AfD politicians under pressure
Faeser: “Voice of Europe” is part of Putin’s warfare
March 29, 2024, 8:05 p.m
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European countries are in a state of excitement after the revelations surrounding the “Voice of Europe” website. They fear Russian influence on the European elections. Pro-Russian politicians are said to have received money. In Germany, AfD politicians are said to have benefited from this. They don’t want to know anything about it.
After the revelations about Russian influence via the “Voice of Europe” website, AfD politicians are increasingly coming under fire. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told “Spiegel” that the “Putin friends of the AfD” were being used for Russian propaganda. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called Russia’s targeted exertion of influence part of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s warfare. The federal government announced that it wanted to set up an early warning system against propaganda from abroad together with Poland and France.
The revelation of the large-scale influence operation was an “important blow against the Russian propaganda apparatus,” Faeser continued to tell “Spiegel”. “Again we see the massive scale of lies and disinformation that Putin’s regime is using to undermine trust in our democracy, stir up anger and manipulate public opinion.” Terry Reintke, co-chair of the Greens group in the European Parliament, said politicians who received money from Russia should be seriously punished both politically and legally.
The Czech government announced on Wednesday that it had exposed a propaganda network financed by Moscow that used the Prague-based website “Voice of Europe” to stir up sentiment in the EU against Ukraine’s support in the war against Russia. According to information from the Czech newspaper “Denik N”, money is said to have flowed to politicians from Germany, Belgium, France, Poland, Hungary and the Netherlands.
Authorities in Poland seize cash
There were also searches in Poland in connection with the unmasking of a pro-Russian network. As the domestic secret service ABW announced on Thursday, 48,500 euros and 36,000 dollars (33,303 euros) were seized during the operation the day before in Warsaw and the Silesian city of Tychy. It is about activities to organize pro-Russian initiatives and media campaigns in EU countries. The purpose of this campaign was therefore to implement the Kremlin’s foreign policy goals.
The Interior Ministry in Berlin spoke of “illegitimate” Russian influence on the European Parliament. Politicians from various European countries would be used for this and “significant funds” would be made available.
According to research by the news magazine “Spiegel”, two European politicians from the AfD are among the politicians mentioned. The AfD’s top candidate for the upcoming European elections, Maximilian Krah, explained through a spokesman that he had appeared twice on the pro-Russian website, “Of course I didn’t get any money for it, neither for myself nor for the party.” He also paid for the hotel himself. According to “Spiegel”, Krah explained that he knew Medvedchuk and Machewskyj from different contexts. He “never accepted money or benefits of value” from them either.
Interviews with the AfD politician Petr Bystron, who was in second place on the list, were also available on the “Voice of Europe” platform, in which, according to “Spiegel”, he spread Russia-friendly representations. When asked by the magazine, Bystron described the accusation of having accepted money for this as “slander”.
Bystron feels defamed
Bystron also stated that the Czech newspaper “Denik N” was a “defamation platform”. He rejects the “defamatory allegations” and will take legal action against them. The closure of “Voice of Europe” was a “blatant attack on press freedom,” said Bystron. Anyone who speaks out against the continuation of the war in Ukraine will be defamed as a “Russian agent,” the AfD politician claimed.
The “Spiegel” established connections between the AfD politicians Krah and Bystron and the alleged person responsible for the “Voice of Europe” platform, Viktor Medvedchuk. The former Ukrainian MP and multimillionaire is a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the war in Ukraine, he was transferred to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange between Kiev and Moscow.
According to “Spiegel” research, Bystron and Krah are said to have visited Medvedchuk in 2021 in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, where the Putin confidant was under house arrest on charges of treason. A photo published on online networks should prove the visit.
Czech Republic sanctions those responsible
In response to the revelations surrounding “Voice of Europe”, the Czech Republic put both Medvedchuk and the media maker Artyom Marchevskyj on its sanctions list. Martschewskyj is said to have been responsible for the content of the platform and to have maintained contacts with European politicians.
Foreign Minister Baerbock called the Russian propaganda spread via “Voice of Europe” an example of how Kremlin leader Putin “wants to destroy our democracy.” She told the newspapers of the Funke media group that the Russian president was waging his war not only with the military, “but also with fake news, manipulation and targeted influence.”
The Federal Foreign Office said on Thursday that the federal government, together with partners from France and Poland, is currently setting up an “early warning and reaction system with regard to information manipulation and influence from abroad”. The cohesion of Europe is particularly important at a time when foreign actors are trying to undermine the fundamental values of Europe’s liberal democracies. The foreign ministries in Paris, Warsaw and Berlin are “in close and intensive coordination” with regard to such an early warning system, it said.