Oddbean new post about | logout
 You should think about why they aren't,  because the election is over so it's no longer election interference.  Why would they supress this?

My guess is they want to minimize the risk of retaliation against the West.  Less Russians get into an uproar when less people know about it.  Especially few people know that the US is involved in operating the ATACMS (and the Ukrainians couldn't use them effectively without US involvement).  For the same reason IMHO.

Russian intelligence knows what is going on.  They have considered themselves at war (under some definition of that term) with NATO since around 2008 or before... with proxy wars playing out all over the Middle East.  Escalation decisions aren't made on the basis of "are they at war with us under some strict definition?"  they are made on the basis of utility.  Rhetoric for the public is just that... but also some signalling is done within it (much signalling has to be done via military actions though since the parties don't trust each other).