( CNN) In announce the indictment against 12 Russian military intelligence officers on Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made a pleato the American public: “When we confront foreign interference in American elections, it's important for us to avoid supposing politically, as Republican or Democrat, and instead to think patriotically, as Americans.”

Where these charges fit into the big picture

There are three major threads in the elections interference operations conducted by the Kremlin that we collectively refer to as “active measures.”