The phrases (terms) "little green men" and especially "hybrid war" have become commonplace now. They are new, arose only a year, and, judging by the primary sources, were introduced from the people. They are most actively used by Western politicians and generals in the current large-scale anti-Russian campaign. Military theorists are trying to substantiate them in relation to the newly discovered methods of warfare against the background of events in Ukraine.
WITHOUT TITLES AND CHEVRONS
With "green men", they are "polite people", more or less understandable. A detailed article about them with links to various sources is on Wikipedia. They have even already composed a hymn about them, which is performed with a bang by the military ensemble named after. Aleksandrov, and Voentorg registered the corresponding "brand" mark for its goods.
These "little people-people" became so popular overnight that it came to this. In September last year, the leader of the Russian Party of Pensioners for Justice and deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, retired colonel Igor Zotov, introduced a bill establishing October 7 as a memorable date "Day of Polite People of the Russian Federation." Why on October 7, and not on some day in February or March, when the "little green men" first identified themselves, there is no need to explain. October 7 is the birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was at his command that “polite people” appeared in Crimea and it was he who determined the tactics of their actions on the peninsula. The Ministry of Defense immediately supported this initiative. But on February 26, 2015, the head of state issued a decree establishing the Day of Special Operations Forces - February 27, and Deputy Zotov withdrew his project.
From a military point of view, "little green men" ("polite people") are well-equipped servicemen of Russian special forces in camouflage uniforms without insignia and state affiliation, who, during the preparation of the referendum on the status of Crimea in February-March 2014, firstly, without any violence, they ensured its peaceful implementation (there was an obvious danger that radical nationalists would interfere with the expression of the will of the Crimeans), and secondly, correctly and without a single shot, they occupied all strategic objects and just bloodlessly blocked and disarmed all Ukrainian military units stationed in Crimea.
This operation in Crimea was so successful that for Ukraine and other anti-Russian countries, "green men" - "polite people" have become an image of an enemy, a bogey that frightens ordinary people in NATO countries. However, the tactics of their actions are studied there and adopted.
ACTIVITY WITH A DENIAL OF PARTICIPATION
The term "hybrid war" is somewhat more complicated. The same Wikipedia, referring to experts and media sources, gives it rather contradictory definitions, ranging from guerrilla warfare and cyber attacks to the use of nuclear weapons (but if so, then any war is hybrid). However, the active use of the expression, its cultivation in the mouths of politicians and the media is associated precisely with the Ukrainian events and with the same “polite people” (and then what does “hybridity” have to do with it, it seems unclear). This practice of conducting (bloodless) warfare has never been observed anywhere else.
Of course, in recent history there have been cases of fighting without casualties, but all of them were accompanied by the direct entry of troops into the occupied territory. Suffice it to recall how the Soviet Union in 1939 annexed Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, Northern Bukovina and the three Baltic republics. Or how the annexation of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia and the Anschluss of Austria by Nazi Germany took place a year earlier. There was one remarkable incident during the Great Patriotic War, when in September 1944 Soviet troops, with the full loyalty of the Bulgarian population, carried out an absolutely sacrificial five-day operation to liberate this country from the German fascist invaders. Obviously, in all these cases, hybrid approaches were also used, but neither then nor later did anyone have the mind to come up with such facts as some distinguishing definition.
Recall that on January 15, the European Parliament, in a resolution on the situation in Ukraine, pointed to “the illegal annexation of Crimea and the conduct of an undeclared hybrid war against Ukraine, including an information war, supplemented by elements of cyber war, the use of regular and irregular forces, propaganda, economic pressure, energy blackmail, diplomacy and political destabilization”. On the one hand, everything is in a heap, but on the other, all these elements were observed and are observed to a greater or lesser extent (we will not "expose" here the entire anti-Russian essence of the interpretations of the Western defenders of the coup d'etat in Ukraine).
