Russia is rebuilding capacity to destabilize European countries, new UK report warns

LONDON — Russia is rebuilding its capacity to destabilize European countries and extend its influence in the Middle East and Africa, posing a strategic threat to NATO as its members focus on the war in Ukraine, a U.K.-based think tank said Tuesday. “Russia also has an active interest in destabilizing Ukraine’s partners, and with a slew of elections forthcoming across Europe there is a wide range of opportunities to exacerbate polarization,’’ the authors said. This new “Russian colonialism” seeks to create what the authors call an “Entente Roscolonial’’ — a group of states that “actively seek to assist Russia, while also becoming increasingly subordinate to Russian influence,’’ according to the report. “Similarly, the apparent contrast in Western language and rhetoric between how it described the destruction of Aleppo or Mariupol, and how it has excused Israeli operations in Gaza, leave many on the continent perceiving a gap between Western rhetoric about values and the values practiced by those who have, for so long, imposed constraints on the policies of African states to enforce values-based norms.’’ The new colonialism, the report said, was intertwined with the formation of the Wagner Group, a nominally private company that provided mercenaries for wars in Africa, the Middle East and Ukraine, giving the Russian government plausible deniability about its role in these conflicts.