I was struck by a recent headline that read “Most Russians Believe USA Wants to Turn Russia into Second-Rate Country.” If it were truly America’s goal to diminish, debase, and ultimately destroy Russia, then how, indeed, would Washington go about it? With that question in mind, consider the following story.

The text below, which appears to date from early 2015, seems to be an e-mail between two U.S. government officials identified only by pseudonyms, presumably codenames. Its authenticity cannot be confirmed; readers should judge for themselves how closely it tracks with reality.

My Dear Wormwood,

As you prepare to draft the annual Report to Congress on the Destruction of Russia, I wanted to outline for you the most significant accomplishments of our Interagency Working Group for the Destruction of Russia over the past year. A general point worth emphasizing to Congress is that, in the age of Wikileaks, we’ve managed to keep our work secret. True, many Russians believe that the United States is out to destroy their country. But only a handful of Russian patriots has begun to suspect just how we’re going about it.

Thanks to our activities, Russia is careening toward total collapse. Domestically, corruption continues unabated, and Russia’s appalling business reputation acts both as a brake on foreign investment and a stimulus to capital flight. The sclerosis created by “managed democracy” appears effectively irreversible.

The big news for 2014, of course, was the invasion of Ukraine. While the war is in one sense the logical culmination of years of patient work by our agents in Russia, the suddenness and scale of events have presented us with an unimagined windfall. The thoroughgoing alienation of a kindred nation, a quantum leap in the growth of Moscow’s burden of empire, the unsustainable militarization of Russia, estrangement from Europe and most of the post-Soviet space, repeated body blows to Russia’s sputtering economy—really, what’s not to love? The crowning touch is that our people in Russia have contrived to put the country in a hopeless no-win situation. Moscow has blown any chance of getting Ukraine to align with Russia voluntarily, while Russia lacks the wherewithal to subdue and occupy Ukraine by force but is much too deeply invested in the conflict to cut its losses and get out. The Donbass is a festering wound that threatens to infect the entire Russian body politic. High-fives all around! [...]

Tthe most delicious irony is that, while Russians obsess about hydrocarbons, we’re quietly plundering Russia’s true treasure: her human capital. Unlike oil, talented people cannot simply be bought. Being patriots, most educated Russians would prefer to realize their potential in their homeland, for the good of Russia. But thanks to the efforts of our agents, the most gifted Russians are increasingly driven to seek their fortune in the West. The value to us of Russia’s brain drain is incalculable and dwarfs whatever benefit we could gain even from outright ownership of Russia’s hydrocarbons.