An investigation by a group of European publications established that Russia is trying to carry out various actions in European countries with the aim of complicating relations between Turkey and the EU, as well as weakening support for Ukraine.
This is stated in the joint investigation of many European publications, including the Dossier center.
According to the documents, Russian special services actively took up the topic after anti-Turkish protests in Sweden and Denmark against the background of Ankaraʼs blocking of these countriesʼ entry into NATO. In Moscow, they saw this as an additional opportunity to make allies angry.
The explanation to the plan states that there is a clear tension between Turkey and the EU not only at the level of official relations, but also due to growing Islamophobic sentiments in European societies. Therefore, in Russia, they began to develop actions that would aggravate the situation — for example, the burning of the Turkish flag and portraits of Erdogan in The Hague, a large campaign with offensive graffiti against Erdogan in large European cities.
"Five people (locals and immigrants) in masks stand on the Turkish flag and burn the portrait of Erdogan; one of them films it on his phone; the place is one of the recognizable places of The Hague; the video is sent to Turkish mass media and organizations, published on social networks, etc.,” says the description of one of these actions.
It follows from the documents that some such staging actions were organized with hired "protesters", and in some cases they were used against Ukraine.
For example, on March 5, such a staged action was held in Paris. Allegedly, "representatives of the Ukrainian community" unfurled a small anti-Turkish banner and shouted at the camera "Stop Erdogan!" Then this video appeared on social networks.
Danish-Swedish activist Rasmus Paludan, the main initiator of the Koran-burning campaign, said that he was not influenced by Russia in any way and that Kremlin agents did not incite him to take any actions. It has been unofficially confirmed that several Western special services are aware of this Russian plan. The Swedish security police Säpo declined to comment in detail on what they knew, but noted that Russian influence campaigns often try to exploit certain divisions in society for their own purposes.