In an exclusive interview for EIR magazine, Italian three-star General Fabio Mini (ret.) has exposed the penetration of NATO by Soviet-style propaganda, exemplified by the “black lists” published, under NATO auspices, by the Kiev-based Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) and Center for Defense Reforms.
It is the Center for Defense Reforms that on Oct. 21 released its report to the “Freedom Today Network,” titled “Toy Soldiers: NATO Military and Intelligence Officers in Russian Active Measures,” accusing prominent members of the military in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Greece of being Russian agents. Top of the Italian list is Mini, who considers that attack to be an “honor.” He said, “I assure my other colleagues that I have not paid or even been paid for this honor. Just as I consider it an honor to be counted among them at this juncture. Moreover, I am truly gratified by the compliments, the high regard given to me and even what is attributed to me in the defamatory attempt.”
The narrative of the 174-page pamphlet, similar to other NATO/Ukrainian pamphlets, is “clumsy,” Mini says, so that it could be reversed, describing the modus operandi of Ukrainian disinformation. Using the pamphlet’s own words, Mini says that the “disinformation and defamation plan [was] carefully prepared long before the invasion, according to the methodology learned when Ukraine was a pillar of the Soviet Union. Ukraine has not abandoned these practices and, with the help of the United States, Britain, NATO and the European Union, has significantly increased the intensity of subversive operations and active measures by its intelligence agents in the West, including NATO and the European Union.”
However, Ukrainian disinformation has not worked, because of several mistakes it has made, including an “overexposure” of Zelenskyy in Western media, selling disinformation for “public diplomacy” and even believing in its own propaganda.
