that legitimized action against revolutionaries." "...their products are tied to bots that can resend their obnoxious messages by the millions per hour." "People tend to enjoy spreading messages they agree with, no matter how obscure the source or crazy the claim. Human curiosity and gullibility are the dispersal agents of the bot." "...of the accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency...29 of them were feeding the hashtag war on all sides." "[Alex] Jones had been a highly reliable source of fake news for the Russian propaganda warfare structure and his conspiracy theories were hash-tagged like crazy by the RF-IRA."

From Chapter 9 - "Hail Hydra!"

"Surprisingly, ... former Nazis and fascists [in America and Europe] were being funded and given ideological backing by Russia, a nation savaged by Nazis in WWII." "Since 9/11, Europe has been slowly sliding toward more authoritarian governments." "...since 2001, Moscow has observed these nationalist racist trends and found they aligned with their own new-found cultural conservatism." "The Kremlin spent the last decade establishing a durable network of European populists... ...an amalgam of fascists, neo-Nazis, and nationalist political parties... ... who want to destroy the status quo in Europe and eventually in the United States. ...they admire the plan to use democracy to establish autocracies, led by themselves. ...they can [then] assist Moscow in breaking America's "politically correct"democratic values of diversity, inclusiveness, globalization, and reliance on NATO and the European Union." "The pro-Moscow nationalist, anti-globalism, anti-NATO, and virulently anti-immigrant bodies in Europe are legion. ...political parties that are being funded, co-opted, or that are in league with the Kremlin to destroy European democracy." "In 2014, the [French] National Front [political party] received $15 million from Russia through a Russian government finance front, First Czech Russian Bank." "The Le Pen family remains the most militant pro-Russian Nationalists who have promised to forge ties with Moscow and help Putin integrate France into a network of neo-Nazi supporting counter-progressive Europeans - a Vichy French-like act..." "...the xenophobic Tea Party...racist and mostly middle-aged blue-collar white men in search of the white ethno-state." "...populist racist Nigel Farage moved to the forefront in an attempt to mainstream Euro-skepticism." "On November 29, 2017, President Trump reposed videos from ...[the] ... Twitter feed .... [of the British far-right anti-immigration, anti-Muslim extremist group Britain First!] allegedly showing Muslim murders and atrocities under ISIS. The global outrage was instantaneous." "[The] ... German group ... Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, also known as PEGIDA ...is best known for its far-right, anti-American, anti-Islam, and German Nationalist views. PEGIDA and the AfD are closely aligned..." "[Center-right populist Czech Prime Minister Andrej] Babis was a tough-talking populist who oozed rough charisma. He was entertaining to people bored by polities and charmed them enough to vote for change even if it was linked to destabilizing uncertainty and no matter how nefarious its associations. Like Trump, he attracted the older rural populace and gained voters who had never voted before." "The Kremlin has ... sponsored visits to Moscow by [the] ... leaders [of the Greek far right Golden Dawn party] as the mutual objective of their rise was the Greek-Russian alliance for trade, partnership, and security." "Jobbik is a Hungarian radical nationalist, conservative, and right-wing populist movement grounded in Russian-led anti-globalism, anti-Atlanticist rhetoric just like PEGIDA, AfD and numerous other conservative groups that worked to the benefit of Vladimir Putin by undermining NATO and the UN." "The Hungarian Guard is a neo-fascistic paramilitary group denounced by the Hungarian government and the European Court of Human Rights. It was subsequently disbanded in 2009 on legal grounds of promoting illegal institutionalized racism." "[Vladislav] Surkov and other friends of [British -born Hungarian (now American), former WH adviser Sebastian] Gorka and Putin praised the [2017] conference ["for persecuted Christians"] arranged by the [conservative populist] Fidesz Party and Nationalist Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, who appealed to many far-right American Putin-apologists as well." "In 2017, US President Donald Trump traveled to Poland at the invitation of President Andrzej Duda to give a speech which was wildly criticized for its fostering the concept that the West and Islam were in a clash of civilizations. Trump sounded themes that appeared to foster the ethno-nationalist belief that Western civilization (read as Christianity) was under attack from migrant cultures, largely believed to imply Islam." "Fascism has a deep history in Italy. "Il Fascismo" was Mussolini's term to describe corporatist dictatorship of the extreme right." "President Trump's former White House Senior Strategist and Chief Adviser, Steve Bannon, traveled to Italy to advise the anti-immigrant fascist, Matteo Salvini, of the group that was previously known as Lega Nord (the Northern League), La Lega." "Multiple Inter-European groups were formed by these pro-Moscow groups to fuse the Euro-skeptic, pro-Moscow, anti-immigrant, anti-NATO political parties and personalities into political and personal alliances..." "...after the election of Donald Trump, the North American wing of the pro-Moscow conservative network was forming fast." "[Steve Bannon] told an assembly of the National Front, "Let them call you racist! Let them call you xenophobes! Wear it as a badge of honor.""

[Mlg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a sobering read from Malcolm Nance. He details how Putin financed Trump’s win and is using him to try to destroy democracy both here and in Europe. Putin wants an “axis of autocrats” with himself at the helm. If Trump could be made President, Putin believed he would lift sanctions and bring about a worldwide conservative renaissance. Jared Kushner would be the one to set up the back channel that could be used to communicate without NSA or CIA knowledge. Initially Russia spread money around thru a number of the corrupt front runners. But as Trump continued to soar, Russia went all in on the cyber attacks and funneling millions of dollars thru the NRA into Trump’s campaign. Other Republicans like McConnell, Rubio and Graham also took laundered Russian money. Russians only attempted to buy Conservatives. Democrats wouldn’t do what they wanted.

When you look at Putin’s wish list, you can see how Trump is his stooge. He wants to destroy NATO, end globalism (tariffs anyone?), and they push the narrative that immigrants are at fault for almost everything. Russians even divided up the US. Midwesterners will be happy to hear we become part of Canada.

Putin has been busy in at least 12 other countries battling democracy. He was active in Brexit and Scotland’s campaign to leave the UK. He tried to install Marine le Pen in France, but the French thwarted his last minute dirty tricks. Even Skripal who was killed in the UK by Novichok, may have been killed because he was one of the sources of the Steele dossier. Putin has also gotten gotten support from Evangelicals like Franklin Graham, working to spread the anti gay, anti abortion message. One of the scariest things in the book comes at the end. Clearly Trump is a man who cares for nothing but his own aggrandizement. He will sell out the country without a thought. His base votes only for him as leader. They see nothing that he does or doesn’t do as problematic. How will we rid ourselves of this traitorous man?

[Sharon Beers · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded-up terrifying stars. The interesting this about this book, as opposed to all of the other Trump/Russia 2016 books released in the past 4 years, is that this one takes a GLOBAL look at how Russia is working to undermine democracy in the western world, in America, yes, but also in France, England, Germany and more. Nance lays out not just the WHY but the HOW, from spycraft to information warfare to kompromat. That insight, and the information on the rise of the "alt-right" at home and abroad, make this essential reading for our time in history.

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written, not worth it