Jun 5: Nello Scavo, Hybrid warfare. Social media, false consultancy, donations: "misinformation" inside the keyboard
As published in Avvenire on June 3, 2023
Hybrid warfare. Social media, false consultancy, donations: "misinformation" inside the keyboard
By Nello Scavo, Avvenire, 3 June 2023
Translation: Monique Camarra
The Foundation for Peace in Europe, according to the 007s in the West, directs everything: "Among the suspected collaborators, former government leaders, UN officials, and a former president of the European Commission"
The other war is fought without getting your hands dirty. By throwing reassuring keywords such as "appeasement" to social media, pushing on the need to "get to an agreement" to "stop the massacre". And there would be nothing wrong with talking about "appeasement", except that Moscow's worst "disinformatia" is exploiting even the best intentions, supported with the tinkling of rubles by unsuspecting personalities and organizations.
Behind the keyboard a group of companies, accounts in tax havens, payments disguised as donations or consultancy. A galaxy that loses its traces in Istanbul, Cyprus, Malta and whose activities deliberately run the risk of no longer distinguishing pacifists by vocation from those "by donation".
The accusation contained in some intelligence reports and analysis, that Kyiv is sharing with its allies, for once, leaves aside the debate on right or wrong. The documents viewed by Avvenire reconstruct the main techniques for conditioning the debate.
They reflect a profound fear in Ukraine: «Loss of support of public opinion in partner countries, putting the attacked and aggressor on the same level, and considering as acceptable a solution to the conflict involving the cession of territories and populations and the stable presence of Russian forces within Ukrainian borders".
The Ukrainian 007s point the magnifying glass on old acquaintances and new associates, and protagonists of an operation that begins from afar, but refined every day. There are spies, such as the one infiltrated by Moscow into the International Criminal Court, and discovered a year ago by the Dutch secret services, and then IT companies, politicians, opinion leaders and the ever-present network of well-paid IT mercenaries.
"The hybrid pressures - we read - were designed to ensure recognition of Russian policies in Ukraine and to undermine European leaders’ support for Ukraine". Since its blitzkrieg plan failed, "Russia has rethought its strategy, including that for political and ideological expansion in Europe." And it resorted to the spotless manual of "disinformatia", theorized and applied since the days of the Soviet KGB—the state spy agency in which Vladimir Putin was trained.
According to the Kyiv documents, the direction is entrusted above all to the "Foundation for peace and understanding in Europe", an evanescent body, with a name that does not scare. Not new. The purpose, intelligence analysts complain, is to "prevent Western support for Ukraine". Russian or Moscow-affiliated agents were part of it, in charge of making "the mechanism of hybrid influence" work on European public opinion.
Igor Chumakov, head of the "5th Service of the Department of Operational Information" of the FSB, the federal secret service, is indicated [in the reports] as the creator of the counter-information network at the time. Chumakov, formally under investigation in Kyiv, along with Ukrainian agents accused of treason, is a recurring name in this kind of operation, thanks to well-paid relationships in the buildings that count. A series of corporate audits, also through the re-reading of the "Pandora Papers" of the "Paradise Papers", leads straight to some political exponents. Like the German Ina Kirsch van de Water, with a past in the insitutions of Brussels.
Investigations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) have uncovered the financial secrets of prime ministers, oligarchs, mafiosi and other powerful people. Kirsch van de Water together with her husband Robert van de Water had already directed a center since 2011, which according to the Ukrainians, was supposed to promote the interests of the then political leaders Viktor Yanukovych (president) and Andriy Klyuyev (premier). Names that will return to the fore. Through the keyhole of elusive companies and current accounts in tax havens, it is difficult to reconstruct the route of the flow of money since those years.
In the Kremlin's initial plans, once Zelensky was eliminated, Putin would have liked to reinstall the condescending Yanukovych in Kyiv. A failed project due to the unexpected Ukrainian resistance and the new-found European unity.
In the list of suspects for activities in the service of the "Foundation", there are five prominent European exponents. None of them are formally under investigation, and their names remain under wraps for the time being. None of them are in office. These are former government leaders or heads of international agencies. They reportedly carried out "consulting" activities, sometimes on behalf of companies connected or attributable to the Kremlin. These include a former president of the European Commission, a former senior UN official, a former French housekeeper, a German government official and even a retired head of state. One of the first cases of manipulation of information in favor of Moscow was discovered by the Czech Republic in the spring of 2022 with the arrest of Bohuš Garbár was arrested. He was writing for the counterinformation website Hlavné Správy at the time. Garbár admitted that he was recruited and paid by Kremlin emissaries.
According to Ukrainian documents, there are "pro-Russian agents" throughout the EU. They suggest, therefore, that the intelligence services of European countries monitor the contacts of the "Foundation" which "should be prevented from cooperating with political parties or movements", and in particular " with those movements in Europe which are trying”, right in the midst of the crisis in Ukraine, “to propose the reform of state systems and Constitutions”. Because Vladimir Putin still has one card left to play: «Sowing division in the European Union». The "Trojan horse" is considered to be Viktor Orbàn, therefore from Kyiv they are looking very carefully at the supporters of the Hungarian premier in Europe with a dose of distrust.