Putin is winning the war against democracy

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The sound of the champagne corks that appear inside the Kremlin on Friday must have been deafening. From the Kremlin conversation points to the efforts of last week of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, until humiliate publicly The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Trump administration has been delivering one victory after another to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, until the beginning of January, had been defensive.

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Instead of showing solidarity with Ukraine, the president of the United States treated Zelenskyy with a mocking disdain in the oval office, sending a clear message to Ukraine and the other United States allies that neither he nor his vice president, JD Vance, can be trusted to defend them. On the other hand, they have chosen to exploit the suffering of Ukraine through diplomacy in the style of the mafia, blatantly demanding control over US $ 500 billion (C $ 720 billion) in Ukrainian resources, an act that can only be described as extortion.

These developments are naturally feeding the growing concerns about the unprecedented influence of Kremlin on the foreign policy of the United States. In recent weeks, Trump has openly regurgated Russian disinformation about Ukraine, legitimized the Kremlin’s orwellian distortion of truth and changed the fault of the aggressor of a criminal invasion of his victim.

The impact of Russian misinformation on the Trump administration represents a historical victory for Russian influence operations, whose ultimate goal is to shape political decision making in the West. He also points out the tacit approval of the administration of Putin’s totalitarian neo -imperialist policies, an alarming development for Canadians, whose sovereignty has also been challenged by Trump.

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Trump and his administration seem to be operating inside a world painted by the relentless fire hose of the Kremlin and propaganda. In that distorted world, Russia’s genocidal war against Ukraine is framed as a noble effort to purge the country of his “neo -Nazi dictator” and frustrate Ukraine and the alleged imperial ambitions of NATO.

For a few weeks, Trump has amplified Putin’s propaganda, falsely stating that Zelenskyy began the war. Trump has previously characterized Russia’s invasion as “genius“, But now goes further, labeling Zelenskyy as dictator For not celebrating elections since the war began, while conveniently ignoring that Putin, who has been in power for 25 years, has systematically eliminated all independent media and violently repressed political dissent.

For Russia: an average armed power with an economy that is smaller than that of Canada -This propaganda victory represents the culmination of the informative war of the Kremlin decades aimed at Western democracies, whose efforts to combat it have become shared objectives of the administrations of Putin and Trump.

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At the Munich Security Conference, Vance criticized United States allies for not maintaining the rights of freedom of expression in their fight against misinformation, however, their own government recently restricted the freedom of the press by prohibiting the associated press of the Oval office for not using Trump’s favorite political terms, as calling the Gulf de México the “Gulf of America.” This flagrant hypocrisy reflects the authoritarian tactics used by leaders such as Putin.

Trump has also surrounded himself with figures aligned in Kremlin as Tulsi Gabbard, a long time Putin apologist. Even more disturbing, now controls the intelligence apparatus of the United States.

The exiled leader of the Russian opposition Garry Kasparov told me that he believes that Canadians must be alert to emerging threats to his sovereignty: “Donald Trump’s threats to make Canada’s state justifications of Echo Putin to invade Ukraine, deny the history of sovereignty and return to write the story of his ambitions. While Trump is not yet ready to imitate Putin’s war, Canadians should not underestimate the threat behind rhetoric. “

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Trump’s threats on Canada’s annexation reflect Putin’s strategy in Ukraine: to delegitimize the sovereignty of a nation and use economic pressure as a control weapon. The objective in both cases is clear: to undermine democracy, destabilize regional security and intimidate free countries in the presentation. Canadians must take this threat seriously.

Meanwhile, Russia will continue to intensify its information and influence operations in Canada, with the aim of undermining our democracy and interfering in our next elections. Alarmingly, the surveillance of Canada against these threats may have weakened by the final report of the Foreign Interference Commissionwhich minimized the ongoing operations of Kremlin against our democracy, despite the clear evidence of its existence.

Last September, the United States Department of Justice presented a Russian Intelligence plot, in which two Canadians were allegedly paid to establish a media platform that pushed the narratives controlled by the Kremlin. The threat, as we have seen in the United States, is real, is growing and requires a brave and non -partisan leadership to confront it.

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What is clear is that, both in the United States and in Canada, there is still a dangerous impulse to appease authoritarian regimes and minimize the threat they represent for the democratic world. This complacency Miope has left us vulnerable to the growing existential geopolitical crisis that we now face. Without a resolved and non -partisan leadership and an unwavering commitment to face and interrupt these forces, we will lose. Worse, we can undergo them.

National Post

Marcus Kolga is the main member of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and founder of Disinfowatch.org.

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