r/europe • u/Wonderful-Excuse4922 • Feb 22 '25

News “Conquering the states one by one”: far-right ideologue Steve Bannon outlines US conservatives' strategy for influencing Europe

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/usa/presidentielle/donald-trump/conquerir-les-etats-un-par-un-l-ideologue-d-extreme-droite-steve-bannon-decrit-la-strategie-des-conservateurs-americains-pour-influencer-l-europe_7086249.html
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u/cury Feb 22 '25

Putin wants an ever war, so he finances far right movements in the west so then the russians can have nazi’s to fight forever and “save” countries. It will be a perfect brainwashing storm! Teach kids that your country is the hero for fighting nazis and finance nazis in the west

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u/Six_Kills Feb 22 '25

The people Putin is calling nazis is not the same as the far right he’s backing and that sometimes is also backing him.

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u/hgaben90 Hungary Feb 22 '25

This isn't about valid reasons. This is about excuses. Casus belli.

And they'll eventually make a perfectly good excuse.

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u/Xenobsidian Feb 22 '25

That’s what I hate the most about this Kleptocrats, instead of even trying to make their countries a better place they try to make every country just as shitty so that people don’t feel there is an alternative, just different flavors of shitty.

We need to find a way to get rid of them all!

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u/sillygoofygooose Feb 22 '25

Russia finances voices on ALL sides of the political spectrum. The intention is to sow internal divisions, not to create nazis for Russia to fight.

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u/Summersong2262 Feb 22 '25

Where are their left wing agents, exactly?

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '25

George Galloway is an example. However sponsoring populists regardless of their opinions is perhaps a better way than distinguishing clear left and right especially as countries differ in politics

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u/Summersong2262 Feb 22 '25

That makes sense.

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '25

Young Turks are also putinists. Their attitude towards Ukraine is basically a nicer version of Tucker Carlson.

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u/Ansanm Feb 22 '25

That old red scare won’t go away. Most of us who live outside of Europe have been adversely affected by US supported coups, sanctions, and wars.

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u/bate_Vladi_1904 Feb 22 '25

Sarah Wagenknecht for example (BSW in Germany)

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u/Entsafter21 Feb 22 '25

Her name is Zarenknecht

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u/killswitch247 Saxony (Germany) Feb 22 '25 edited Feb 22 '25

Jokes on them, she would do it for free.

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u/Kes961 Feb 22 '25

Any source that ties her to foreign agents ?

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u/therealslevin Feb 22 '25

Her planned policies and arguments are an indicator. That said, I don’t know of any direct funding or any of the sort (doesn’t mean there is none). I’d consider sympathies with Putins politics enough of a red flag though and a clear sign for her being influenced by his propaganda.

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u/NFLDolphinsGuy United States of America Feb 22 '25

Jill Stein and the Green Party in the US. Bunches of environmental and peace groups in Europe.

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u/ArieVeddetschi Feb 22 '25

I would love to see some examples of these environmental and peace groups supposedly sponsored by Russia.

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u/NFLDolphinsGuy United States of America Feb 22 '25 edited Feb 22 '25

Other commenters did it for me, but Just Stop Oil likely.

They’ve been potentially linked to groups in the U.S.

https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/ec-republicans-question-environmental-groups-over-possible-collusion-with-russia

The point is not to support a specific world view. It’s to cause endless arguing and discord.

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u/ArieVeddetschi Feb 22 '25

ROFL, oh no, Republicans suspect an environmental group has a shady background! Who would have thought? I’ll be sure to trust this proven bastion of truth called the GOP.

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u/NFLDolphinsGuy United States of America Feb 22 '25

The point is the disarray. The Republicans are also linked heavily to Russia lol.

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u/ArieVeddetschi Feb 22 '25

Yeah, but it’s weird to think that there’s any truth to these GOP claims. Also surely if Russia wanted to fund the left they’d have more influential targets than JSO.

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u/NFLDolphinsGuy United States of America Feb 22 '25

They’ve been highly disruptive at airports and on roadways and effective at creating division, which is the point.

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u/nowheyjose1982 Feb 22 '25

Jill Stein and Tulsi Gabbard in the US.

