The Czech secret service said this week it uncovered a Russian disinformation campaign. The agency dismantled the Voice of Europe news site, which has been spreading pro-Russian propaganda for years.
According to intelligence sources, the site is a conduit for the Kremlin to pay politicians from European countries. In the Netherlands, Forum for Democracy leader Thierry Baudet and FvD MEP Marcel de Graaff are associated with the influence campaign. The site, started a few years ago by the Dutch, was a platform for the radical right.
Dutch politicians took money to spread a pro-Russian story.
“I look at your valuable and unique work with great admiration, I read the Voice of Europe every day,” PVV leader Geert Wilders said in an interview with the website in 2017.
“Wilders does not like to be interviewed by journalists, but has occasionally given really exclusive interviews to Voice of Europe,” says Coen van de Ven, journalist at De Groene Amsterdammer magazine. He conducted research into Russian influence in 2018 and soon came across Voice of Europe. “It contained interviews with radical right-wing leaders, which also completely fit the pattern of Russian disinformation campaigns.”
But it turned out that there were no Russians, but three Dutch entrepreneurs behind the website, De Groene revealed in 2018. Van de Ven: “In interviews with the entrepreneurs, you sense between the lines that they are interested in ideological conviction. But it was primarily a business project. They saw a gap in the market for a European radical right news website.”
Putin friend buys site
When Van de Ven researched the website, the focus was on Western Europe. Reports emerged of riots in Swedish suburbs and a stabbing in the Amsterdam metro.
That all changed after 2019. Van de Ven: “On December 31 of that year, a very short message appeared in which they announced that they were discontinuing it. The Dutch founders sold the website to a Czech media company. The website will be available sometime in 2020. of a Ukrainian oligarch who has very close ties to Putin.”
That oligarch was the pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. He was detained shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on charges of terrorist financing. He was later exchanged with Moscow for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Influencing European elections
In the years after the Czech takeover, the focus on Voice of Europe shifted to Central and Eastern Europe. What remained the same: interviews with right-wing politicians such as the Belgian Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang, the German Maximilian Krah of Alternative für Deutschland and Thierry Baudet of Forum for Democracy.
On Tuesday, a Czech newspaper revealed, based on conversations with intelligence sources, that the website also paid European politicians. With money from Russia. Names have not been mentioned.
“According to counter-intelligence, Dutch politicians also accepted money from Russia to spread a pro-Russian narrative,” says Czech investigative journalist Zdislava Pokorná. “The main goal is to influence the upcoming European Parliament elections.”
This shows how great the risk of foreign influence is.
The Czech Prime Minister says he will take action against the “pro-Russian network”. Members of Parliament reacted with shock to the revelations. Wilders is now distancing himself from Voice of Europe. He says he has never received any money from it and resents the potential Russian influence. “If this is true, then I want to know: who are they? Which parties are involved?” He has requested a debate on the subject.
Thierry Baudet
On the Czech site that made the revelations, the names of Forum leader Baudet and MEP Marcel de Graaff are mentioned. Both De Graaff and Baudet were extensively interviewed by Voice of Europe last year.
Earlier this month, MEPs reacted with outrage when De Graaff gave a very pro-Russian story in the European Parliament. He called reports about the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia “pure propaganda.” “Ukraine itself is the largest supplier of children for pedophile networks, human smuggling and organ trafficking.”
51 MEPs wrote a letter to the president. “De Graaff’s words were very clearly intended to defend Russia and discredit Ukraine,” said Belgian MEP Hilde Vautmans (Open VLD), one of the signatories. “We are very concerned and want to know whether there is Russian influence in the European Parliament.”
According to the French newspaper Le Monde, an employee of de Graaff is being monitored by the French secret service. He acknowledges opposite News hour that he is pro-Russian and has contact with Voice of Europe. “I talk to everyone.”
But he denies receiving Russian payments. De Graaff and Baudet also deny involvement.
The cabinet has received more information from the Czech secret service, possibly including names, but outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte does not want to say anything. “That is a matter for the secret services. But this shows how great the risk is of foreign influence.”
Journalist Pokorná expects that all names of politicians who accepted Russian money will be known “in the coming days”. Vautmans wants the European Parliament to investigate De Graaff. “On June 9 there will be European elections, my third. I have never felt so much threat to Europe. Europe is under pressure from outside, but there is also enormous pressure from within.”
Next week the House will debate Russian influence.
