Russian and American officials have discussed how to stabilize the situation. According to BuzzFeed News, Moscow has floated proposals to normalize relations and impose a mutual ban on foreign political interference. But the deals were shot down by U.S. officials, reportedly over Washington’s long-growing mistrust of Moscow. Following decades of failed rapprochement between the United States and Russia, relations between them hit a new low after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2014. Things deteriorated further with Russia’s intervention in Syria and 2016 election meddling. “It’s highly unlikely that you’ll get a breakthrough in relations and even if you did, I wouldn’t assume that interference would stop,” Angela Stent, a former U.S. national intelligence officer on Russia and a professor at Georgetown University, told me. “Right now, the only real answer is better defenses.”

Devising those defenses is no simple task. Fact-checking measures adopted by major tech and social-media companies are unlikely to stop Russia from seeking out new vulnerabilities in Western democracies. Despite the fact that the United States possesses what experts call the most advanced cyber capabilities in the world, former senior officials have said that the country was ill-prepared for Russia’s election meddling. Political hesitancy from the White House, they say, will prevent the implementation of necessary measures. Michael Hayden, the former director of the CIA and the NSA, said in December that preparation for another attack would be impossible without “a coordinated response” across all levels of government, especially the White House.

Michael Sulmeyer, a former senior cyber policy official in the U.S. Defense Department, told me that the 2018 midterm election will present the Kremlin with an opportunity to assess how or whether the United States has stiffened its defenses. Russia “may not need to become more sophisticated” in order to intervene again, given the relatively simple techniques (like a phishing email) it has already used. Aggressive ad hoc attacks, from targeted hacks to diverse disinformation campaigns, formed the core of Russian intervention efforts. “They were able to push on so many different unlocked doors at the same time in order to achieve their goal,” Sulmeyer said.

Andrei Soldatov, a Russian journalist and expert on the Kremlin’s cybertools, told me that Russia’s emboldened leaders could expand their ambitions. “My biggest concern is that in the near future we’re going to get a combination of attacks,” Soldatov said, “say, an attack on critical infrastructure combined with a massive disinformation campaign, aimed to define the public's perception of the attack.”

While such an attack would mark a major escalation for Russia, it would not be unprecedented. Attacks on at least a dozen electric facilities in America—including one nuclear plant—have been traced back to a Russian-linked group. Russia is also thought to be behind an increasing number of cyberattacks against private corporations and government agencies in Ukraine. Similarly, Moscow waged a massive disinformation and propaganda campaign alongside its annexation of Crimea in 2014.