If everything is Putin then nothing is Putin: the big favor some people are doing the Kremlin

The unhealthy belief in conspiracy theories is not something exclusive to the extremes of the political map, contrary to what some believe.

Neither Putin nor Soros: some data that certain people on the right seem to ignore
Poland's hard reproach to France and Germany for their lukewarm attitude towards Russia

There are people who see the presence of George Soros, for example, behind everything that happens. If you support Ukraine and reject Putin, then you are a puppet of Soros, according to some. It is a stupid belief that we have suffered for years that we want to reject the Russian dictator. There is an equally stupid belief among the left and centrism: the idea that if you are conservative then you are a fan of Putin, an idea that ignores the Kremlin's support for the far left and the Russian dictator's nods to communism.

It is worth remembering that it was precisely Poland's previous conservative government that warned most about Putin for years, warnings that were ignored by the two dominant partners of the European Union, Germany and France: it was the lukewarmness of the centrist Merkel and the socialist Macron that fueled Putin's ambitions. Ambitions that were also fattened by France's illegal arms sales to Russia in violation of the 2014 embargo over the annexation of Crimea and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with which Germany wanted to receive Russian gas, leaving the eastern countries at the feet of Moscow.

It is good that part of Europe has finally woken up from its flirtations with Putin, but it is indecent that they are now embracing a conspiracy theory that uses Putin to settle any debate. On August 4, we saw an example of this in a centrist Spanish newspaper. Abc published an editorial on the protests in the United Kingdom against mass immigration, in which it stated the following: "The shadow of the Kremlin, present in any outbreak of social and political fracture registered in the free world, looms over the disinformation campaign that has mobilized thousands of young Britons since last week."

The statement by Abc that I have highlighted in bold is as absurd as believing that everything bad that happens in the West is Soros's fault. What is truly astonishing is devoting an editorial to the unrest in the United Kingdom without citing its cause: the murder of three girls by a young man of African origin, a crime that has been the straw that broke the camel's back for many Britons after years of enduring growing insecurity that is silenced by many media outlets, claiming that those who complain are the "extreme right", as if that would solve the problem.

Not only is ABC’s claim absurd, but it is also a conspiracy theory that benefits the Kremlin to say that Russia is behind every conflict in the West. There are undoubtedly people who are willing to believe that it is reasonable to point to everyone involved in a conflict in the West as Putin’s agent, just as there are people who accuse you of being a puppet of Soros if you reject Putin, but compulsive belief in conspiracy theories generally causes many people to not take those who hold such ideas seriously.

In this way, with its conspiracy theory, Abc is doing Putin an unwitting favor. If you try to make people believe that everything bad is the result of a Russian conspiracy, then what you will do is that many people will not believe any accusations against Russia. If everything is Putin, then nothing is. With its attitude, Abc achieves the same effect as people who see Soros everywhere: that people who are minimally sane believe that every supposed conspiracy is a hoax.

It is a fact that Russia is trying to destabilise the West in many ways, but this must be combated in each case, with data and evidence, and not by inventing false conspiracies. The most clumsy way of stopping the Kremlin is to try to combat Russian disinformation with more disinformation. That is what ABC did with this editorial. An editorial that does a disservice to those of us who have been denouncing the abuses and crimes of Vladimir Putin for many years, while Abc offered an opinion column to Juan Manuel de Prada to spread his lies in favor of Putin, a column that that newspaper maintains today. What a strange way Abc has of fighting Russian propaganda.

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Photo: Mikhail Svetlov.