On January 20, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who had risen on the foam of a coup d'etat in Kiev to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, spoke in the same spirit: “At the initial stages of Russian military aggression, it had a hybrid character … The Green Men annexed Crimea and also illegally invaded the territory of Eastern Ukraine … No one was ready for this new type of war, even in the world."
Judging by how different countries (not only Ukraine and the Baltic countries) are now preparing to repel "hitherto unknown" attacks, hybrid war is seen in this way. This is a combination of largely open political and partly public diplomatic moves with a simultaneous deep concealment of military actions, combined with a denial of their own involvement in the latter, which significantly complicates or completely excludes a full-fledged military response to them. Yes, the reader will excuse us for such a long "pseudoscientific", but, as it seems, still a rather intelligible definition.
In February, the head of the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Oleg Makarevich, as part of a visiting meeting of the Commission of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, said the following: “It is hardly a secret for anyone that the Americans are now carefully studying our experience of actions in the period from February to July 2014 years, when our troops, without firing a single shot, completed the task in the Crimea, which was later called "a new hybrid war." The military leader said that several scientific and practical conferences were held in NATO and the United States on the topic of such wars in Europe and overseas. According to him, the combined arms academy is also carefully studying the experience of modern wars, including those associated with the so-called hybrid war."
Moreover, the Russian military is studying the "Crimean experience" not only at academic desks. In January, an operational mobilization meeting of command personnel was held in the Western Military District (ZVO), in which the commanders of large formations and formations of the Western Military District and officers of the headquarters of the military district were involved. But they are not the only ones. Interestingly, officers of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus were also invited. In total, over 130 senior and senior officers gathered for this event in St. Petersburg. As noted, for several days the generals, admirals and officers of the union state exchanged experiences and participated in seminars and round tables on the topic of the gathering. And this topic was remarkable: "Features of command and control of subordinate troops and forces in the context of a hybrid and network-centric war."
The professors and teachers of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces enlightened the guests, who gave them "a special course of lectures on command and control of troops and forces in the context of the global infocommunication field."
Theorists, having studied the chronicle and features of confrontations in various parts of the world over the past 5-10 years, concluded that network-centric warfare is "a military doctrine (or concept of warfare) first applied in practice by the US Department of Defense." Military minds believe that network-centric warfare, in its brief understanding, is aimed at increasing the combat capabilities of troops in modern wars and armed conflicts by achieving infocommunication superiority, combining combatants into a single network."
“In turn, hybrid warfare,” according to the West Military District headquarters, is a military strategy that combines conventional warfare, small warfare and cyber warfare. One of the main forms of hybrid warfare is informational actions, psychological actions and cyber attacks aimed at both the structural technical components of the state and its citizens. " According to theorists of this approach to understanding these things, "in recent years, the components of network-centric and hybrid wars have been actively used by the warring parties in the course of wars and conflicts in Iraq, Libya and Syria."
Against the background of the well-known events in Crimea, such a formulation seems somewhat abstruse and very global. Theorists and analysts with scientific degrees, of course, know better. But from an everyday point of view, "green (polite) men" in Taurida acted much more mundane within the framework of the task set by him "not to open fire" (perhaps "in the most extreme case") and fulfilled it, as they say, for a medal, otherwise and for the order. However, we do not know how large-scale they were supported by "psychological actions and cyber attacks" (with all the restrained information support from Moscow visible to everyone). Some details of this operation were revealed in the documentary “Crimea. The Way to the Homeland”.
And by the way, no awards were given to "polite people", in any case, there was no official information about it. Although, as I recall, answering the questions of the Russians in April last year, President Vladimir Putin, speaking about the tactics of "polite people" in Crimea ("they stood behind the back of the self-defense forces of Crimea, because it is different to hold a referendum openly, honestly, with dignity and help it was simply impossible for people to express their opinion”), said that he would reward these servicemen. However, he made a reservation that he would do it non-publicly. Then we must assume that the awarding of orders and medals has already taken place. Perhaps February 27 is the President's newly established Special Operations Day.
