Russia and European far right

[kaur]

From left.

Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier dismissed on Sunday calls from the radical Left party to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to this year's summit of the Group of Seven industrial powers.

The leaders of G7 nations held a summit without Putin last year in protest against Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region. With little sign of bloodshed in eastern Ukraine ending despite a ceasefire deal agreed in Minsk two months ago, the exclusion has continued.

Gregor Gysi, parliamentary leader of the Left party that includes some former East German communists, has argued that Russia was needed to help solve international crises and the G7 should therefore once again be expanded into the G8.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/0...0N30DG20150412

Anton Shekhovtsov's comment.

19 February 2015

German Die Linke delegation visits right-wing terrorists in Eastern Ukraine

http://anton-shekhovtsov.blogspot.be...on-visits.html

[kaur]

"I am Eurasian" - The Kremlin connections of the Hungarian far-right

In-depth analysis

14/04/15

There have been many signs of Kremlin’s increasing efforts to influence both decision-makers and the general public in the EU and member states. One of the political tools to exert such influence is through coopting certain far-right (and far-left) parties and organizations within the European Union. Russian influence of this kind is considered a major threat for European integration. In order to present the modus operandi of Kremlin in exerting influence, Political Capital launches a series of publications focusing on certain member states (Hungary, Slovakia, Greece and France) as well as the EU institutions. The first part of the series, which has been recently published, analyzes the pro-Kremlin stance of the Hungarian far-right, and particularly Jobbik.

Even though the Hungarian far-right and Jobbik, a major actor of the far-right scene, position themselves as representatives of Hungarian national interests, they have become uncritical and unconditional servant of the current Russian regime’s interests. This phenomenon cannot be explained by reasons connected to domestic politics: supporters of the West outnumber the adherents of Russia both among the general public and Jobbik’s voter base.

European far-right organizations serving Russian state interests fill three major functions:

1. social and political destabilization at the member state, community and transatlantic levels alike;

2. provision of external legitimization of the Russian regime (e.g., through ideological support and observation of elections);

3. provision of information and spread of disinformation (i.e., transmit Russian propaganda to EU member states and gather intelligence).

53 pages

http://www.riskandforecast.com/post/...right_817.html

[kaur]

Good comment from Anton Shekovtshov about Kremlin and Le Pen connection!

Russia and Front National: Following the Money
A new leak of the text messages originating from a hacked smartphone of a high-ranking officer of Russia’s Presidential Administration sheds further light on the relations between the Russian authorities and their far right allies in France.

[kaur]

No. 167 Russia, Europe and the Far Right

Author(s): Marlene Laruelle, Pter Krek, Lrnt Győri, Attila Juhsz, Giovanni Savino

This edition considers the relationship between the Putin regime and Far-Right political parties in Europe. Firstly, Marlene Laruelle examines the overarching picture of Russias bedfellowing policy towards the European Far-Right, noting that these new relationships provide the Putin regime with multiple channels for influence within certain European countries. Secondly, Pter Krek, Lrnt Győri and Attila Juhsz assess the linkages between Putins Russia and Hungarian right-wing political parties, whereby one such party, Jobbik, is now working to promote Moscows policies and interests in both Hungary and the European parliament. Thirdly, Giovanni Savino outlines how the recent shift within far-right political parties in Italy towards pro-Russian positions is due to the image of the Kremlin as a bastion of traditional values, conservative policies and anti-US forces.

http://www.css.ethz.ch/publications/...Digest_167.pdf

[Bill Moore]

No. 167 Russia, Europe and the Far Right

Author(s): Marlene Laruelle, Pter Krek, Lrnt Győri, Attila Juhsz, Giovanni Savino



http://www.css.ethz.ch/publications/...Digest_167.pdf

This is part of their strategy, they are engaged in a new ideological battle with the U.S., but instead of communism versus democracy and freedom, it is neo-conservatism versus liberalism. The following document provides a good description of how they are waging this effort. Your post indicates it is working, at least at some level.

http://www.osw.waw.pl/sites/default/...on_warfare.pdf

In opposition to the ideology of liberalism, it promotes “a neo-conservative post-liberal power (…) struggling for a just multi-polar world, which defends tradition, conservative values and true liberty.” The “Russian Eurasian civilisation” is set at contrast to the “Atlantic civilisation led by the USA” which allegedly intends to disassemble Russian statehood and gain global hegemony. The internal crisis in Ukraine followed by the need to annex Crimea have been presented in the context of the rivalry between these two civilisations.

