UpdateCzech intelligence services on Wednesday dismantled a Russian disinformation network that had tentacles all the way to the European Parliament. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said this. A Czech newspaper writes that Belgian politicians are also involved. However, according to our information, no Russian payments to Belgian politicians have been established.
The controversial ‘Voice of Europe’ website was used from Prague, among other things, to discourage the European Union from helping Ukraine in the fight against Russia. According to the Czech intelligence service BIS, the network was financed from Moscow. The newspaper ‘Denik N.’ writes that European politicians who collaborated with the site were paid with Russian funds that were also used to finance campaigns for the upcoming European elections.
According to the newspaper, this would include politicians from France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland, the newspaper said, citing a source in Czech diplomacy. The German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), among others, is said to be involved.
No payments to Belgian politicians
The newspaper reports that Belgian politicians are also involved, but that does not seem to be true. On the website, a visible instrument of the Russian disinformation network, Flemish Belangers Filip Dewinter and Filip Brusselmans, among others, are extensively interviewed. But research has shown that Belgian politicians did not receive money from the aforementioned Russian funds. A high-ranking source confirms this to our editors.
According to our information, no Russian payments to Belgian politicians have been established. The list of countries mentioned by the Czechs refers to countries where investigations have been conducted and in our case this was done by State Security. But he could not catch fellow countrymen in such practices. That would be the case in Germany and the Netherlands.
Sanctions list
In addition to the website, the Czech government has also placed the former Ukrainian parliamentarian and businessman Viktor Medvedchuk on the sanctions list. Medvedchuk – the site’s financier – was sent into exile to Russia in 2022 in exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war. He was deprived of his Ukrainian citizenship.
Ukrainian-Israeli media mogul Artem Marchevsky has also been placed on the same list. He would have been responsible for the content of the website and for relations with European politicians.
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