Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth raised the specter of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s disastrous “Russia reset” on Sunday.
Clinton kicked off the exchange with an X post in which she shared an article claiming that Hegseth had ordered U.S. Cyber Command to “stand down” with regard to Russia. The order, according to a report from Gizmodo, does not apply to the National Security Agency (NSA), but calls on Cyber Command to “stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions.”
“Wouldn’t want to hurt Putin’s feelings,” Clinton captioned her post.
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) March 2, 2025
Hegseth responded with a photo — no caption necessary — of Clinton smiling as she handed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a red “reset” button in 2009.
The stated goal at the time was to bring about a “reset” to the often strained relationship between the United States and Russia. And while initial moves appeared to be positive — Russia joining the United States in sanctioning Iran’s nuclear program, for example — it soon became clear that the plan was doomed to fail.
Then-President Barack Obama’s administration was so committed to the plan — despite Russia’s obvious willingness to exploit it — that the United States quickly ended up with the short end of a few very dangerous sticks.
Missile-defense plans for Central Europe were scrapped — and Russia was able to arm itself to precarious levels after the Obama administration green-lighted the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
Five years later, Russia annexed Crimea and fomented unrest in Ukraine — and then proceeded to get involved in Syria’s civil war, joining Syrian President Bashar al Assad in attacking the rebels who opposed his regime.
And in the time since, save the four years that President Donald Trump was in the White House, Russia has continued to posture and foment unrest — all of which led up to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, sparking the ongoing war.
In sum, the “reset” has long been viewed as a total failure.
Hegseth was not the only one to respond to the recent reporting on the matter, however. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) also clarified that its posture regarding Russia had not changed at all, and the mission — “to defend against all cyber threats to U.S. Critical Infrastructure, including from Russia” — remained its top priority.
CISA’s mission is to defend against all cyber threats to U.S. Critical Infrastructure, including from Russia. There has been no change in our posture. Any reporting to the contrary is fake and undermines our national security.
— Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (@CISAgov) March 3, 2025
