Putin has been facilitating migration into Europe to destabilise society

Only because it’s an authoritarian shithole that no one wants to go to

You do realise that we only get fed information through the news, tv, newspaper, Internet etc what they want us to see. They edit clips for tv, just like they do for reality tv and they hope the sheep follow. Unfortunately most do. You cannot believe everything you are fed through media. Russia, Korea, China have all been doing this for years and we know this, admittedly they do a very extreme version but it's happening all over the world in varying degrees. Anyone who does speak up are, not long later, accused of rape or harassing women or inappropriate use of funds etc so that their credibility is put into disarray. The focus is now on this bit of false news instead of what the person was originally talking about then when the allegations are disproved and their career is wrecked nobody remembers what started it all, the person was either talking the truth or getting way to close to it.

Just reading the UK had a deal with Lybia too, £1M to help them police the coast. While « Russian puppet-master behind UK spy ring 'plotted to create 15,000-strong army of private mercenaries to control migration into Europe'. »
if anything else does it not bother you that it’s a waste of your taxpayers money, to engage with « securing borders » when there’s another country doing the exact opposite?

People will go where it's easier. Atm that's increasing numbers crossing to here.

It's not Putin's fault we're such a soft touch.

How is it Putin's fault that Europe won't control its own borders?

They're not breaking into Russia are they all these migrants?

Yeah, let’s carry on giving money to Tunisia, Turkey and France so they stop people getting into boats, and ignore the fact that Russia is busy doing the opposite, makes sense… So Italy had a deal with Lybia, but clearly Russia controls a lot of what goes on there

Fascism?

Wanting a border is not Fascism

You don't need social media "dis/misinformation" you just need eyes and ears to know what is happening

I’ll make sure I’m ready to go

Completely agree with most comments. Though had mused that putins goal to isolate the UK with brexit has it seems ironically positioned us to attempt some concillatory measures between the EU and US. Whilst still being mindful of the MAGA risk.
Maybe just a little fart in an east-blowing wind but interesting nonetheless !

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/08/russia-putin-immigrants-weapons-hybrid-warfare-libya/
The Telegraph is full of articles on the topic, all fascinating. Russia have links with that warlord in Lybia and they turn the migration tap on and off at election times in Europe.
They have been playing a very long game. This story about the Bulgarian spies who were arrested in the UK trying to harm the Bellingcat journalist (the one who worked out who poisoned Navalny and got the scientist involved to admit to it on the phone) is shedding light on so much.

Former KGB spy plays long game in manner of cold war and we are surprised? Gorbachev must be turning in his grave.

This has been known for some time. Nigel Farage is a disgusting snake capitalising on human misery and creating division for his own gain.

There are Islamic terrorist attacks at very high rates in Germany and Sweden and ever increasing violent and sexual crime from immigrants all over Europe. I don't think people are "being told who to blame" by Russia. I think they are merely observing their communities and coming to logical conclusions.

Putin will do anything and everything he can to destabilise Europe. He wants the Russian empire back. Poland are already looking at giving every male of fighting age military training. The threat is very real.

He's succeeded in brainwashing many Americans into voting for Trump. A man who is wholly unfit to lead and likely a Putin asset. If you take a step back, it is insane that anyone with a shred of decency would vote for a twice impeached rapist. Yet vote they did.

His media campaign of disinformation has been hugely successful and we are still not seeing the checks and balances social media needs.

The UK government could a
only allow social media where users can be identified. Even if they can post anonymously, there could be a back stop where they can be identified by police if they are posting racism, misogyny , incitement to violence. Or if the are being paid to push a point of view, they would have to declare it.

I know most reasonable people would rather not have to see such state oversight, but what's the alternative? We allow massively powerful corporations like Facebook and X to control the narrative and Russian trolls work unfettered. You spot them on here all the time. Although i concede it's a double edged sword as if Reform got into power, we would see that same oversight used against us.

We either find a way to have liberalism with firm boundaries or western democracy dies. It's happening in the US as we speak. Trump is replacing senior figures throughout government and the military. At some point he will find a way to stop elections. He's already mentioning a third term. He will probably find a way to declare martial law. Let's not forget that Trump is the man who wanted BLM protesters shot.