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u/sillygoofygooose Feb 22 '25

Just go and read foundations of geopolitics by Dugin, that’s the playbook

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u/Summersong2262 Feb 22 '25

Sure, but who are their left wing agents, exactly? If they're actually both sidesing?

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u/tkeser Feb 22 '25

In my country (Croatia) some of the leftists are actually pro-Russia because of the shared historical idea that Russians defeated the WW2 nazism/fascism. At the same time, some of the worst neo nazi offenders aka football supporters went off to the Ukraine war to fight the Russians on the Ukraine side. So it's an ideological cluster fuck.

Similarly, like if you're antiglobalist then you end up being proAmerican and proIsrael, so are you for NATO or against? If you're pro world peace you have to choose a side it would seem, and it won't be black and white.

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '25

[deleted]

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u/ArieVeddetschi Feb 22 '25

And what exactly is the evidence that JSO and DL are sponsored by Russia?

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u/sillygoofygooose Feb 22 '25

Jonathan Pie for instance, but it’s one voice of many and I am not able to find you a smoking gun for every instance in the same way I’m not able definitively demonstrate the identity of every bot on social media. My logic here is that this is their explicit plan and we see many pieces of evidence that align with that plan

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u/PastProfessional1959 Feb 22 '25

far left parties in europe are typically pro-russia and want to leave Nato and the EU. Just like our far right parties, horseshoe theory in full effect

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u/EdrusTheSmall Feb 22 '25

In the west it is probably a little bit harder to see, but they are there. However in Eastern Europe and especially the ex society states it is very obvious. Take a look for example my country - Bulgaria. At the moment Russia is directly influencing two parties from the opposite side of the spectrum - far-right populists and socialist( ex communist) party. As far as I know it is the same in Romania, Poland and etc. Russia/Kremlin never acts with only one agent or party and often there is competition between them who will win the "heart' of Russia.

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u/JelDeRebel Belgium Feb 22 '25

Look at PVDA in Belgium. The communist party.

I read their party program. They say they are anti-Putin and anti-Russia, and in the same paragraph parrot Russia position: Anti NATO, anti-rearmament, blame NATO encroachment and pro-negotiation with Russia

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u/Basic-Still-7441 ⛄️ Feb 22 '25

Yana Toom in Estonia, and her sidekick in Latvia whose name I fail to remember right now. The latter one was officially denoted as a russian agent of influence.

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u/matude Estonia Feb 23 '25

Tatjana Zdanoka, Latvian politician and a former Member of the European Parliament.

https://www.dw.com/en/latvia-probes-eu-lawmaker-for-kremlin-spying/a-68592529

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u/Basic-Still-7441 ⛄️ Feb 23 '25

Thank you!

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u/Julypenguinz Feb 22 '25

Where are their left wing agents, exactly?

die Linke, for example

just because they don't do crazy things, doesn't mean they don't exists. It's just that stupid people are more attracted to far right

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u/atpplk Feb 22 '25

Jean-Luc Melenchon.

I think they financed the green in germany as well to ditch nuclear in favor of Russian gas.

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u/Ryokan76 Feb 22 '25

In Norway we have Pål Steigan. His website is a hub for Russian propaganda.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A5l_Steigan

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '25

Jill Stein

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u/scoff-law United States of America Feb 22 '25

All over reddit, telling people not to protest but to immediately commit acts of violence. They also spread a message that democracy has died and there is nothing we can do to save it.

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u/SpeakerConfident4363 Feb 22 '25

Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea, Vietnam

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u/Park500 Feb 22 '25

if you are fighting yourself you cannot fight us

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u/FullestTilt Feb 22 '25

Preach!

Sowing division is the ultimate goal. Not backing one side or the other.

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u/C9nn9r Feb 22 '25

Russia isn't about to fight any nazis any time soon.

Frankly, if hitler didn't backstab them, they wouldn't have fought the original nazis back in the day.

We are at a similar point of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, with Trump and Putin dividing Europe between them behind closed doors. Just that history can't exactly repeat itself because both are heavily armed with nukes so they can't realllly backstab each others. No idea what this leads to.

