The website Voice of Europe was used from Prague to discourage the European Union from helping Ukraine in the fight against Russia. According to the Czech intelligence service BIS, the network was secretly financed from Moscow.
The newspaper Denik N. writes that some European politicians who collaborated with the site were paid with Russian funds that were also used to finance campaigns for the upcoming European elections. Politicians who collaborated on the site are said to have together received hundreds of thousands of euros from Russia.
This would include politicians from Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland, the newspaper said, citing a source in Czech diplomacy. On Voice of Europe Flemish Member of Parliament Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang was mentioned several times in interviews, as was his fellow Member of Parliament Filip Brusselmans.
No payments
But according to information from The morning there are no indications that the Flemish Members of Parliament received money for their interviews. Both Dewinter and Brusselmans confirm to our newspaper that they have never been paid. Brusselmans knew the journalist in question because he previously interviewed him for the website The European Conservative, he says. “A year later he asked me to talk about increasing violence from the left. I didn’t know it was on Voice of Europe would appear. And if I had known what was coming up now, I wouldn’t have done it.”
Dewinter did In his interview The Voice of Europe a remarkable statement about the war in Ukraine. “The key is in the hands of the Americans,” he said in September 2023. “If they want to stop the war, they can do so immediately. Immediately. But I don’t have the impression that they have that intention.”
That quote was also found Voice of Europe itself noteworthy. A day after the interview, a separate article appeared on the website about just that statement.
Germans and Dutch are paid
Some German and Dutch parliamentarians – not the least of them – are said to have received money. This would include European Parliament member Maximilian Krah, the leader of the German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) for the European elections. Krah wrote in February Voice Of Europe that the Americans are responsible for the attacks on the Nordstream pipeline.
The site, which was suddenly taken offline tonight, is said to be run by former pro-Russian Ukrainian parliamentarian and oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, who was arrested in Ukraine in 2022 and exchanged with Russia for Ukrainian prisoners of war. The Czech government has Voice of Europe, Medvedchuk and media magnate Artem Marchevsky have already been placed on his national sanctions list. The latter would have been responsible for the content of the website and for relations with European politicians.
Tags: Czech Republic dismantles Russian disinformation site German Dutch MEPs paid Flemish Belangers included
