Members of the European Union are accused of accepting Russian bribes

The Czech government has issued sanctions on the Voice of Europe website, which it accuses of running a Moscow-financed influence campaign to influence public opinion in favor of Russia ahead of the upcoming EU elections.

According to Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, it was discovered through counterintelligence by the Belgian and Czech intelligence services.

Right-wing populists are excluded

Czech media also reported, citing security sources, that EU parliamentarians from six countries – Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Hungary – were paid for the same purpose. The money must have passed through Voice of Europe.

Among other things, Russia was found to have contacted and paid EU parliamentarians to spread Russian propaganda here, De Croo said, without naming anyone, during a debate in the Belgian parliament on Thursday, De Croo said. POLITICO.

In some countries concerned, there is media information about the selected members. Among others, Der Spiegel magazine mentioned a member of the German Parliament from the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

“Totally unacceptable”

Several party groups in the European Parliament are demanding an investigation. Helen Fritzon, a representative from the Social Democratic Party, said that her S&D party had submitted a request to the Speaker of the House of Representatives to suspend the accused politicians from work pending investigation.

“It is absolutely unacceptable,” she says, “and you have to act quickly and get to the bottom of who or what parties and politicians are affected.”

European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova told Politico that this confirms what we “suspected.”

– She says that the Kremlin uses suspicious media to buy itself secret influence.

These statements come a year after the Qatargate bribery scandal, in which Qatar was accused, among other things, of trying to buy influence from several people with close links to the European Parliament.