Russia is a devoted enemy that attacks us relentlessly

In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.We need to stop obsessing over whether Russian sharing of targeting intelligence allowed Iran to kill Americans. Whether or not Moscow enabled these particular attacks, it’s a devoted enemy that attacks America relentlessly.Under President Vladimir Putin, Russian animus toward the United States is rooted in a deeply held anti-American ideology. The Russian government places great importance on manipulating U.S. policymakers into believing that it seeks only pragmatic, mutually respectful engagement. At the same time, Russia does everything possible to undermine America. Consider the photo attached to this article. It shows a Kremlin embrace between Kirill Dmitriev and another man earlier this year. Dmitriev’s shtick is that he is a pro-American bon vivant who, when not reveling in Miami Beach Jet Skiing outings, pursues earnest engagement with the Trump administration toward ending the war in Ukraine.Adm. Igor Kostyukov, head of Russian military intelligence and head of Russia’s team in security talks with the United States and Ukraine, left, embraces Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, prior to a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 29, 2026. (Maxim Shipenkov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) In reality, Dmitriev is a favored Kremlin moneyman and foreign relations spinmaster. He is valued for his ability to woo foreign investors and put foreign interlocutors at ease. But there is no question that he is a loyal servant of Putin’s sharper-edged agenda. As a case in point, note that the other man in the photograph is Adm. Igor Kostyukov.READING IS NOW A CRIME IN HONG KONGChief of the GRU, Kostyukov leads the organization most responsible for Russia’s most aggressive intelligence operations. Publicly disclosed GRU operations against the U.S. include a 2018 attempt to kill American soldiers in Syria, the paying of bounties to kill Americans in Afghanistan, and a 2024 plot to place bombs on cargo flights headed to the U.S.The GRU is also primarily responsible for the devastating so-called Havana syndrome attacks on U.S. government and military personnel. As the Washington Examiner has extensively reported (see links at the end of this article), these attacks involve novel pulsed microwave weapons against a person’s nervous system. Dozens, if not hundreds, of Americans have suffered debilitating, life-changing injuries as a result of these attacks.Some, such as former National Security Agency officer Mike Beck, have died premature deaths. Family members, including children, have also been afflicted. And while Russia’s responsibility here currently remains hidden by a systemic U.S. intelligence cover-up, that imprisonment of the truth is slowly failing. The truth will show that Russia has engaged in a multiyear campaign of terrorism against the U.S.The Russians have no qualms about any of this. Indeed, Kostyukov revels in the KGB tradition of what might best be described as “smiling, f*** you, pageantry.”This was the case when the GRU chief summoned U.S. defense attaches earlier this year. He then handed them fictional evidence of what Russia claimed was a Ukrainian assassination attempt on Putin. But as with the Russian intelligence penchant for throwing people out of windows or killing targets in theatrical ways, Kostyukov’s malevolent smile hides a true viciousness.Havana syndrome notwithstanding, the most public example of the GRU’s penchant for evil can be seen in its March 2018 failed attempt to assassinate the former British intelligence agent, Sergei Skripal. Skripal, his daughter, and a responding police officer were seriously injured in that attack.But while they eventually recovered, a totally innocent woman died after spraying herself with a callously discarded perfume bottle in which the GRU had hidden their nerve agent. When Dawn Sturgess’s 20-year-old son politely asked Russia to allow police officers to interview the GRU officers believed responsible for his mother’s murder, the Russian Embassy in London publicly insulted him. Again, the Russians find this all very funny.Of course, Dmitriev and Kostyukov are only part of the story. Russia under Putin adopts a whole-of-state strategy of anti-Americanism.We see this in Russia’s education of China on how to track and sink American submarines. We see this in Russia’s facilitation of Iran’s nuclear program and deep technical support for North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile program. We see this in Russia’s breaches of ballistic missile and space-based weapons treaties. We see this in the patronage relationship between Russia’s FSB domestic security service and the ransomware hackers that hold hostage American businesses, hospitals, and energy infrastructure (recall the Colonial Pipeline crisis). We see it in Russian threats to attack the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.This hostility is often very personal. Take the FSB’s harassment of American diplomats. This has involved drugging, assaults (especially when the FSB fails in its surveillance of CIA officers), gifts of human excrement, and the killing of pets. Unfortunately, the U.S. has forgotten its Cold War knowledge of how to deal with Russia here. It’s not with diplomatic expulsions, but by direct reciprocity.America is targeted because Russia despises the architecture of freedom and cooperation that America defends.Putin believes that close American allies such as Estonia, Latvia, and Poland should not be able to exist except as Russian dependencies. But these countries love America, lead NATO’s percent-of-GDP defense budget lists, and have regularly sent troops to fight alongside the U.S. military. And the need for greater allied burden sharing and certain U.S. military redeployments to the Pacific notwithstanding, NATO serves not just American security but American prosperity.In 2025, the total value of NATO member state imports of U.S. goods and foreign direct investments into the U.S. was a staggering $1.4 trillion. In 2021, the year before Russia’s war on Ukraine provoked major international sanctions on Moscow, the equivalent Russian figure was $18.1 billion. In pure economic terms, NATO allies provide 7,700% more direct value to American jobs and wealth than does Russia.Put another way, those who suggest that Russia should be prioritized over our allies are either Russian intelligence assets like Nicholas Cobb or, as in the vast majority of cases, grand masters of self-delusion.ANDY BURNHAM’S TOP CABINET PICK IS GOOD NEWS FOR THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIPThis is why we must always focus on the bigger picture. Whether or not Russia has supported Iran in this specific instance is generally irrelevant. Not because we shouldn’t care about what Moscow is or is not doing to hurt Americans, but rather because we know that Moscow is doing a lot of just that.If Americans value our freedom and prosperity, and the unparalleled measure of international freedom and prosperity that the U.S. has fostered since 1945, we shouldn’t navel-gaze in the face of Russian lies and active enmity.Instead, remaining open to truly constructive dialogue, we should respond more forcefully to what Russia does to hurt us. In the end, Putin’s earnest calls for dialogue with America are what the shield was to the KGB’s emblem.A thin veil for a bloody sword.