Hybrid threats: four examples of the new wars

The most convincing example of how a state manages to co-opt influential politicians and businessmen from a geopolitical rival is personified in Gerhard Schroder, a personal friend of Vladimir Putin and chairman of the shareholders’ meeting of Nord Stream 2, the gas pipeline that already connects Russia with Germany without going through Ukraine. “Here we have a whole political leader, a former Chancellor in the salary of Gazprom and who acts even against the recommendations of the EU Energy Union, which demands to diversify energy sources” of the Twenty-seven, highlights De Pedro. The issue goes far beyond what in Spain is called “revolving doors”, politicians who go to the business world amidst the suspicions of citizens. “Gazprom is not Telefónica; it is an instrument of geopolitical influence of the Kremlin”; Furthermore, there is no reciprocity, because “no one in the EU can hire a relevant politician in Moscow,” the academic points out.

China, an emerging superpower, appears to be rapidly learning the basics of so-called “hybrid activity,” and has seized the opportunity provided by COVID-19 to denigrate its competitors, in what was called the ‘mask diplomacy’. At the beginning of the pandemic, when this was a problem confined to China, the Asian giant “achieved European solidarity” and discreetly collected the “stock of masks” on the continent, a good part of which “were donations. “says De Pedro. When the virus reached Europe and the disease began to ravage the continent, Beijing not only did not return the favor, but sold most of its masks to needy European states, taking the opportunity to criticize, through the media. communication, the management of the pandemic by the EU. “Here it is demonstrated how Beijing is able to use the information in a strategic way”, emphasizes the expert.

Everything seems to indicate that, after the success of Russian disinformation during the 2016 US presidential elections, the Kremlin tried a similar operation a year and a half later during the French presidential elections that confronted the current president Emmanuel Macron with the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, of declared sympathies towards Moscow. In the weeks leading up to the polls, they began to appear in social networks information about his alleged homosexuality, the existence of a hidden bank account or his desire to integrate Turkey into the EU. “The campaign failed due to the entente of the French media, which refused to publish and act as a speaker for such attacks,” recalls analyst De Pedro. “It was clear that the idea was to favor the favorite of the Kremlin,” says the analyst, a character who in the final sprint of the election came to travel to Moscow and meet with Putin.