title: Ignorance, indifference, or incompetence: why are Russian covert actions so easily unmasked?
abstract: Although plausible deniability is a definitional characteristic of covert actions, numerous Russian actions have been unveiled and attributed to Russia over the past decade.The reason for these frequent revelations can be explained by three factors: ignorance, indifference, and incompetence.Russian actions often display ignorance about the reactions they might elicit, indifference to global opinion if they are caught, and incompetence that allows foreign governments to unpeel the sometimes thin 
journal: Intelligence & National Security