The U.S. election was just practice for Putin’s cyberforces

As likely U.S. defense secretary James Mattis said last week, Mr. Putin is “trying to break” the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The election of such an avowed NATO-skeptic as Mr. Trump furthered this aim. But Mr. Putin knows the incoming U.S. president must ultimately defer to the pro-NATO forces in his own cabinet, Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department, or face mutiny.

Hence, Mr. Putin’s plan to undermine NATO really runs through Europe. The U.S. election was merely a dry run for an influence campaign he has now embarked on as France and Germany, as well as the Netherlands and potentially Italy, go to the polls this year. Destabilizing the continent’s leading democracies, where Euroskeptic parties are on the rise, is job one for Mr. Putin in 2017.

While Mr. Putin’s longer-term geopolitical objective is to break NATO and restore his country to great-power status, the near-term goal is relief from Western sanctions that have administered yet more pain to oil-dependent Russia’s already teetering economy. France has also cancelled the delivery of two Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia, a decision that angered Mr. Putin.

Top intelligence officials in France and Germany have gone public in recent weeks to alert both voters and party operatives to past, present and future cyberattacks aimed at influencing elections in both countries. Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel, seeking re-election in September, has publicly mused about having to accept such attacks as a new fact of political life.