For the past decade, hundreds of military personnel at Cyber Command, the US joint task force for cyberspace operations, have focused on one mission: Thwarting Russia's plans and foiling its continual cyberattacks against the US. But while Moscow has been seen as one of the primary threats to the US in this area, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has issued an order that left many observers stunned. He ordered Cyber Command to freeze its offensive operations targeting Russia, several US media outlets revealed on Saturday, March 1, and Sunday, March 2.

The Pentagon has refused to comment on this information, and the exact scope of this new order, as well as the length of the suspension, have remained unclear. Some media outlets have claimed that only current operations are affected, while others maintain that planning for future actions has also been put on hold. The freeze would not affect the NSA, the powerful electronic intelligence service, whose director is also the head of Cyber Command.

In any case, this decision has offered further proof of the rapprochement between the US and Russia in a highly sensitive area. Didn't President Donald Trump say, on Monday, March 3, that his country had more pressing problems than "worrying about Putin"?

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