Gerasimov doctrine

"[10] At the time, Galeotti believed that Gerasimov presented his views of future warfare in an article published in the Voenno-Promyshlennyi Kurier called "Tsennost’ nauki v predvidenii’ (The Value of Science in Foresight) in the edition of 27 February–5 March 2013.

[citation needed] Gerasimov emphasises "the importance of controlling the information space and the real-time coordination of all aspects of a campaign, in addition to the use of targeted strikes deep in enemy territory and the destruction of critical civilian as well as military infrastructure."

[20] Within this framework, the main goal of "nonlinear warfare" is to achieve the desired strategic and geopolitical results, using a wide toolbox of non-military methods and means: explicit and covert diplomacy, economic pressure, winning the sympathy of the local population, etc.

[citation needed] U.S. analysts point out that the Russian military's use of the new developments surprisingly inverts some of the fundamental paradigms of armed confrontation that were laid down in the works of Carl von Clausewitz and have been considered immutable for centuries.

[citation needed] Their functioning is allegedly hidden from the outside observer by an impenetrable veil of secrecy, and the available tools use the applied achievements of reflexive control, which theoretically would allow the Russian authorities to act rigidly, flexibly, and quickly, and not be particularly distracted by such conventions as legality, legitimacy, etc..[citation needed] Given the release date of the Gerasimov report and Russia's subsequent actions, many experts are inclined to link these events and directly point to Russia's use of the doctrine against Ukraine[1] and the U.S.[3] The majority of Russian experts believe that Gerasimov did not present anything new, and doubt the existence of such a doctrine.

He stressed that Gerasimov's speech "reflected general sentiments in Russian military thought on how the U.S. conducts political warfare via “color revolutions,” eventually backed by the employment of high precision weapons, with many of the observations derived from the Arab Spring.

[24] Mark Galeotti stated in an article for Foreign Policy that the famous "Gerasimov Doctrine," which is understood in the West as an "expanded theory of modern warfare" or even "a vision of total war," does not exist in reality, and that he himself is the inventor of this term.