How to combat possible Russian hybrid warefare in the future....
Stop antagonizing Russia. Stop using then as a political scapegoat.
Start building some relationships and good will.
Putin has built his ENTIRE two decades in power forging a foreign policy predicated on doing just those things to us!
Our leaders like Dear G. Dubya and Secretary Hillary responded by smiley photo-ops in Moscow and 'resets' of friendship. And then of course, there was President Obama's famous quip to Mitt Romney in 2012's 3rd Presidential Debate:
The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”
Just a few short years after that, Russia invaded East Ukraine and has been there wreaking havoc ever since. 10,000 plus lives lost. Many of them civilians. And deaths continue to mount with news in just today about the death of 3 schoolchildren in an East Ukraine landmine.
It was actually 2008, when then Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin warned:
“After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia's Putin to invade Ukraine next.” said Palin.