Story tonight from The New York Times:
Amid news reports that European politicians received payments to promote Russian interests, the Czech government froze the assets of the men and a website, Voice of Europe.
The Czech Republic has frozen the assets of two men and a news website it accuses of running an influence operation in Europe that supports “the foreign policy interests of the Russian Federation,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
…
Citing unnamed intelligence sources, the Czech news media reported that politicians from Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Hungary had been paid by the Voice of Europe to promote Russian interests in the European Parliament.
The Belgian prime minister, Alexander De Croo, lent substance to those reports, saying in the Belgian Parliament on Thursday that “close collaboration” between the Belgian and Czech intelligence services had found that “Russia has approached” and “paid” lawmakers in the European Parliament to “promote Russian propaganda.”
According to Der Spiegel, the prominent German news outlet, one of the politicians who received financial compensation was Petr Bystron, a German lawmaker from the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
Why would Russia limit its influence operations only to Europe when the U.S. is (was) a primary funder of Ukraine in its attempts to resist Russian aggression? I think we can name some possible recipients of Russia’s “influence operation” including a certain Republican presidential candidate, a number of elected Republican officials and a slew of right wing media figures. (Tuck-Tuck sure loves him some Vlad Putin!)
And does this sound familiar?
In its account on X, Voice of Europe, which last posted on March 27, described itself as a source of “uncensored network news from Europe and the world.” However, a review of the X account turned up a potpourri of right-wing conspiracy theories, like purported statistics on sexual crimes committed by migrants, the harm done by Covid-19 lockdowns and “globalist censorship” imposed by the European Union.
The Voice of Europe’s YouTube page features interviews with prominent European politicians from far-right parties in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands. Sample headlines have included: “China — not Russia — is the primary threat to the West,” “Germany is constantly pressured into escalating the war in Ukraine,” “Peace negotiations should also respect Russian interests” and “Nations states should be monocultural.”
Let’s hope this investigation continues to dig deeper into who is being paid to do Russia’s bidding in Europe — and here at home. And let’s hope the FBI and U.S. intelligence services are taking a serious interest in this case. We need to know who is on Putin’s payroll. There are some very obvious suspects.
