The Arsenal of ‘Fake News’

Only Donald Trump believes in Vladimir Putin’s innocence regarding Russian interference in the West.

Only Trump believes Putin. The word of the tsar is worth more to the president of the United States than the analysis of his intelligence services. He is not the first president to be fascinated by the Kremlin’s tenant. For Trump, Putin’s word is enough, while for George W. Bush, his gaze alone sufficed.

Following Putin’s “word,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was more specific in his denial: All accusations concerning Russian interference in the political life of Western countries, particularly in electoral processes, are the result of the hysteria of their leaders, projecting their own internal difficulties onto their adversary.

The catalog of interference is already worrisome. It starts with Russian activism during the presidential election of the leading superpower, which special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating with regard to the relationship between Trump’s team and the Kremlin, and their alleged attempt to block Hillary Clinton’s election as president.

The role of Russia in this election is the most prominent episode in a soap opera which features installments dedicated to the crisis in Ukraine, Brexit, the French presidential election, the German and Dutch elections, and now the most relevant political conflict of our time, the Catalan separatist attempt.

With Trump, all the pieces fit: his business in Russia, the role of Twitter in the construction of his personality and the idea of “fake news.” The pieces all make up a presidency that is easily manipulated from Moscow. Only Julian Assange is missing, with his WikiLeaks organization and certain sympathies regarding Moscow’s interests, and lways willing to lend a hand to whomever offers more destabilization, from Trump to the Catalonian separatist process.

Trump, the king of “fake news,” uses this concept to attack his opponents, accusing them of the falsehoods of which he himself has become the greatest artist. Kremlin spokesmen use an identical argument, resulting in the construction of duplicate versions of a reality that is elusive to the ordinary citizen.

Under the guise of a controversy involving the relationship between media and governments hides a weapon of destabilization in a new kind of war, which obtains, without a single shot, the result that guns once had when it came to toppling governments or favoring secessions. The foundation is this “fake news,” created by communication controlled by the Kremlin, which is then reflected in automated and fake social media profiles, and which multiplies virally to occupy and determine public debate.

Europe, once again, is in an inferior position with respect to this new type of war. At the same time that these activities were reported in the United Kingdom and Spain, the ministers of defense and foreign affairs from 23 European countries decided to create a permanent defense structure and increase their budgets to counteract the danger again coming from the East, just as it was during the Cold War.