Members of the European Parliament (EP) invite special services to publish the names of politicians who have received Russian funding.
MEPs especially point to the ties far right politicians have with the aggressor country.
MEPs discussed the topic of Russia financing EU politicians this week.
“We request names and numbers of politicians who were paid, parties, who mediated, and for what purpose,” said said Valerie Ayer, leader of the Liberal Group in the European Parliament, who represents the Renaissance party founded by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The party’s member Nathalie Loiseau stressed that intelligence services “should publish the information they have” before the upcoming EP elections, because “people have the right to know if they are voting for honest candidates or bought candidates”.
Ayer also invited discussions about the information reported by Czech and Polish intelligence services on the 27th of March, which stated that MEPs and candidates have received information from Russia to spread propaganda.
Pro-Russian website “Voice of Europe” is considered a mediator is deals. It is based in Prague and is owned by Kremlin-related oligarch Artyom Marchevskis.
Czech and Polish intelligence services say that Russia paid politicians “tens of thousands of euros”.
However, as the investigation still continues, the information as to who received money from Russia remains a secret.
Czech internal intelligence service BIS told “Euobserver” that “more detailed information is not publicly available just yet”.
A representative of a different EU member state’s intelligence service said Czechia and Poland have decided to publicly speak about Russia’s payments to politicians. Intelligence services of other countries, on the other hand, avoid publicly talking about this.
During the debate in the EP, in which centre-right, centre-left and green representatives called for the names of politicians who received Russian payments to be made public, suspicions were also expressed that Russian money has a greater impact on far-right MEPs, some of whom have given interviews to Voice of Europe.
French socialist Raphael Glucksmann also criticized the X platform controlled by billionaire Elon Musk, which continues to distribute Voice of Europe content despite the accusations.
EU Values Commissioner Věra Jourová promised MEPs to take action against platforms that spread “Russian lies”, but stressed that a case of espionage or corruption falls within the competence of individual member states.
MEPs also called for an internal investigation into Russia’s influence, but the European Parliament can only impose fines on MEPs who have not declared payments from third parties.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament concluded that Latvian MEP Tatyana Zhdanok violated the Code of Conduct for Declaring Income and Gifts. It is suspected that Zhdanok acted as a Russian spy, but the EP can only impose a fine of EUR 1 750 on her, according to the portal Politico.
Also read: Russia, Germany and UK call for restraint as Iranian threat alarms Middle East
Follow us on Facebook and X!