“Fauda” is the name of the gripping Israeli television series about to launch its fourth season on Netflix. Fauda means “chaos” in Arabic and is the word Israeli special forces use when they lose control of an operation. Russian President Vladimir Putin is now creating chaos to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Putin’s fauda is managed. It is centered on Ukraine but threatens the West. The idea goes back to a paper written by Putin’s chief of staff, Valery Gerasimov, who said in 2013 that chaos would be the new strategy.
Start with Ukraine. There’s fauda in the east, as Russian forces kill civilians and rape women, men and children. We witness a prisoner of war gagged, castrated, shot dead and dragged through the street. A detention center where Ukrainian POWs are held is destroyed, with dozens dead and injured. As we speak, Russian forces are using the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant as a shield to attack Ukrainians without Ukrainians being able to fire back. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has described the situation as “completely out of control.” This is all fauda.
Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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