![]() ![]() Western governments have ignored the threat from Putin’s covert allies for too long, but finally, awareness is growing that the transatlantic community must do more to defend its values and institutions. ![]() Its tactics are asymmetrical, subversive, and not easily confronted. Moscow views the West’s virtues-pluralism and openness-as vulnerabilities to be exploited. President Putin increasingly sees that which the West seeks-Europe whole, free, and at peace-not as an opportunity for prosperous coexistence but as a threat to his geopolitical agenda and regime survival. The Kremlin uses these Trojan horses to destabilize European politics so efficiently, that even Russia’s limited might could become a decisive factor in matters of European and international security. A campaign poster of Emmanuel Macron, head of the political movement En Marche! (Onwards!), and one of the eleven candidates who runs in the 2017 French presidential election, is seen in Paris, France, April 10, 2017. These allies represent a diverse network of political influence reaching deep into Europe’s core. Despite the threat Russia’s revanchist policies pose to European stability and established international law, some European politicians, experts, and civic groups have expressed support for-or sympathy with-the Kremlin’s actions. With this act, the Kremlin redrew the political map of Europe and upended the rules of the acknowledged international order. In 2014, Russia seized Crimea through military force. Policy recommendations: Resisting Russia’s efforts to influence, infiltrated and inculcate Foreword United Kingdom: Vulnerable but resistant Germany: Interdependence as vulnerability Introduction: The Kremlin’s toolkit of influence in Europe Alina Polyakova, deputy director of the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center and senior fellow with the Future Europe Initiative at the Atlantic Council. Stefan Meister, director, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, Robert Bosch Center, German Council on Foreign Relations and Dr. Neil Barnett, chief executive officer of Istok Associates Dr. Marlene Laruelle, director of the Central Asia Program and associate director of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University Mr. The report presents three cases, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, each written by a leading expert: Dr. ![]() “Western governments should encourage and fund investigative civil society groups and media that will work to shed light on the Kremlin’s dark networks,” writes the former Foreign Minister of Poland, Radosław Sikorski, in the report’s foreword. This network of political allies, named in the report, serves the Kremlin’s foreign policy agenda that seeks to infiltrate politics, influence policy, and inculcate an alternative, pro-Russian view of the international order. This report documents how the Russian government cultivates relationships with ideologically friendly political parties, individuals, and civic groups to build an army of Trojan Horses across European polities. Russia’s meddling in other counties’ politics, while shocking to some, is part and parcel of the Kremlin’s toolkit of influence. Western European democracies are not immune to the Kremlin’s tactics of influence, which seeks to turn Western liberal virtues–free media, plurality of opinion, and openness–into vulnerabilities to be exploited. Alina Polyakova in The Kremlin’s Trojan Horses: Russian Influence in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, a new report from the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu’s Eurasia Center. “Since Putin’s return to power in 2012, the Kremlin has accelerated its efforts to resurrect the arsenal of ‘active measures’…” writes Dr. ![]()
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