WASHINGTON — The war in Ukraine that has pitted Russia
against the West is being waged not just with tanks, artillery and
troops. Increasingly, Moscow has brought to bear different kinds of
weapons, according to American and European officials: money, ideology
and disinformation.
Even
as the Obama administration and its European allies try to counter
Russia’s military intervention across its border, they have found
themselves struggling at home against what they see as a concerted drive
by Moscow to leverage its economic power, finance European political
parties and movements, and spread alternative accounts of the conflict.
The Kremlin’s goal seems to be to sow division, destabilize the European Union
and possibly fracture what until now has been a relatively unified, if
sometimes fragile, consensus against Russian aggression. At the very
least, if Russia can peel off even a single member of the European
Union, it could in theory prevent the renewal later this month of
economic sanctions that are scheduled to expire absent the unanimous
agreement of all member states.
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