The outgoing cabinet and the intelligence and security service AIVD will not provide clarity about whether Dutch politicians have been paid by Russia. This is what outgoing Minister Hugo De Jonge (Interior Affairs, CDA) wrote in a letter to Parliament sent on Monday. According to the AIVD, it is up to the Czech intelligence service, which led an extensive investigation into Russian financial flows, whether more information will be released. The Czechs previously announced that they had no intention of doing so.
The Czech intelligence service BIS revealed a Russian influence operation last week. Via the radical right-wing Czech website Voice of Europe, politicians from various countries are said to have received Russian money to express negative views about Ukraine. In the Netherlands, the names of FVD leader Thierry Baudet and his party colleague Marcel de Graaff were mentioned, among others, because they have spoken positively about Russia and were also extensively interviewed by Voice of Europe last year.
PVV leader Geert Wilders requested a debate following the revelation. He wants to know which Dutch politicians are involved. According to Czech media, the national intelligence service has shared this information with the services – in the Netherlands the AIVD – in the countries where politicians are said to have been paid.
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The fact that the cabinet and the AIVD will not provide more information means that they are not meeting the wishes of a majority in the House of Representatives. De Jong says that “discussing names circulating in the reporting in response to the Czech statement” is contrary “to the task assigned to the intelligence service by the legislature.” In addition, according to him, it does not serve national security.
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