from U.S. Foreign Policy Program and Europe Program

Containing Russia

How to Respond to Moscow’s Intervention in U.S. Democracy and Growing Geopolitical Challenge

Council Special Report
Concise policy briefs that provide timely responses to developing crises or contributions to current policy dilemmas.

The United States has failed to elevate Russia’s intervention in U.S. elections to the national priority that it is, and it has neglected to respond to it in a way sufficient to deter future attacks, warn Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellows Robert D. Blackwill and Philip H. Gordon in a new special report. They argue, “A wide range of additional measures is therefore needed in order to better protect U.S. society and political and electoral systems from further intervention.”

Robert D. Blackwill
Robert D. Blackwill

Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy

Philip H. Gordon
Philip H. Gordon

Mary and David Boies Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy

Surveying the full scope of the “extraordinary Russian attack on the core of the American democratic system” during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and beyond, Blackwill and Gordon—who served in Republican and Democratic administrations respectively—conclude that, “The United States is currently in a second Cold War with Russia.”

More on:

Russia

Influence Campaigns and Disinformation

Sanctions

Elections and Voting

“The Russian effort to destabilize the United States does not take place in a vacuum. Rather, it stems from the Russian president’s strongly held view—shared by a wide range of Russians—that the spread of U.S. regional and global hegemony since the end of the Cold War threatens Russian vital national interests and deprives Russia of its rightful place on the world stage,” they explain.

“There is also little doubt that Russian interventions continue—both to influence upcoming elections and to divide Americans, fanning the flames of cultural, racial, and class resentment and seeking to delegitimize institutions, the free press, and elected officials,” the authors write.

The report’s prescriptions for U.S. policymakers are “designed in the first instance to deter Russia from again stoking disunity in the United States by making clear to the Kremlin and to its national security apparatus the significant cost of their activities.”

The recommendations in Containing Russia: How to Respond to Moscow’s Intervention in U.S. Democracy and Growing Geopolitical Challenge include:

  • Expanded Sanctions. Working closely with European partners, implement asset freezes and visa bans on Russian officials and entities known to be involved with election and political interference. Current sanctions have “failed to send a sufficiently powerful message to Moscow.”
  • Electoral and Cyber Countermeasures. Strengthen the cybersecurity of federal networks and critical infrastructure and support legislation to enhance transparency and update campaign finance laws to cover online activity.
  • European Security. Work with European partners to expand sanctions, maintain the numbers of permanent NATO forces currently in Europe, and “deploy permanently an additional armored combat brigade in Poland and maintain permanent multinational battalions in the Baltic states.”

More on:

Russia

Influence Campaigns and Disinformation

Sanctions

Elections and Voting

Top Stories on CFR

Russia

The mass casualty theater attack in Moscow was a reminder that affiliates of the Islamic State have reorganized and infiltrated even powerful states.

India

With India's development continuing to gain steam, one of the biggest challenges will be to avoid the mistake that others have made when they failed to recognize their newly acquired global systemic influence and adapt accordingly. Both China and Big Tech show that it is never too early to start managing one's own rise.

United States

Atmospheric rivers are gaining in intensity across California and the western United States. Communities need to adapt to the havoc wrought by this weather phenomenon.