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THREAD-"Make no mistake: dividing Western societies against themselves and setting them against one another is a key pillar of the Russian security strategy." prosyn.org/eHSJONX
"The question for European countries is whether they will follow the UK down the path of impotent rage and national self-destruction.
"At the end of the day, the future of Europe and the West is not up to Putin; it is up to us—starting with the European voters who will go to the polls this week."
"For years, the evidence of European populist and far-right parties' allegiance—and debts—to Vladimir Putin has been piling up. With the Kremlin now fully engaged in swinging the European Parliament election toward its chosen candidates, it's up to Europe's voters push back."
"Apart from their Euroskepticism and xenophobia, Europe’s right-wing populist leaders are united by their adoration of Putin. Their public statements sound as though they were issued directly from the Kremlin...
"... where Putin’s minions constantly complain about the so-called 'Washington-led Brussels elite.' Like the illiberalism of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the partnership between the European right and the Kremlin has been allowed to fester for far too long."
"In return for their subterfuge, Europe’s far-right politicians have been offered campaign financing from Russian entities, as well as the assistance of Russian social-media trolls and propagandists.
"Since 2014, Le Pen’s party has received millions in loans from a Russian bank; and Salvini’s party was reportedly offered around €3 million to contest this year’s European Parliament election.
"And just this month, the UK Electoral Commission launched an investigation into the #Brexit Party, following former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s public demand that Farage come clean about his funding sources."
"Even more recently, Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) was caught on video soliciting Russian electoral help in exchange for government contracts.
"The Austrian government has now collapsed, but there is every reason to think that this brazen quid pro quo is just the tip of a pan-European iceberg.
"After all, Russian money, support, and election interference have already enabled European populists and nationalists to come a long way. In Italy, after joining the coalition government as a junior partner, the League is now the country’s dominant party.
"In the UK, Farage, along with Boris Johnson and other Brexit leaders, succeeded in pulling his country out of the EU. And in France, Le Pen has become a mainstream politician—something her father, the far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, scarcely could have dreamed of."
