Russia works to reduce support for Ukraine in France – The Washington Post

Russia is stepping up its efforts to subvert French support for Kyiv, and Russia's propaganda activities are part of its war against Ukraine.

Source: European Pravda, citing an article by The Washington Post, citing Kremlin documents and interviews with European security officials and far-right political figures.

Details: Kremlin documents obtained by a European intelligence service revealed that Sergei Kiriyenko, First Deputy Chief of Staff to President Vladimir Putin, had commissioned Kremlin political strategists to promote political division in France through social media and French politicians, opinion leaders and activists.

The documents seen by WP did not mention these individuals by name. Moscow's goal is to disrupt support for Ukraine and weaken NATO's determination, the documents indicated. This endeavour is reminiscent of similar interference in Germany, where the Kremlin has sought to unite the far right and far left into an anti-war alliance, as WP previously reported.

The messages that Kremlin strategists sought to reinforce included the claim that Western sanctions against Russia had hurt the French economy by reducing trade, putting the country at risk of falling into "the deepest social and economic crisis of recent years", and that weapon supplies to Ukraine had left France without the resources to defend itself.

Several weekly "dashboard" presentations to Kremlin officials in 2022 suggest that Moscow saw France as vulnerable to political upheaval. Citing opinion polls, the strategists noted that 30% of French people retained a positive attitude towards Russia, the second highest among Western European countries after Italy, with 40% inclined to distrust reports about Ukraine in their domestic French media.

Later, in 2023, Kiriyenko's Kremlin group ordered strategists to promote messages that would increase the share of those in France who do not want to "pay for another country’s war," as one document revealed. They were also ordered to increase "the fear of direct confrontation with Russia and the start of World War III with Europe’s participation", as well as to increase the number of those who want "dialogue with Russia on the construction of a common European security architecture". The documents claim that the United States is using Ukraine as a tool to weaken Russia's influence in Europe.

The documents indicate that "troll farms" created by Kremlin political strategists produced and disseminated content and articles on social media criticising Western support for the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In one of the notes authored by one of the strategists in June 2023, a troll farm employee was instructed to create a "200-character comment by a middle-aged French person" who considered Europe's support for Ukraine a "stupid adventure". The supposed Frenchman also had to argue that support for Ukraine would result in "inflation … and falling living standards".

Responding to questions about the documents, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that they sounded like "no more than the latest fake or total rubbish," partly since Kiriyenko is focusing on domestic politics and also because "it is clear to all analysts" that "the whole of Europe is suffering" from sanctions against Russia, "and there doesn’t need to be any promotion of this."

So far, the Kremlin's narrative has caused little outcry in France, where President Emmanuel Macron has been at the forefront of European efforts to support Ukraine and has been widely supported by the population.

However, Thomas Gomart, Director of the French Institute of International Relations, said the visibility of pro-Russian social media accounts in France is on the rise, and approval ratings for French far-right parties are growing. The rhetoric of Russia's allies about the cost of the war in Ukraine is increasingly combined with the idea that it is an American adventure and that France must reassert itself as a great power and restore relations with Russia.

Background:

• In November, France accused Russia of a disinformation campaign involving the dissemination of images depicting the Star of David on social media, which had appeared on buildings in Paris earlier this week.
• Since 7 October, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, France has recorded 887 anti-Semitic events and incidents, with over 400 people detained as a result.

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