The war in Ukraine has hampered Russia’s ability to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries, but the ‘lie factory’ trolls who helped Donald Trump to the White House are still out there, their eyes on the 2024 European elections. It is true that Vladimir Putin no longer provokes the unanimity of yesteryear among the extremists who seek to destabilize democracies.
The bloody balance of the invasion of Ukraine has caused a split between far-right parties that they were his main ally to divide and polarize European societies. Today, Putin no longer has Silvio Berlusconi at the helm of the Government of Italy and Georgia Meloni, Aware that any association with him is toxic, he has not hesitated to denounce his “false narrative about the Ukraine conflict” at a G7 meeting. A similar turn has taken place Santiago Abascaldespite the sympathy that Putin arouses in the Vox bases for his autocratic, homophobic and transphobic attitude.
After almost 500 days of war, the interference of the Kremlin in Spanish politics has changed direction. Putin no longer seeks adhesions that are only bought by some Francoist officers, the followers of Make Yourself Heard and nostalgic for the Soviet Union willing to unload on NATO all the ills of the planet. Now, seeks to divide, tighten the ropes of European democracies and provoke from within the explosion of the pact that led to the creation of the EU. From wherever. From the right or left. Supporting all the supporters of ‘the worse, the better’.
Hence the importance of the 23J elections, since a change of cycle in Spain would be the best news for him. The Russian leader does not care so much who is going to win, because the Atlanticism of Alberto Núñez-Feijóo is beyond any doubt. cares what the country is split in half, polarized, weakened. Nor did he care about the fate of Catalonia, and his attempts to intervene during the ‘procés’, denounced by the European Parliament, had no other objective than to wear down Spain and the EU.
400 cyber soldiers
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“We have intervened and we will continue to do so”, said Yevgeni Prigozhin, when he was still better known as the ‘chef’ of the Kremlin than as the leader of Wagner. He said it from Saint Petersburg, where he had financed a troll farm with some 400 cybersoldiers in charge of carrying disinformation to the four continents, depending on Russian interests.
It is likely that, with the failure of his recent attempt, the farm – which has already been affected by the United States Cyber Command – has ceased to operate. But, as in Scandinavian mythology, the trolls do not rest. The successes they reaped in the United States, and in the United Kingdom in favor of Brexit, will make Putin regroups disinformation services necessary for his survival. This is what the European Parliament recently concluded, warning that “foreign interference in democratic processes poses a growing threat to member states and the EU”.