Ten days before the European elections, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office announced, Wednesday May 29, that searches are currently being carried out at the European Parliament, in Brussels and Strasbourg, in the offices and at the Brussels home of a parliamentary collaborator. These searches are part of the investigation into suspicions of Russian interference and corruption via the information site financed by Moscow Voice of Europe.
According to a source close to the matter at Agence France-Presse (AFP), the person targeted is Guillaume Pradoura, former parliamentary assistant to German MEP Maximilian Krah, head of the list of the far-right Alternative for Germany party. (AfD) for the next election. Mr Pradoura is now a parliamentary assistant to Dutch MEP Marcel de Graaff, a member of the Forum for Democracy, a Eurosceptic and conservative Dutch party.
In a press release, the prosecution specifies that these searches are carried out “ in the context of a case of interference, passive corruption and membership in a criminal organization and concern indications of Russian interference, according to which members of the European Parliament were approached and paid to promote Russian propaganda via the “information website” Voice of Europe “. And according to the prosecution, “the evidence proves” that Mr. Pradoura “played an important role in this affair”.
Relaying messages from Russia
The investigation was launched by the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office in April, after the identification of an influence network financed by Moscow. Prague revealed at the end of March the discovery by Czech intelligence services of a network financed and orchestrated by Moscow which spread pro-Russian propaganda about Ukraine via the site Voice of Europe. Belgium then revealed that, according to its services, MEPs “had received money” in this context to relay messages from Russia. The site Voice of Europe was recently placed on an EU sanctions list, and banned from distribution.
Mr. Krah and his number two on the European list, Petr Bystron, have been cited for weeks in connection with this affair. The head of the AfD list for the next elections was already at the center of turmoil following the arrest of one of his assistants in the European Parliament, Jian G., suspected of being a Chinese agent. Mr. Krah had also caused a rift between the AfD and the National Rally – which sat together in the European Parliament in the Identity and Democracy group – after the MEP had notably asserted that any SS – member of the Schutzstaffel (SS), paramilitary organization pivotal to Adolf Hitler’s totalitarian project – should not be considered “automatically like a criminal”. “Among the 900,000 SS, there were also many farmers: there was certainly a high percentage of criminals, but they were not all”, he added. The AfD then banned its head of the list from campaigning until the June 9 election.