An authoritative analysis of how Putin's Russia conquered the Crimea in 2014 using 'grey zone' warfare techniques, blending operations by anonymous special forces with cyber, sabotage, and propaganda.  
   Russia’s annexation of Crimea in   2014 was almost bloodless – fought as much through propaganda, cyberattacks   and subversion as by force of arms – but it is crucial for our understanding   of both modern warfare and recent Russian history. Ironically, this slick triumph   eventually led to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the largest and costliest   conventional war in Europe since 1945.
 
This is a fascinating account of   the Crimea conquest from a supremely qualified expert on modern Russian   forces. Illustrated throughout, it explores how Russia developed its new   model of ‘hybrid’ or ‘grey zone’ warfare, and planned and deployed it against   Crimea, from the choreographed appearance of ‘spontaneous’ protesters through   to the deployment of unbadged Russian elite forces. 
  In this book Mark Galeotti explores the lessons that Russia, Ukraine, and the West took from it – correctly and mistakenly – and how this apparently textbook operation sowed the seeds that would erupt so catastrophically in 2022.