Why is the Secretary of the U.S. Air Force picking a fight with Vladimir Putin? We all know that the Russian leader is a massive pain and a dictator with the biggest nuclear arsenal outside of the United States. He’s a cheerleader for a nation of wannabes hoping to return to some former glorious status, a throwback political bouncer at the global dive bar, a bigot and big shot.

Sputnik International is a Russian state-owned “news” site run by Rossiya Segodnya. It’s not that hard for the average citizen to figure it out given some basic Google skills. But to the aimless, bored, and uncurious scouring the internet for information about the impending war of worlds, this propaganda machine run by Russian Intelligence just seems like, well, any other independent site worried about the sad state of international security. Its top-billed inclusion on my RSS feed and in Google news searches is both impressive and misleading. And that calculated simplicity is what makes it some of the most brilliantly orchestrated and yet, subtle, psychological warfare in recent years.