I'd like to think Britons were less likely to get carried away with themselves in the way MAGA fans have, but then I look st Brexit, where a disinformation campaign led by Nigel Farage and Leave led to us
splitting from an advantageous economic alliance and alienated our closest most culturally similar neighbours and I know we are just as vulnerable.

Brexit was a huge coup for Putin and I'd like to see Nigel Farage's links to Russia very thoroughly investigated.

We need to take the treat from Russia very seriously indeed and forget stronger ties with our European cousins.

If Starmer raised the question of rejoining the EU I wonder how many people would be in having seen the damage Brexit had wrought.

I do think the Russians and the Chinese do a lot to destabilise western society. I don’t think we can lay migration solely at his door. We live in an Information age where the poorest people in the world have access to social media so know the difference in living standards. I was listening to a podcast (Economist)and a survey of young people in Nigeria found that half would like to emigrate due to lack of opportunities/ employment at home. Top destination US/ UK.

I know lots of people think asylum seekers are treated terribly but Ibsuspect if you lived somewhere without access to clean water, electricity, having to hustle each day just for food then a shitty hotel with three meals could seem really nice comparatively.

I do think the answer would really be large scale investments and developments that lift countries out of poverty. Instead we see increased autocracy and corruption which only increases peoples desire to leave. Huge unsolvable long term problem.

Labour has been busy deporting people since they got into power.

In the first few months of their government they actually deported more people than in the last 6 months let alone year of the Tory government.

What people don't realise is why Labour is all human rights they are actually harder on immigration than the Tories.
In fact I know immigrants who thank Cameron's government for being in the country. However this doesn't suit the media narrative.

And yes Blair did make a mistake with EU succession. Meanwhile his home secretaries were busy deporting people from elsewhere and trying to put in punitive measures e.g. how people were related to each other to prevent people entering in the first place which they lost in the courts.

That's an old story.

Russian soldiers were doing that well before covid.

We caused this entirely by ourselves. Student visas holders who are allowed to bring their entire family, criminals we don’t deport, literally open borders when we were in the EU that even other EU countries didn’t agree to. In my child’s class only 10/31 children are British. This was all our own choice.

It doesn't have to be either or. Cunning leaders are opportunistic and exploit other situations for their gain.

It's in lots of newspapers this morning, including the Telegraph. Absolutely fascinating, and yes, it makes so much sense. The Telegraph says: "There is evidence that Russia is fuelling migration in a number of ways, including physically moving people toward the EU’s borders, supporting smugglers, and increasing instability and violence in certain regions including Syria and parts of Africaa_."
Because let's not forget that Russia has enormously contributed to the fucked up situation in Syria from 2015 up to last year, and they were also in Lybia, so they don't just fund smugglers and move people themselves, they stir shit up in Africa and the Middle East!

We literally collect people and bring them across the Mediterranean and the Channel. We then never make them leave when we discover they aren’t genuine asylum seekers. In all honesty, Putin would be wasting time and money, as we are already our own worst enemies in this front. He couldn’t orchestrate nearly such a successful system of mass migration.

Besides, on the U.K. we get about 1,000 illegal dinghy arrivals a week, about a similar number by other routes (lorry / plane) and 21,000 legal migrants, only about 3,000 of which will pay taxes here. We set our own immigration policies, so we have to take responsibility. Illegal migration really is the tip of the iceberg.

Hang on isn't "diversity our strength", don't we need migrants to "do the jobs British people won't" and aren't the people coming here "fleeing for their lives"?

I guess if you've spent years demonising anyone who thinks we should have a rational conversation about immigration but now want to send them off to die in Ukraine it's quite convenient to tell them it's to defend UK borders.

Perhaps if we'd had a sensible conversation we'd have secure borders and a workable immigration policy and Putin would have nothing to weaponise.

@BecauseRonald I don't understand the logic of "putins hand behind brexit"

Britain has been not only a part of recent putin talks but a key voice and hosted a huge conference.
Ie we are at that table what's brexit got to do with it?
We are and will always be a part of Europe and signing documents will never change that status.
The continuing backtracking of eu members states however shows we are far better to independent on the side than part of that huge shuffling caravan whose as strong as its weakest link.