What motivates Putin? He is driven by much more than a greedy desire for money and power: he is a fanatical nationalist, determined to make Russia great again. He laments the collapse of the Soviet Union, saying that "its collapse was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." His nostalgia is understandable: in terms of its size, population, military power and prestige, the Russian empire was at the peak of its power during the Soviet Union.

Putin is a virtuoso in the exercise of power. Depending on the stakes, this involves the judicious use of "hard" physical power, such as armored divisions, multinational corporations, and assassins, or "soft" psychological influences, such as diplomacy, "honeytraps," cybertrolls, and fake news factories, to repel threats and seize control. opportunities available. Russian hackers broke into the IT systems of Hillary Clinton's campaign team and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), from which they obtained tens of thousands of emails with sensitive content, which were made public on WikiLeaks.

The current leader of the Kremlin, like most of his predecessors, is as realistic-minded as he is ruthless. He is aware of the limits of Russian hard and soft power, but at the same time he is constantly trying to expand their boundaries. He does everything to enforce what he considers to be Russian national interests. In his opinion, Russia can rise only to the extent that the West begins to decline, and it strives to achieve this goal methodically on several fronts at the same time. Putin's virtual war reveals why and how he does this, and the serious consequences for America, Europe and the rest of the world.

Dr. William Nester, a professor in the Department of State and Political Science at St. John's University in New York, is the author of 37 books on history and politics. In 2013, George Rogers Clark's work: Pride of War won the main award for the best biographical work of the Army Historical Foundation, Titan: The Art of the British Exercise of Power during the Revolution and in the Age of Napoleon, and in 2016 the Arthur Goodzett Book Award of the New York Military Symposium.