Russia’s Attempts to Fragment and Influence Europe Revealed in Recent Article

On Jan­u­ary 23, 2024, the Cen­ter for Euro­pean Pol­i­cy Analy­sis (CEPA) report­ed that Russ­ian pro­pa­gan­da is shift­ing focus, with Krem­lin-aligned experts high­light­ing the need to mend ties with Europe, not for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, but for a diver­gent agen­da. A recent arti­cle on the Mil­i­tary Review web­site, linked to Rus­si­a’s Defense Min­istry, dis­cussed poten­tial rifts between France, Britain, and the U.S., hint­ing at a pos­si­ble “tri­umvi­rate” of Rus­sia, Chi­na, and France. Despite Pres­i­dent Macron’s firm stance against Krem­lin aggres­sion, the rise of pro-Russ­ian far-right groups in France and Ger­many offers Moscow hope. Rus­si­a’s his­tor­i­cal efforts to weak­en the West­ern alliance, exem­pli­fied by the KGB’s infil­tra­tion in France dur­ing the 1960s and the Stasi’s pres­ence in West Ger­many, under­score their long-term strat­e­gy. Cur­rent Russ­ian geopo­lit­i­cal thinkers acknowl­edge the fail­ure of their 2022 plan to dom­i­nate West­ern Europe via ener­gy cuts, now seek­ing alter­na­tive influ­ence tac­tics under the guise of “restor­ing rela­tions.” Alexan­der Rahr of the Eurasian Soci­ety notes poten­tial open­ings through East­ern Euro­pean coun­tries with tra­di­tion­al val­ue incli­na­tions. Mean­while, Russ­ian pro­pa­gan­da plat­forms and ana­lyt­i­cal cen­ters present a veneer of seek­ing “pos­i­tive rela­tions with Europe,” sub­tly indi­cat­ing a strat­e­gy to sub­or­di­nate or intim­i­date West­ern Europe under Russ­ian influence.

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