Lunev's revelations and the selective pacifism of Sánchez's pro-Russian partners

In 1998, Regnery Publishing published the memoirs of Stanislav Lunev, a highly relevant officer of the Russian intelligence services.

One of the groups of the 'no to war' marches supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine
The BNG is using against the military parade in Vigo a platform whose protests displayed Russian and Iranian flags

In 1992, Lunev had defected to the United States, becoming the highest-ranking defector from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation (GRU). In his book, titled "Through the Eyes of the Enemy," Lunev revealed that "the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad," noting that during the Vietnam War, triggered by the invasion of South Vietnam by the communist dictatorship of North Vietnam, the Soviet Union donated one billion dollars to peace movements in the United States.

One only needs to look at the Kremlin's disinformation campaigns to understand that Putin's dictatorship still prioritizes morally weakening its enemies as much as the USSR did, and that priority includes investing vast sums of money in propaganda and funding the enemies of the West. The ideological extremism of pro-Russian activists (on both the left and right) explains many of their biases, such as when they rail against Israel (a country systematically attacked by Palestinian terrorism) but remain silent about the atrocities committed by Russian invaders in Ukraine over the past four years, avoiding mentioning Russia and always focusing their criticism on the United States and NATO.

Without diminishing the importance of how far such extremism can go, it cannot be ruled out that Russia continues to fund a pacifist movement whose manifestos are grossly biased, always omitting any criticism of Russian imperialism and its crimes. These Kremlin influence operations go beyond the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For years, the pro-Russian far left has been trying to undermine the defense of Western countries, demanding a halt to all investment in armed forces whose purpose is to defend these democratic countries from potential aggressors like Russia.

The logical question is: is there more to an extreme left that seeks to leave Europe defenseless against Russia than mere ideological extremism? This is what Western intelligence services should be investigating, because our security is at stake. In Spain, as we saw yesterday, parliamentary partners of Pedro Sánchez's government are campaigning against the Armed Forces while avoiding any criticism of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and even joining forces against those who openly support this Russian aggression against a neighboring country. That's not pacifism: it's something else, and it would be good if we all knew if there's more than just fanaticism behind it all, because treason is still a serious crime under Spanish law, however much the government turns a blind eye when it's committed by its partners.