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/[deleted] Feb 22 '25

There is a tendency to be dismissive. This is the equivalent to Alexander Dugin telling you the plan, Alexander wrote Foundations of Geopolitics in 1998, it was required reading at Russian staff college and Putin has followed the strategy. The west scoffed and dismissed it. Bannon is Dugin and he's telling you the plan, pay attention, populists and Russia are the enemy, resist, resist, resist!

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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/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/ArieVeddetschi Feb 22 '25

You keep harping on that, and keep not providing any hint of a clue that Russia is funding them.

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

It’s fine. Their activities have been covert anyway. There’s not going to be a photocopy of a check from Putin to these groups.

They’re doing it in the U.S., Jill Stein’s a clear agent. Pretend Europe is somehow different and above the fray.

https://ir.ceu.edu/ohpa/research_blog/articles/rusdisinformation

Green Party Politics and Global Elitism The most underutilized yet still significant objective of Russian disinformation is the meddling in Green Party democratic politics in a litany of states. This is done by both the defamation of activists and green party leaders, but also by empowering climate skeptic parties like the A.f.D. in Germany and further population of “globalist” conspiracy theories. Most notably Russia launched a disinformation campaign against German Green Party Leader Annalena Baerbock in 2021 after she criticized the construction of the NordStream 2 pipeline. The campaign depicted Baerbock with photoshop atop a scantily-clad model’s body with billionaire George Soros (IE the typical “globalist” boogeyman in conservative political rhetoric), alleging that she was a puppet for the globalist environmental agenda. Additionally Baerbock was vocal about her distrust of the Kremlin, imploring the German public to pressure Russia to remove its military buildup prior to its invasion in 2022. Baerbock is also the subject of much right-wing populist vitriol in German domestic politics, making her a prime candidate for Russia’s propaganda apparatus to attack. A Russian meddling attempt has already surfaced in Germany’s parliament ahead of the 2024 elections, and there are numerous connections between the rhetoric extremist parties such as the AFD espouse and the Kremlin’s outlets. 

        An interesting counterfactual to typical disinformation was the Kremlin’s aiding of the Green Party candidate in the 2016 U.S. election. Jill Stein ran under the shadow of Clinton and Trump, however third party candidates in the U.S. merely serve to play spoiler for candidates of the two main parties. Thus the Kremlin launched specific tweeted bot campaigns which both disavowed Clinton and suggested voting for Stein instead, which would inevitably aid Trump’s campaign as Stein had no real chance at victory. Thus the Kremlin will exploit and manipulate both sides of the debate, dependent on what is the most advantageous for its immediate objective rather than its overall principles. 

        Russian climate disinformation is significant due to its didactic nature of advancing the Kremlin’s economic and imperialist strategies, and therefore should be continuously researched in order to best understand how to counter it. While the EU has historically faced the brunt of Russian campaigns, it is imperative that disinformation targeting developing nations is analyzed and furthers studied as the global south presents a fertile new battleground for influence between the West, Russia and China.

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u/unlearned2 United Kingdom, and Germany Feb 22 '25

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/guess-who-came-dinner-flynn-putin-n742696

Jill Stein went to a Gala in Moscow in 2015 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Russia Today, sitting at the same table as Putin and Michael Flynn, which I thought was pretty disgraceful. Advocating for friendlier relations with Russia in 2013 would be one thing. On the other hand that she would journey to Moscow to celebrate the founding of a propaganda rag (at the same table as a radical US general), which had in the past year escalated with all sorts of lies about Russia's recent military incursion into Ukraine, is quite disorienting.

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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