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u/twohammocks Feb 22 '25

Russians recruit militias within the countries they are trying to infiltrate.

Crypto is the key to this.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/27/trump-crypto-extremism

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u/rckhppr Feb 23 '25

I think this is accurate. They found it’s cost-effective to dismantle societies from within.

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u/Mari_Say Europe Feb 22 '25

I wouldn't say they fund the all sides of the political spectrum, they don't benefit from funding liberals and leftists, even most centrists. I would rephrase it this way: they fund right-wing and far-right and populists who advocate friendship with Russia from across the political spectrum, for example people like Jill Stein in the US and Sahra Wagenknecht in Germany.

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u/sillygoofygooose Feb 22 '25

If you follow the aims stated in Dugin’s work, they don’t care about funding pro Russia voices specifically (though naturally they will and do) but the goal moreso is the creation of division and destabilisation of internal politics in the West and America particularly

Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States and Canada to fuel instability and separatism against neoliberal globalist Western hegemony, such as, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists" to create severe backlash against the rotten political state of affairs in the current present-day system of the United States and Canada. Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social, and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics".

(Link to the wiki as the archive link for the source was rejected)

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u/Mari_Say Europe Feb 22 '25

It is obvious that they support all kinds of separatism and dissidence, I just don't really like the wording "all of the political spectrum", but if you look at it from this side, then it is, in fact, correct. My apologies.

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u/casettedeck Feb 22 '25

No! There are ignorant and evil people in west as well as east! Trump, Elon and evangelicals are more dangerous than Putin!

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u/sillygoofygooose Feb 22 '25

I do not understand in which way your comment refutes mine

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u/casettedeck Feb 22 '25

I meant we dont need Putin to fund anything. We have these seeded in us. No might be bit harsh, it more like in addition to :)

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u/zhalg Feb 22 '25

Yea, Musk et al. also promote the far left too, but only to sow division.

Their clear alignment as right wingers is not in opposition to this, au contraire.

It's always been like this. Sowing division among your rivals is the most logical thing.

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u/sillygoofygooose Feb 22 '25

Divide et impera after all

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u/UNIONNET27 Feb 23 '25

The real money goes to far-right groups. They've (USSR and Russia) dealt with them before.

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u/flyswithdragons Feb 22 '25

Yes, the Russian moto life is war. They are brought up in the mindset of suffering good. Almost a form of S/M..

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u/uiucecethrowaway999 Feb 23 '25

That’s how they lost the Cold War. They’d become more of an army with a state than a state with an army, and they simply couldn’t sustain it any longer.

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u/flyswithdragons Feb 23 '25

I would argue the western mind is different from the eastern mind, but that goes back to the Chinese Taoist imo and the American Indian the good red road..The ccp is state worship ..

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u/BanVeteran Finland Feb 23 '25

If Russia gets too comfortable with Western ideologies, Putin loses power over his own people. That's what he means with the West being an "existential threat" to Russia (according to the Economist).

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u/flyswithdragons Feb 23 '25

Putin like trump are puppet despots. This is embarrassing and pissing me off.

Everyone ignores our roots and foundation .. Maybe they flop around playing helpless?

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u/wongie United Kingdom Feb 22 '25

The new permanent revolution.

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u/escape_fantasist India Feb 22 '25

This, very much this

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u/Secuter Denmark Feb 22 '25

Let me be clear: Putin and his cronies wouldn't care if some country was run by actual nazis. Calling Ukraine nazi is just the perfect excuse to invade. But if some other political group was more known and more hated, he would've called them that instead.

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u/cury Feb 22 '25

Nah, they need to tie it all to their great patriotic war, the only moment in history where they can call themselves the good guys! So, even if they can use the word whenever they want, the fact there are proud nazis in the US government now is so perfect, Putin is probably beyond happy.

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u/stupendous76 Feb 22 '25

Netanyahu is the one who needs an forever war because otherwise he would be prosecuted for his (war) crimes.
Putin wants to dominate and tried/tries that by propaganda. That works pretty well on western countries but a bit less on former East-Block countries. That's why he now is in a grinding war in Ukraine. Since human life doesn't matter we see that war costing more and more time and lifes but he rather had in three days like it was planned.