Harvard Prof Says False-Flag Invasions A Russian Specialty

Last month, as tensions between Ukraine and Russia escalated, the US Department of Defense warned that Russia was planning a false-flag operation—a deception operation designed to give them an excuse to intervene in Ukraine, Calder Walton, the assistant director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Applied History Project and director of research of its Intelligence Project, wrote for Foreign Policy.

Photo Insert: The recent claims by Western governments about Russian false-flag operations and its intention to install a pliant leader in Ukraine are entirely unsurprising when seen from a historical perspective.

This was followed by an unusual public announcement by Britain’s foreign office alleging that the Kremlin was plotting to install a pliant, pro-Russian, leader in Ukraine.

Then, this week, US intelligence officials have published details of a Russian plot to fabricate a graphic video as a pretext for an attack on Ukraine. The video apparently would include staged explosions, with corpses, actors, and mourners, to justify Russian intervention.

Amid the saber-rattling and the fog of war descending, it is difficult for all observers, including governments, to understand what will happen next in Ukraine. Rumors are swirling, and tensions are escalating day by day, even hour by hour.

The recent claims by Western governments, however, about Russian false-flag operations and its intention to install a pliant leader in Ukraine, are entirely unsurprising when seen from a historical perspective.

Such moves were deliberate strategies on the part of the Kremlin during the Cold War, which Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin—an old cold warrior and former KGB officer—knows only too well.

Understanding this history informs what we are seeing unfolding right now. Remember the Aug. 21, 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact members and the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

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