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When the KGB Weaponized ‘Peace’: A Q&A with Dietmar Pichler — Bette Dangerous Podcast Ep91

Disinformation analyst and Disinfo Resilience Network founder Dietmar Pichler explains the KGB origins and infiltration of the peace movement, and how for Russia ‘peace’ is an anti-Western operation

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“There is no justification for evil.”—Dietmar Pichler

“What we know is that starting in the Cold War… we saw huge peace rallies all around Europe and in Germany, and these peace rallies, this peace movement, was infiltrated by the KGB. There was an organization called the World Peace Council, some called it a KGB front organization, it was financed by the Soviet Union… It was anti-Western, pro-Soviet Union… the strategy of the KGB was to make it look like it was very diverse… but the point was to weaken the West, to infiltrate and demoralize societies, to make us think that only us, the Western side, needs to lay down weapons. There’s a script behind all this.

“Being Austrian and knowing our history, if there’s one thing we learned about the crimes our own ancestors committed is there are times when things are black and white… if you take a look at the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and take a look at movements like Code Pink — they were here in Vienna for a Peace Conference… we know that this ‘peace’ movement during the era of the ‘80s — the actors that were active back then — a lot of them are active now, propagating that we should not support Ukraine, the same people! So what we always forget is that it’s not only that Putin is using the same techniques, they can rely on the same people they brainwashed back in the Soviet era.

“There is no justification for evil. What is happening in Ukraine, you have an evil empire attacking a neighbor. Ukraine is a developing democracy, but there is no way to say these countries are the same. There is a good guy in this — it’s a really simple story. We don’t need a false equivalency here. There is a good guy.”—Dietmar Pichler

I bring back Dietmar Pichler from Vienna to help us understand how the peace movement narrative has its origins in KGB operations, and what it really means. It’s very Orwellian, and I think it’s important that we have armor against the upside down world of information warfare. When RadPod interviewed Dietmar a few weeks ago, that’s when I first learned that those promoting peace in the same breath as appeasement in Ukraine are actually promoting Putin’s war objectives, and that there is a Soviet history of infiltration and the co-opting of peace narratives.

Have a listen and enjoy our opening chat about Wikileaks already trafficking anti-Kamala Harris narratives, and what attracts people to becoming agents of influence and useful idiots.

“One successful agent of influence is worse than a thousand trolls online… These agents of influence — they are academics, politicians — they have a certain amount of trust and are able to influence people more because they think they are reliable sources of information.”—Dietmar Pichler

More on Dietmar here:

Dietmar Pichler is a Vienna-based disinformation analyst and media literacy trainer, who founded the initiative “Disinfo Resistance Network,” which aims to connect experts from various fields, such as historians, political scientists, security experts, IT professionals, and journalists, to exchange information, network, and develop common strategies to counter foreign influence by hostile authoritarian countries.


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