How to “swing” Europe

Putin sees in the Catalonian referendum an opportunity to convince the European Union, NATO, and the UN that it is time to recognize that Crimea belongs to Russia and to let bygones be bygones. After all, business and political interests in Europe are getting restive. They contend that, after almost four years, it is time to return to “business as usual” with Russia.

“What is so troubling is that the Russians used the same playbook and nobody seems to care,” information warfare expert Molly K. McKew told The Washington Times. “It’s the constant drumbeat: ‘Minorities are disadvantaged, the West has nothing to offer, democracy doesn’t work.’”

Experts say Moscow fights a subtle war of subversion rather than domination. The Kremlin has perfected the technique of finding divisive social issues including race, gun control, religion or gay rights to highlight rather than trying to promote an individual candidate or position. 

How does it work?

Eastern European and Russian “troll farms” and robotic accounts then use algorithms to make polarizing hot-button topics trend across a country’s internet space. “The Kremlin can’t create these societal divisions,” she said, speaking by telep

hone from Estonia. “But they can find them and turn the volume way up. They did it in the U.S. — find a bitter partisan divide and exploited Brexit” — the U.K. vote to leave the European Union — “was similar.”

The Madrid-based El Pais provided coverage of a report warning of Russian interference, especially from what has been called the government-funded broadcaster Russia Today, or RT. The station was accused of pushing fake referendum news from its Spanish-language portal.

“The sad part is,” she said, “people know they have no credibility, but when a local issue comes from their mouth, people don’t care about the source, they just react.”

Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2017/10/16/how-russia-is-playing-catalonia-to-get-a-reprieve-on-crimea/#537e848e603c

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/2/catalonia-independence-vote-likely-influenced-by-r/