EU closing in on MEPs who took Russian money

However the disclosures have been simply a part of a wider, concerted probe into Russian interference within the European Parliament (EP) by European intelligence companies, involving additionally Belgium’s VSSE home spy company.

“We cooperate with the intelligence companies of a number of nations, together with Belgium,” BIS advised EUobserver.

There was no signal up to now that Belgian MEPs had been paid by the “pro-Russian community”, a Belgian supply additionally stated.

However there have been “sturdy indications that that is the case for MEPs of different nationalities”, the supply added.

And the complete investigation would possibly take “months” to run its course, a second Belgian contact stated.

The VSSE declined to remark.

The BIS and ABW haven’t named names up to now, however BIS had a 300-page file on illicit funds value “thousands and thousands of [Czech] crowns” (tens of hundreds of euros), it has stated.

ABW seized €72,000 in money in raids within the Warsaw area.

Attainable repercussions

MEPs might be prosecuted on corruption or espionage expenses by nationwide authorities, whereas Belgium’s VSSE is concerned as a result of its jurisdiction covers the house territory of the EP and different EU establishments.

The EP may impose fines on MEPs who did not declare funds from Russia or different third events.

The EU counterintelligence dragnet comes forward of EP elections in June.

And MEPs are making ready to highlight the specter of Russian interference by discussing the Czech and Polish revelations in a plenary debate in Strasbourg on 10 April.

“Disciplinary motion have to be swiftly taken in opposition to any MEPs or [EP election] candidates concerned,” stated the workplace of Liberal French MEP Valérie Hayer, who first known as for the EP dialogue.

“A full and clear inner investigation by the president of the European Parliament is now wanted,” her workplace added.

The Voice of Europe has been round since 2017, however was relaunched in Prague in 2023, and was “managed and funded straight by the Russian Federation”, in a community run by a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian oligarch known as Viktor Medvedchuk, in line with a press release by the Czech intelligence service.

Some 12 MEPs had appeared on its YouTube channel, in line with analysis by Anton Shekhovtsov, director of the Centre for Democratic Integrity, a think-tank in Vienna.

Not one of the 12 stand accused of breaking the legislation or the EP’s code of conduct.

However these of them who replied to EUobserver confirmed simply how poisonous Voice of Europe and Russia extra broadly talking have change into after Shekhovtsov’s listing went viral.

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5 of the 12 got here from the EP’s usually pro-Russian Independence and Democracy (ID) group.

These have been French MEPs Patricia Chagnon and Thierry Mariani, German MEPs Maximilian Krah and Joachim Kuhs, and Belgian MEP Tom Vandendriessche.

Two got here from the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group — Spanish MEP Hermann Tertsch and Croatian MEP Ladislav Ilčić.

The remainder have been non-attached MEPs from France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Slovakia.

MEPs cry slander

Chagnon, Ilčić, Krah, Kuhs, and Vandendriessche all stated they gave interviews to Voice of Europe in good religion, however they complained of “slander” and “defamatory” hypothesis about them in European media and social media up to now few days.

“My lawyer is investigating this,” stated Chagnon.

“Not solely did I by no means obtain any cash from Russia, or from this media [Voice of Europe]. I did not even get a present pen or lighter or any promotional materials. They did not provide me a lot as a drink,” she stated.

The ECR’s Ilčić stated he was “pro-Ukraine” and “was fairly stunned once I came upon that my identify is being linked with Russian propaganda and political affect, which is full nonsense”.

Krah’s workplace stated he’d as soon as met Medvedechuk on official enterprise, again when Medvedechuk was a part of a Ukrainian inter-parliamentary delegation, however stated “no cash has [ever] been supplied [by Russia] to advertise any place”.

Vandendriessche stated: “Any accusations of me being payed or being ‘promoted’ are ridiculous”.

Chagnon, Ilčić, Krah, and Kuhs stated they welcomed the EP plenary debate on Russia subsequent week to clear the air, however Ilčić stated “it will not be a debate, however a political trial”.

The ID’s Vandendriessche stated the entire affair was “a part of a coordinated try and … to discredit the nationalist and conservative opposition”.

What some media have dubbed ‘Russiagate’ comes after the Qatargate scandal in 2022, which noticed MEPs accused of taking bribes from Morocco and Qatar.

However Russia is seen as posing a safety menace on high of any corruption drawback, with Belgium’s VSSE having expelled over 40 suspected Russian spies since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years in the past.

And the EP was nonetheless investigating allegations {that a} Latvian MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka, who denies wrongdoing, had colluded with Russian intelligence companies, an EP supply stated.