"The organization was being used to funnel hundreds of thousands of euros — up to 1 million a month — to dozens of far-right politicians in more than five countries to plant Kremlin propaganda in Western media that would sow division in Europe and bolster the position of pro-Russian candidates in this week’s European Parliament elections.”
There are lots of strongly pro-Russian politicians and members of the media in the United States too. If Putin is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to the far right in Europe, why in the world would anyone believe the same isn't happening in the United States?
Why do people still believe the Russia narrative? I mean, virtually every single major Russian narrative of influence over US or EU politics, media sphere, or whatever is proven by western investigative journalist wrong (of cause with convenient delay). Eg, the Biden laptop, the hacking of nuclear facilities, and list goes on and on.
We like to over-estimate the capability of Rus in this sphere. After all, the unparalleled, fine-tuned and omni present propaganda machine is in the US, self-declared, psy-ops through gaming industry, music, and movies, etc.
In summary, are there state actors influencing each other's population: Yes. Does Russia somehow hold the super-powers in this domain: No, not by any stretch of imagination. Do they spent more money on foreign interference than US +EU, not by orders of magnitude.
But the function of a boogeyman is just as important, if not more, than an accurate model of the world (I concur).
People will omit applying any amount of critical thinking if they agree with the basic premise/contents of something they read.
That's how we have Schrödinger's Russia, one that keeps fumbling every day and loses 1000+ soldiers a day, whose soldiers have run out of basic equipment and are fighting with shovels (no, I'm not joking https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64855760), all the while being absolutely crippled by sanctions. Truly a laughing stock, right?
Yet they are also somehow about to launch a full-scale invasion of entire Europe, while currently _undermining democracy_ (my favorite phrase) in the entire Western sphere.
"The organization was being used to funnel hundreds of thousands of euros — up to 1 million a month — to dozens of far-right politicians in more than five countries to plant Kremlin propaganda in Western media that would sow division in Europe and bolster the position of pro-Russian candidates in this week’s European Parliament elections.”