Europe in Putin's Hands?

E1. European Naivety

How European decision-makers fell head over heels into the trap that was set for them. In 2017, Russian emissaries tried to direct the actions of Catalan separatists to encourage them to break with Madrid, going so far as to propose to Carlos Puigdemont that they send troops to Barcelona… At the same time, in northern Germany, for almost a decade, Russia reactivated old networks dating from the Cold War. The aim was to complete the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in order to make Western Europe totally dependent on Russian energy. A former Stasi member, close to Vladimir Putin, thus managed to persuade German politicians to circumvent American sanctions against the pipeline. Once the Europeans had become “addicted” to Russian gas, Vladimir Putin felt he had a free hand to invade Ukraine…

★ 8.0

E2. The information war

How Moscow orchestrates disinformation by manipulating our various media and social networks. In June 2024, Dmitry Medvedev proclaimed on the Telegram messaging service: “We must transform the lives of Westerners into a permanent nightmare so that they can no longer distinguish wild fiction from everyday realities.” Here we are. In the months following the invasion of Ukraine, Europeans nevertheless tried to react. Several hundred Russian agents were expelled from the European Union for having carried out actions of influence, disinformation, and destabilization. The Russians found a solution: they now resort to subcontracting. In France, in October 2023, commandos of Moldovan taggers covered the walls of Paris with Stars of David, on Moscow's instructions, to sow panic up to the highest levels of the State. An action relayed by a gigantic digital propaganda operation deployed on an international scale: “Doppelgänger”…

★ 8.0