this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2024
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That's a too simplified abstract of what the article is about. It's not that Russia made the racist far-right in Western Europe and elsewhere (the Putin regime appears to provide some funding to European right-wing parties, though, as we have seen in Germany's AfD, for example), it's that Putin fuels that sentiment. The Russian government tries to actively destabilize the societies, that alone is a violent act and by many considered an act of war.
(And, no, Britain is not "racist AF", some people over there are racist. We should not pidgeonhole a country, neither Britain nor Russia.)
Racist rhetoric in the press and in politics has been normalized to an extreme where it is apparently normal now to say Muslim voters are sectarian because they disagree with labour over its Gaza policy.
For how many years have mainstream politicians and public figures not blamed whatever problem on immigrants, or said that the border should be ‘secured’. I mean the Rwanda deal was literally a serious proposal this very year. Was that all Putin, or are the political elite looking for a boogieman to blame, rather than reflect how incredibly irresponsible they have been for the past decade.
Again, the racism in the UK and elsewhere is one problem, Putin's misinformation campaigns are another. These are two different things. (And, again, not all are racist in the UK - or in any country - as we can see, for example, with the 'Rwanda deal' you mentioned as this very deal is history now.)
If Ivan on twitter can cause such political chaos I don’t think all problems are solved. And Russia is not UKs only geo-strategic rival that has access to twitter, so either the UK has to instigate a China level internet censorship regime or maybe fix the racism.
Just the reaction of the police to the riots compared to extinction rebellion should tell you enough about their priorities.
What has the police's reaction here to do with Russia's disinformation? It's just about raising a new issue to point the finger to anywhere else.
Again, I’m not talking about Russia, I’m talking about racism in the UK, if you think the police is unrelated to this, I really don’t know what else to say.