Russian Support for Movements such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter (Estudos Nacionais)

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Russian Support for Movements such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter

Just as the pharmaceutical industry operates, the Kremlin does not engage in the direct financing of activists and movements, despite relying on a robust structure involving its regime oligarchs. In general, support takes place through the payment for events, invitations to conferences, and an influence network, indirect co-optation, methods developed during the time of the Soviet Union. The National Studies Institute has developed yet another technical report on Russian co-optation of right-wing movements worldwide. A part of it, however, is dedicated to an activity that is little noticed nowadays, which is the assistance and support of left-wing movements.
The old Soviet subversion focused mainly on the “criticism of capitalism” by movements, parties, and groups. This has now changed, with its main activity directed at conservative and traditional movements. However, the old Soviet activity remains unchanged when it comes to the destabilization of target countries, that is, Western nations.
Russian influence, via disinformation and psychological operations, is not limited to conservative, nationalist, or right-wing movements. Over the years, Western intelligence agencies, universities, and research centers have demonstrated that the Kremlin also exploits internal divisions in Western societies by supporting, fostering, or amplifying both right-wing and left-wing groups, according to its hybrid warfare strategy. This aligns perfectly with what the ideologue Alexander Dugin recommended in his book The Foundations of Geopolitics, read and recommended to the Russian General Staff since 1999. In the work, still untranslated into Portuguese, Dugin advises the use of all ideological instruments that destabilize Western society and expose its contradictions and problems, exactly in the same line as the old Marxist subversion foundations of the Soviet period.
The Symmetrical Subversion Strategy
The Russian objective, since the Cold War and intensified in the digital era, is not always limited to supporting a specific ideology, as is currently the case with Eurasianism, but likewise to increase social instability, polarize society, and weaken Western democratic institutions. For this reason, Russia engages both with ultranationalist right-wing movements and with identitarian, anti-capitalist, or racial left-wing movements, which is not always mentioned or known by conservative groups that end up being co-opted by Russian authorities or subversion agents to carry out the work of criticizing globalism. Without realizing it, they become instruments in the hands of the old “criticism of capitalism” commonly carried out by communists in all countries that followed the strategies of the Kremlin.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) Protests — USA, 2016–2020
According to reports by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee (2019) and the Mueller Report (2019), the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA), financed by oligarchs such as Yevgeny Prigozhin, executed online campaigns that amplified narratives of the Black Lives Matter movement, especially during the 2016 and 2020 protests in the U.S. The IRA created fake profiles on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter such as “Blacktivist,” “Don’t Shoot,” and “Black Matters US.” These pages simulated African-American activism, organizing events, fostering anti-police discourse, and promoting racial separatism, while their real objective was to foment racial and social division in the U.S., reports the Senate Intelligence Committee Report, Volume 2 (2019).
Left-Wing Movements in Europe
Reports from the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (NATO StratCom) have shown that Russian state media channels, such as RT and Sputnik, gave a platform and disproportionate visibility to radical left-wing movements such as Antifa, Extinction Rebellion (radical environmentalists), and Occupy Wall Street (in the 2010s). The pattern identified was clear: RT and Sputnik amplified narratives that attacked capitalism, financial elites, NATO, the European Union, and the United States, using rhetoric from both the far left and the far right. The information is available in the report: NATO StratCom Report: “Social Media as a Tool of Hybrid Warfare” (2016).
Racial Separatism and Radical Pan-Africanism
The U.S. House Intelligence Committee report (2018) pointed out that pages operated by the IRA not only supported BLM but also groups advocating for African-American separatism, with content supporting the creation of a separate “black nation” within the United States. The report also noted the promotion of anti-white rhetoric, with the aim of generating violent social reactions and using them to benefit the protest agenda. Fake profiles were identified that even raised money and organized real physical protests in the U.S., without participants knowing they were being manipulated by Russian agents, according to the document House Intelligence Committee Release of Russia-linked Facebook Ads (2018).
Radical Environmentalist Narrative
Russia has a direct interest in weakening the energy competitiveness of the U.S. and Europe. An investigation conducted by the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (2018) pointed out that outlets like RT America financed and promoted campaigns against fracking and energy projects in the U.S. and Europe. They also provided media support to radical environmentalist movements, creating a paradox: while Russia profits from oil and gas, it promotes radical environmental movements in the West that seek to dismantle the competing energy matrix, according to the report Committee Report: “Russian Attempts to Influence U.S. Domestic Energy Markets” (2018).
The Most Recent Report from the National Studies Institute
The most recent report from the National Studies Institute presents an influence network linking Kremlin activity to politics and right-wing movements around the world. Moreover, it explains how the philosophical foundations of authors like Martin Heidegger serve to unite and catalyze seemingly opposing ideologies in support of Russia. In fact, as the report explains well, the instrumental use of Heidegger by the Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin associates the new Eurasianism with other neo-fascist doctrines, Islamic fundamentalism, environmentalism, and even gender ideology. All of this within the same philosophy expressed in the book Being and Time, by the German philosopher who adhered to Nazism.