Czech intelligence uncovers a digital media financed by Russia: and what about Spain?

@ElentirENG ES 3·29·2024 · 19:16 0

This Wednesday the Security Information Service (BIS) of the Czech Republic uncovered a network of Russian influence in that country.

The Spanish intelligence service, beheaded to satisfy Putin's puppets in Spain
The cynical pro-Russian propaganda of a Spanish newspaper founded by a communist

A website financed by Russia that paid European politicians

In a publication on his Twitter account made this Wednesday at 2:15 p.m. hours CET, the BIS communicated the following:

Today, the government of the Czech Republic placed three entities, two individuals and one legal entity, on the national sanctions list based on information obtained by the Security Information Service. We managed to discover and map the activities of an influence network financed by Russia and operating on the territory of the Czech Republic. The actions of the BIS revealed how Russia exercises its influence on the territory of the countries of the European Union and how it tries to influence the political processes of our countries.

That same day, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (of the Civic Democratic Party, member of the European Conservatives and Reformists group and Czech partner of the Spanish party Vox) communicated:

We are imposing national sanctions on three entities.

We came across a pro-Russian network that was trying to develop an influence operation in our country with serious consequences for the security of the Czech Republic and the EU.

The activity of this group extends beyond the borders of the Czech Republic; He was also active in the European Parliament.

It turns out that the Russian Federation has been trying to influence democratic processes in Europe for a long time and we must do everything possible to prevent it.

The BIS has expanded this information at a statement published this Thursday, noting that the sanctioned website is Voice of Europe, currently inoperative and with many followers on Twitter and Facebook. The BIS points out the following:

The Voice of Europe website has long attempted to influence public opinion in several European countries, including the Czech Republic. The content was controlled and financed directly by the Russian Federation. Money from Moscow has also been used to pay some political exponents to spread Russian propaganda. The sums involved were in the order of millions of crowns.

The Czech intelligence service adds:

Among the main narratives spread by the Voice of Europe website is the claim that increased support for Ukraine only prolongs the war and prevents the conclusion of peace. People with strong pro-Russian opinions, including European politicians, received media space here. One of the objectives of the propaganda spread was the attempt to influence the elections to the European Parliament.

Voice of Europe and its particular ideological orientation

Like Russian propaganda, Voice of Europe had content aimed at influencing the right and others on the left. For example, on the last day this website was updated defended pro-abortion positions in Croatia and Poland.

The precedent of the Slovak midfielder Hlavné Správy

It is not the first time that a European country has uncovered a network of Russian influence. Ago Two years ago, another scandal broke out in Slovakia when payments by Russia to the website Hlavné Správy, a pro-Russian media blocked by order of the National Security Office (NBÚ), were revealed.

An example of psychological warfare financed from Moscow

It is not risky to assume that Russia may also be financing other pro-Russian media in the rest of Europe, judging by the content published by some of them, punctually repeating Moscow's slogans on any issue, but especially on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and on NATO.

These influence operations at the state level are by no means harmless: in military terms they are known as psychological warfare and their objective is to weaken the enemy by eroding its morale. This type of psychological warfare operations are divided into three types: the white ones (those that are officially recognized by those who issue them), the gray ones (the authorship of which is not published for favor the result of the operation) and black (in which the promoters of the operation use deception and lies, posing as the enemy).

The inaction of the Spanish government against Russian influence networks

Like other countries, Spain has been the target of Russian operations of this type for years, spread mainly through social networks but also, very possibly, using websites related to the Kremlin. Until now, Pedro Sánchez's government has done absolutely nothing about it, unlike what has happened in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

The reason for this inaction is not difficult to guess: the most pro-Russian parties in Spain are far-left, Podemos and Izquierda Unida, and they are allies of Sánchez. In fact, both parties have been part of Sánchez's different governments since 2020: first with Podemos and Izquierda Unida and now with Sumar, the new electoral brand of Izquierda Unida (that is, of the Communist Party of Spain). In fact, one of the media that spreads the pro-Russian narrative in Spain was created by the founder of Podemos and supports the ultra-left ideological theses of that party.

The CNI, beheaded at the request of pro-Russian parties

In May 2022, a few months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sánchez beheaded the National Intelligence Center (CNI), and he did so at the request of Podemos (a party described as "pro-Russian" by the Russian pro-government media Pravda.ru) and secessionist parties to whom Russia offered help for their separatist coup in Catalonia in 2017. In 2018, the CNI had warned about Russian plots in Spain pointing out, "the presence of activists sponsored by Russian institutions in the media expression of the conflict derived from the situation created in Catalonia during 2017." Sánchez not only did nothing about it but also dismissed the director of the CNI at the request of the parties most sympathetic to Russia.

Sánchez intends to cover up the Russian plot of Spanish separatism

Currently, Pedro Sánchez's government is promoting an amnesty law which would serve to cover up the Russian plot of that coup. A plot that Sánchez already knew about when he announced that amnesty last year. That is to say, in Spain the government not only does not act against the Russian plots, but it helps to cover them up and allow them to evade the action of Justice. That is why Spain has become a paradise for Russian propaganda, a propaganda that is also projected towards the countries of Latin America, where it finds many followers among supporters of the extreme left.

---

Photo: Vláda České Republiky. Petr Fiala, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.