Let me explain how a russian influence campaign in the EU can actually work. Take a hypothetical group of left-wing students. They want to socialize, feel like an important part of society, be active citizens, and solve the problems they are concerned about. They decide to create an NGO to help migrants and collect humanitarian aid. All with good intentions of course. At first, there are only three and a half people involved. These are exactly the kinds of groups russia looks for. It deliberately seeks out people whose views already have a tendency toward radicalization. The NGO receives funding from donors, is required to be transparent, and so on. Russia cannot sponsor it directly, so it builds a fairly simple chain: some large foundation in the US with ties to russia sends money to another foundation in Moldova or similar country. Then the money goes to another investor in another country, and eventually to a private entrepreneur. In Estonia, for example, there are companies that provide "IT services." They are convenient because there is no physical product involved, so you can issue an invoice for services without actually providing anything. These companies make two or three transactions and then become inactive in the business registry. It helps that a new company in Estonia can be arranged in less than an hour and for only 300 euros. The entrepreneur then makes a donation to the NGO. On paper, everything is legal. The money comes from a private individual, so there is nothing obviously suspicious. With that money, the students organize conferences where they socialize, drink coffee and eat cookies, discuss politics, travel, and recruit new supporters and members. A couple of years later, instead of three people, 30 are attending their conferences. Donor money keeps coming in, so their reach and advertising grow. They launch a website and start making TikTok videos. The group becomes popular, and now they have 300 members. At the same time, russian trolls begin filling these students' information environment with increasingly radical ideas. Separate groups start joining forces. The movement gains supporters and like-minded people, and suddenly there are 3,000 of them. They begin to acquire political influence, gain support from people in positions of power, or, conversely, politicians with similar views become popular among these students and receive their support. Now you have a radical force capable of influencing everyday life in a country - and it all started with a tiny NGO of three and a half people. All of this can happen without any obvious direct russian influence. This kind of operation takes time, but russia has been building these networks for 20 years. And this is only a simplified example. I am trying to explain it briefly. It is not the only possible scheme. There is also the alleged purchase of political influence through cryptocurrency, various influencers and YouTube channels, and businessmen who travel to Egypt to meet russian investors - for example, something I personally observed involving a local entrepreneur who later strongly encouraged all his employees to vote for a particular party. russia will use any opportunity to weaken the EU from within, using our own democratic institutions and organizations against us. We have yet to uncover all of these networks, and I think we may be shocked by just how far russia has extended its reach.