Russia imitated protests in Europe aimed at quarreling Turkey and Europe - media
Russian special services were involved in such operations with the participation of the Russian presidential administration
The Russian authorities used provocative protests in Europe to quarrel with Turkey and its NATO allies, as well as to discredit Ukraine.
Source. This is evidenced by the materials obtained by the Dossier Center and the publications DR, Expressen, Le Monde, NRK, Süddeutsche Zeitung, SVT and Westdeutscher Rundfunk.
The documents obtained by the journalists show that such operations were carried out by Russian special services with the participation of the Russian presidential administration.
The reason for their start was the action of Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish anti-Islamist party Stram Kurs ("Hard Course"). He burned a Quran near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on January 21, 2023. Ankara has since slowed down the process of Sweden's admission to NATO. The application for the event was paid for by journalist Chang Frick, who previously worked with Russia Today.
Moscow has since offered to organize several events against Turkey on behalf of European or Ukrainian activists. At least one such event took place: On March 5, five people posing as members of the Ukrainian community hung an anti-Turkish banner in Paris' Place Saint-Pierre with the inscription "Erdogan, the earthquake is a payback for Russian tourists."
In total, ten anti-Ukrainian actions have been held in Paris, The Hague, Madrid, and Brussels since December 2022. Often, their participants simply "anointed" themselves to large demonstrations dedicated to other issues.
For example, on February 11, a rally against pension reform was held on the Place de la République in Paris, with several men in the crowd holding a poster with the slogan "European Union and the United States, stop funding the war in Ukraine."
Similar "activists" were seen at other rallies calling on NATO to stop bombing Donetsk and sending weapons to Ukraine.
France's counterintelligence service told Le Monde that its employees were aware of the operation by Russian special services.
Another European intelligence service noted that Russian disinformation campaigns often aim to "exploit real tensions that already exist between Turkey, for example, and the European Union in a hybrid war."
Background. As a reminder, German prosecutors searched the home of pro-Kremlin activists who organized rallies in Germany following a Reuters investigation.
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