Rebekah Koffler's "Putin's Playbook: Unearthing Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America"

Viabaja: This was a great read. Notably from a native born Russian who ended up working in the DIA. Great insight into Putin and the current events in Ukraine. I agree with her, we have no business being in Ukraine, but that’s my opinion. The author tends to replicate info back and forth, but that’s probably due this being her first book. One thing I disagree on with her is, there will not be a nuclear kinetic conflict between Russia and the US. MAD still prevales. But cyber is a whole new ballgame. Also, she continues to bad mouth her old employer the DIA. Understand. But flavors her book too much in that arena. But overall, was a good read. Agreed and disagreed with many of her assessments. Putin is truly a product of his generation and upbringing. She is correct, Russians do not think like Americans.

United States on Jul 07, 2023

RDENJ: Deep insights into his psyche driven worldview

United States on Jul 04, 2023

Harold Henson: Historians and journalist rely on well motivated insiders to understand the great questions of the day. The author is someone who was really there as events unfolded. Unfortunately, many of her conclusions are not substantiated by the facts she brings to bear. At this point in time, the impact of the manipulation of social media by external forces is an open question subject to debate. Her real world experiences will help feed the debate, but by itself her evidence is not conclusive.

Canada on Feb 18, 2023

starlight: The authoress made a solid case for language and culture being critical factors in understanding Russia as an opponent. U.S. Presidents since the collapse of the Soviet Union have been attempting to "reset" relations with Russia and ignorance has only emboldened Putin. Trump publicly declared that he trusted Putin that "Russia does not engage in electronic incursions into the U.S." and Koffler overtly reports that this cyber-invasion is a daily event. It is puzzling that she did not criticize Trump over his flattering attitude of naivete towards Putin. Clearly, she has a partisan view of presidents, and the GOP is her selection. Biden knows Putin as vicious and of a brutal nature. Biden's handling of Ukraine with western allies is commendable.

United States on Feb 14, 2023

Sharikc: The book goes all over the place and around the middle it turns out she gets fired and this is basically an open letter as a disgruntled employee, and talks about her legal battles with the government to get her security clearance back.

India on Jan 04, 2023

Kettlewell: Changes how you hear conversations between Americans, and hopefully will result in Americans changing how they treat each other. The rest of us will benefit.
Bravo to author for courage.

Australia on May 30, 2022

David Noonan: I was willing to ignore the author’s mindset because she grew up in Russia; the very reason that she was able to understand, analyse and provide excellent intelligence advice to her adopted country.
To read that she was ejected from her role despite support from her superiors and peers within that intelligence “troika” makes me think that it will be a long time before the US follows the five pieces of advice given in the epilogue to this book.
I have learned a vast amount from this book.
I put up with the repetition in various chapters, the seeing of Trump as a good president simply because he made good military decisions and the author’s inability to see the difference between socialism and communism.
Many democratic countries have socialist benefits for their citizens without any fear of them becoming communist.

Australia on Apr 29, 2022

Dmckinleyp: Last year I participated in some of Rebekah Koffler's Zoom calls staged to educate people about Vladimir Putin and the Russian threat. I must admit, I was focusing on China and had trouble taking this threat seriously.

Big mistake. With the war on Ukraine, I decided to read Putin's Playbook and was rather shocked with what I read. I knew Putin was aggressive and scrupulous, but did not realize how desperate he is to bring Ukraine back in the Russian sphere, or reestablish the Russian Empire. I did not realize the extent that Russian cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns are damaging American industry and exacerbating divisions in American politics. I did not realize Russia has a new generation of fighters and missiles and anti-satellite weapons that can inflict serious pain on the West, asymmetric warfare or not. I did not realize how dangerous their strategy of managed escalation can be to intimidate Western powers, especially timid politicians like Joe Biden. I did not realize how Putin and many Russians view war with America as inevitable, and as Koffler puts it, see peace as war by other means.

This was an essential book that I hated reading, but had to...

United States on Apr 02, 2022

Thomas E. Wolke: The author joined DIA two years after I retired from that agency. What I found most interesting about her book is how she describes the culture of DIA. The boneheaded bureaucracy, myopia, back stabbing, credit stealing, cronyism and so forth are a real and apparently none of it has changed since I was there. But then, that's bureaucracy for you. I eventually went to NCTC and it was even worse there. As for the Russian threat, this book does a great service in waking the reader up to the reality of what is happening to America. Of course, much of it is of Russian origin (I'm convinced and have made the case that Obama is a mole who was recruited by the KGB and who is now running the Biden administration), but a lot of it is like a virus. Introduce destructive ideas and they spread, especially if they feed off of damaged egos who want to virtue signal. The book goes into great detail on Russian doctrine and how they plan to take us down from within and, if necessary, in a war. It should be required reading in Congress, even though the Marxist Progressive Caucus would probably say it's a Republican hoax. If this country is going to be saved, it will take information like that in this...

United States on Nov 02, 2021