Dezinformatsiya is the Russian word for disinformation.  Disinformation is and has been a staple of the foreign policy of of Russia/the Soviet Union for decades.  We hear a lot of talk these days about fake news.  While the Russians may like to take credit for things they really didn’t create, and while they may not have invented disinformation as a tool of statecraft, it is fair to say that they perfected it.  The purpose of dezinformatsiya to instill fear and confuse audiences, blurring the lines between truth, falsehood and reality.  It’s nothing new.  When the Cold War ended, Russians spread stories about Russian nuclear weapons that either were missing or couldn’t be secured in the post-Soviet world.  It wasn’t true, but it prompted Congressional hearings which led to the U.S. government paying Russia millions of dollars over a 15 year period to ensure weapons security.  Around that same time, a Soviet GRU colonel, Stanislav Lunev, showed up in Washington as a defector.  Lunev warned that a hundred suitcase-sized nuclear bombs were missing from Soviet inventories, and suggested that some of them had been hidden in the U.S.  There is no evidence that Lunev’s information was true, but it led to Congressional hearings, and forced the U.S. to expend limited resources looking for bombs that weren’t there.  And the Russians don’t limit their disinformation program to us.  They have used disinformation in their annexation of Crimea and in their war in Ukraine, they launched cyberattacks on Finland and the Baltic States, and they planted hoax stories in Germany.  Fast forward to 2016.  The Russians recognized the nomination of Donald Trump as an opportunity to destabilize the U.S. with disinformation.  It was tailor-made, because they started out with a polarized American electorate, and Democrats so consumed with hatred of Trump, that they were willing to believe anything.  The Democrats already had adopted the Russian election hacking story as an excuse for Hillary’s failure.  Hence, two days after election day, the Russian state-controlled media announced that Russian government officials had met with representatives of the Trump campaign throughout the campaign.  More dezinformatsiya, designed to keep Americans opposing one another instead of opposing Russian adventurism.  But we know how the Russians play, so we won’t take the bait, right?  Wrong!  This disinformation prompted Democrat hysteria and Congressional hearings on collusion.  Sound familiar? The Media (a/k/a Democrats) swallowed it hook, line and sinker.  Yeah, but the Media just didn’t know any better, and bought this Russian crap because it bolstered their election failure excuse, right?  Wrong!  There was no misunderstanding.  The left-wing Media is fully aware of Russian disinformation tactics.  The Washington Post, 5/6/2016, “Russia does not seek to promote itself, but rather to undermine the institutions of the West, often using discordant messages.”  The Russians pump out scare stories about migrants, and also portrays the West as racist and xenophobic.  Russian-backed websites promote conspiracy theories.”  The New York Times, 8/5/2016, For Putin Disinformation is Power –  “So the apparent hacking by Russian security services of the Democratic National Committee emails, followed by their publication by WikiLeaks, should come as no great surprise to Americans.  It is only the latest example of how Mr. Putin uses information as a weapon.  And the Kremlin has cultivated ties with WikiLeaks for years.”  The New York Times, 8/28/2016, “Now, though, disinformation is regarded as an important aspect of Russian military doctrine, and it is being directed at political debates in target countries with far greater sophistication and volume than in the past.  The flow of misleading and inaccurate stories is so strong that both NATO and the European Union have established special offices to identify and refute disinformation.” And not to be outdone, NPR, 1/6/2017,  “While many Americans have just awoken to the world of disinformation — sometimes known as “fake news” — in the recent presidential election, Moscow’s efforts date back decades and have become increasingly prominent over the past decade as techniques have been updated for the digital age.  The spread of disinformation through active measures was a central tactic of Soviet information operations as a way to influence foreign governments and their populations, undermine relations between nations, and weaken those who opposed communism.”  Since we, including the liberal left, are fully aware that the Russians have a habit of spreading lies to advance their interests, and since we have acknowledged that the stories of Russian election hacking are part of their dastardly scheme, then aren’t we giving aid and comfort to the enemy by lending any credence to such blatant Russian chicanery?  Well, of course we are, but as it turns out, that doesn’t matter, for you see, it’s all Donald Trump’s fault anyway.  The Huffington Post, 4/6/2017, tells us that Russian disinformation is Trump’s fault, because he said the election was rigged, and that prompted Putin to interfere.  So there it is.  Doing their best to impersonate Groucho Marx, singing, What Ever It Is, I’m Against It, the Democrats have adopted the motto, whatever it is, Donald Trump is to blame for it.  This Democrat dezinformatsiya has but one purpose, to drive Trump from office.  They admit it.  Democrats wanted James Comey fired, but when Trump fired him, they claimed that was criminal.  Imbecile Maxine Waters explained that she always said Trump “would lead us to impeachment.”  Now, Trump just became President the day before yesterday, but no matter, Maxine wanted him impeached before January 20.  The latest?  The Washington Post claims Trump improperly gave the Russians classified information about terrorism at a White House meeting.  The Post claims it knows the classified information, and that’s alright, but the Russians shouldn’t be told.  Huh?  Of course, nobody, The Post included, complained when President Truman told Stalin about the atomic bomb, but then, Truman was a Democrat, and we must go to any lengths to cast Trump as a dangerous buffoon.  So yes, the Russians practice, disinformation, yes, the Russian election collusion story is an example of it, and yes, the Democrats are completely comfortable using dezinformatsiya for their own purposes.