An interesting description of Russian information warfare at the following link.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015...ion-psychology

I had always imagined the phrase “information war” to refer to some sort of geopolitical debate, with Russian propagandists on one side and western propagandists on the other, both trying to convince everyone in the middle that their side was right. But the encyclopedia suggested something more expansive: information war was less about methods of persuasion and more about “influencing social relations” and “control over the sources of strategic reserves”. Invisible weapons acting like radiation to override biological responses and seize strategic reserves? The text seemed more like garbled science fiction than a guide for students and civil servants.

Continuity and change

Where once the KGB would have spent months, or years, carefully planting well-made forgeries through covert agents in the west, the new dezinformatsiya is cheap, crass and quick: created in a few seconds and thrown online. The aim seems less to establish alternative truths than to spread confusion about the status of truth. In a similar vein, the aim of the professional pro-Putin online trolls who haunt website comment sections is to make any constructive conversation impossible. As Shaun Walker recently reported in this newspaper, at one “troll factory” in St Petersburg, employees are paid about £500 a month to pose as regular internet users defending Putin, posting insulting pictures of foreign leaders, and spreading conspiracy theories – for instance, that Ukrainian protestors on the Maidan were fed tea laced with drugs, which led them to overthrow the (pro-Moscow) government.

Much more at the link. Bottom line is NATO's alleged military superiority can be easily and cheaply subverted with information warfare. We're concerned with little green men, when we should be concerned with the information domain. If we can dominate the information domain, we can easily eliminate the little green men.

[kaur]

Seems to be best find of the year. Paul W. Blackstock "The Strategy of Subversion. Manipulating the Politics of Other Nations" 1964. Chapter 2 " The Theory of Covert Political Operations" sub-section "Subversion." How Hitler manipulated French politics.

[Firn]

Much more at the link. Bottom line is NATO's alleged military superiority can be easily and cheaply subverted with information warfare. We're concerned with little green men, when we should be concerned with the information domain. If we can dominate the information domain, we can easily eliminate the little green men.

I partly disagree.

a) While the military superiority of NATO does make it arguably more attractive to employ means like information warfare even the potentially conventionally superior WP used it extensively during the Cold War. It's more about return on propaganda investment and basic opportunity costs.

b) The Russian forces were ordered to invade Crimea and SE-Ukraine by their president. The poor economic performance of Ukraine and the ressource-driven economic success of Russian plus Soviet nostalgia made the population a rather fertile ground for the Kremlin information campaigns. But in the end the decisive factor in the occupation of those regions were still the invading military forces.

Rather old-fashioned stuff with some modern means as support, at least IMHO.

[kaur]

Britain’s Ukip and France’s National Front teamed up with other anti-EU parties to vote against a Russia-critical resolution at the European Parliament on Wednesday (10 June).
The non-binding report, by centre-right Lithuanian MEP Gabrielius Landsbergis, passed anyway by 494 votes against 135 with 69 abstentions.

It raises the alarm over what it calls the emergence of a new “Nationalist International”.
It says the European Parliament is “deeply concerned at the ever more intensive contacts and co-operation, tolerated by the Russian leadership, between European populist, fascist, and extreme right-wing parties on the one hand and nationalist groups in Russia”.

It calls the Russia-backed bloc “a danger to democratic values and the rule of law in the EU”.

It also “calls on the [European] Commission to propose legislation forbidding financing of political parties in the EU by political or economic stakeholders outside the EU”.

French investigative reporters last November revealed the National Front received at least €9 million in loans from a Kremlin-linked bank.

German media and the Austrian opposition say the anti-euro AfD party in Germany and the far-right FPO party in Austria are also being financed by Russia, in allegations they deny.

The far-right Jobbik party in Hungary and the pro-Russian Latvijas Krievu savieniba party in Latvia are facing criminal probes on similar grounds.

The parties regularly speak out in favour of Russia at home and in the EU assembly.

https://euobserver.com/political/129071