The Kremlin is working to stop aid to Ukraine from one of the European Union countries.
Russia intensified attempts to influence the political environment, as well as French society, in order to suspend support for Ukraine from Paris.
About it it says in The Washington Post.
According to Kremlin documents and interviews with European security officials and far-right politicians, Russia is intensifying its efforts to undermine French support for Kyiv, a hidden propaganda front in Western Europe that is part of the war against Ukraine.
The Kremlin’s maneuvering and ties to a number of far-right parties across Europe, including in France, are causing concern among European officials ahead of European Parliament elections in June.
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As EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell noted, the upcoming elections could be “as dangerous as the American ones.”
According to Kremlin documents, dictator Vladimir Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, instructed Kremlin political strategists to promote political discord in France through social networks and French politicians, opinion leaders and activists.
“The documents reviewed by The Post did not identify these figures by name. Moscow’s goal is to undermine support for Ukraine and weaken NATO’s resolve, the documents show. The efforts are reminiscent of similar interventions in Germany, where the Kremlin tried to unite the far right and the far left.” into the anti-war alliance,” the publication writes.
Thus, Kremlin strategists intended to talk about how Western sanctions against Russia “damaged the French economy” due to a drop in trade, as a result of which the country risked falling into “the deepest social and economic crisis in recent years,” arguing that arms supplies to France left Ukraine without weapons for its own defense.
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Several weekly “panel” presentations to Kremlin officials in 2022 show that Moscow viewed France as vulnerable to political upheaval. Citing opinion polls, the strategists noted that 30% of French people maintained a positive view of Russia, the second highest among Western European countries after Italy, while 40% were inclined to disbelieve reports about Ukraine from their own media in France.
Later, in 2023, Kiriyenko’s Kremlin group ordered strategists to promote messaging that increased the number of those in France who did not want to “pay for another country’s war.” They were also told to increase “the fear of a direct clash with Russia and the outbreak of a Third World War involving Europe,” as well as to increase the number of people willing to “dialogue with Russia on building a pan-European security architecture.” The United States was to be described as “using Ukraine as a tool to weaken Russia’s position in Europe,” the documents said.
“Documents show that troll farms created by Kremlin political strategists produced and published content and articles on social networks criticizing Western support for the government of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. In one of the notes, written by one of the strategists in June 2023, an employee of the troll farm received instructions to create a “200-character comment from a middle-aged Frenchman” who considers European support for Ukraine “a stupid gamble,” the publication explains.
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The Kremlin’s messages have so far had limited resonance in France, where President Emmanuel Macron has been at the forefront of Europe’s efforts to support Ukraine and the majority of the population has backed him. But according to Thomas Gomard, director of the French Institute of International Relations, the visibility of pro-Russian social media accounts in France is growing, and the ratings of far-right French parties are also rising.
For parts of the French establishment, the vision of France leading a greater Europe with Moscow is “a dream that will never fade,” said Sylvie Kaufmann, editorial director of Le Monde.
After a six-month investigation in 2023 into foreign interference in France’s political process, the country’s parliament focused on the Kremlin, declaring in its final report: “Russia is waging a long-term disinformation campaign in our country” that seeks to “protect” the advancement of Russian interests and the polarization of our democratic society “.
Let us recall that the Ministry of Defense stated that Ukraine is interested in training pilots in France.
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2024-01-02 00:12:04
#Russia #deprive #Ukraine #important #allies #Politics #tsn.ua
