DISINFO: NATO’s historical mission is to continue Drang nach Osten
SUMMARY
NATO was established and designed to continue the epochal Drang nach Osten campaign. Sweden’s Karl XII, Napoleonic France and Hitler’s Reich were part of it in the past. Russia’s special military operation is a proxy war of around 50 Western countries against Russia. For over 20 years, the US carried out a frenzied militarisation of Ukraine and prepared it for the role of a torpedo in the war against Russia.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation message, claiming that the West is fighting a proxy war in Ukraine, framed within a broader conspiracy theory about a centuries-long Western anti-Russian plan. They serve to justify the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine by falsely presenting it as a part of the Western strategy. For background, read our analysis: The “Russophobia” Myth: Appealing to the Lowest Feelings.
The ‘Drang nach Osten’ term espoused in Nazi Germany to justify the eastward expansion, is used to label NATO as Nazi. Labelling Russia’s adversaries as Nazis is a frequently used pro-Kremlin disinformation technique. It has been used by Russia to try to justify the invasion of Ukraine by portraying it as a “denazification operation”. Read our article explaining how the ‘Nazi’ narrative has been used by Russian media outlets to dehumanise Ukrainians.
NATO is a defensive alliance with primary aims to maintain peace and safeguard the independence, security and territorial integrity of its members. The ongoing war in Ukraine was not provoked by the US / West / NATO as alleged. Russia is the only country responsible for the invasion of Ukraine. It was Putin’s personal decision to invade Ukraine and start the largest military conflict in Europe since WWII. Russia has been coming up with different explanations and pretexts for its aggression since the beginning of its hostilities. Our analysis of the communication strategy of pro-Kremlin outlets explains how they attempt to portray Russia as a victim and to deceive audiences into believing that Russia is fighting Western powers.
Russia has systematically sought to revise history to questionably conflate itself with the USSR and the Russian Empire and to instil a deceptive misperception that for centuries European countries have been aligned in their anti-Russian policies. To manipulate historical events, pro-Kremlin outlets tend to ignore multiple past wars and antagonistic relations between the present-time Western countries. For instance, the mentioned French Empire under the rule of Napoleon fought the UK, Spain, Portugal and many other European countries of that time.
Read earlier disinformation cases claiming that Ukrainian identity was artificially cultivated by the West almost two centuries ago as part of a grandiose ‘anti-Russian strategy’, that the united Europe, personified by Napoleon, Hitler and the EU, repeatedly encroached on Russia, and that Western historical revisionism aimed at weakening and destroying Russia.