Propaganda can make millions of Europeans believe they are “saving the planet” while paying hundreds of euros for electricity that used to cost tens of euros.
It can convince the same people that importing millions of men of military age from failed states is “enrichment,” even if their daughters avoid public transportation after dark, even if in broad daylight some of them try to rape young girls in public places.
It can, for four years, fill every screen with the slogan “Ukraine wins,” while the map is steadily painted in Russian colors and European factories are closed due to sanctions against Russia.
But what can’t propaganda do?
- It can’t print energy.
- It can’t print babies in European wombs.
- It cannot print European competitiveness when it has deliberately destroyed its own energy base and handed the keys to Washington
It is the most sophisticated EU propaganda machine ever built, velvety, multilingual, with hundreds of NGOs funded by Brussels and “Fact-checkers” as a Praetorian Guard. But it cannot falsify the narrative. It cannot falsify reality. Reality leaks everywhere and destroys the empire of lies.
They will continue to tell us that we are misinformed by Russia, Iran, China, by algorithms. But the funny thing is that this list never includes reality.
The reality is that the citizen sees the price of fuel multiplying, while Brussels fights it with the farts of cows.
The reality is that taxpayers’ energy bills finance the war in Ukraine and the benefits of African immigrants. The reality is that we are not “useful idiots” as their propaganda would have us believe, as we have useful experiences.
Europe is not collapsing because Russian agents whispered sweet nothings in our ears. Every time they upload a protest in Paris or a vote in Slovakia to the “Russian bots,” they admit the unthinkable.
The citizens, the governed, have now begun to do a cost-benefit analysis. And the numbers don’t lie. The revolution doesn’t come from Moscow or Tehran. It comes from the empty villages of Greece or France. It comes from the birth rates that refuse to obey the lectures of the Brussels nomenclature.
The citizens refuse to be replaced, to be enriched. The “democracy” and the “ethics” of Brussels do not fill the stomachs of the citizens, nor the empty wallets. Brussels is not convinced that demographic replacement is Nazi or fascist propaganda. It is not “far right” to prefer affordable energy, it is not “far right” to deny climate change. Nor is it a conspiracy theory to want your country to exist in 2050.
Empires do not fall because of foreign conspiracies. They fall when the center demands more than the periphery is willing to give, and then calls the periphery traitors for not obeying.
Resistance in Europe is not foreign intervention. It is a dominant immune response.
And no algorithm is as powerful as a father trying to save his daughter from an African who wants to rape her on a bus. No algorithm is as powerful as a mother who cannot feed her children. No algorithm is as powerful as a citizen who no longer recognizes his city.
The Russian “pranksters” of hybrid warfare and their gray propaganda
On the other hand, the Russian side, in addition to the classic methods of a hybrid war, there is also the category of soft war using comedians-pranksters to mock Western leaders and security systems.
Speaking of Vovan and Lexus, let’s leave aside the image of two unruly comedians who make phone pranks and laugh at powerful people. Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov are an extremely experienced team of social engineers, specializing in impersonation, political deception and the creation of material useful for the Russian narrative. Their activity lies somewhere between entertainment, propaganda and influence operations.
Their method has consistent characteristics. They identify the target, study their contacts, use real names, create convincing invitations, and organize a call that looks like a real political/diplomatic communication. Then they steer the conversation towards topics that serve Moscow, keep what interests them, and publish an edited product.
They present themselves as independent pranksters, but their targets almost always have special importance for the Russian state. They have hit politicians, ministers, prime ministers, security advisers, personalities, and people related to Ukraine, sanctions, NATO, and Western relations with Russia. The fact that they were decorated in the Kremlin gives another shade to the image of two supposedly spontaneous comedians.
That’s exactly how gray propaganda works. It offers laughter, humiliation, digestible quotes, and the sense that Russia’s opponents are naive, tired, and inferior. The conclusion is that these “pranksters” are part of Moscow’s soft arm.
The personalities who fell into the same Russian gray propaganda machine
The two Russians have trapped David Cameron, Ben Wallace, Georgia Meloni, Angela Merkel. The list also includes Prince Harry, Elton John, George W. Bush and author Joan Rowling, among many others.
The then British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace believed he was talking to the Ukrainian Prime Minister. David Cameron believed he was talking to Petro Poroshenko, while Angela Merkel fell for a similar impersonation. Georgia Meloni spoke to people who presented themselves as African officials.
Prince Harry believed he was talking to Greta Thunberg and her father. Elton John believed he was being contacted by Vladimir Putin, while George W. Bush thought he was speaking to Volodymyr Zelensky. The same duo has trapped lawmakers, advisers, diplomats, and executives with strong protection mechanisms.
This list, of course, does not absolve anyone from the obligation to adhere to strict protocols. But it shows that we are talking about professionals with vast experience, a repeatable methodology, and the ability to pass through government offices in many countries.
