Money to AfD politicians?

Russian propaganda network unearthed in the EU

The AfD politician Maximilian Krah (at an FPÖ event in Vienna in February) is said to have received money from the network, which he denies.

(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

The Czech secret service has uncovered a Moscow-financed network spreading anti-Ukraine propaganda in Europe. The group used the Prague-based news website "Voice of Europe" for this purpose, explained Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Wednesday. Money is said to have flowed to several politicians in Europe.

According to Fiala, information was disseminated on the "Voice of Europe" website with the aim of preventing the European Union from providing assistance to Ukraine in the fight against the Russian army.

According to Fiala, the Czech Security Information Service (BIS) found that the pro-Russian network was carrying out activities that had "serious implications for the security of the Czech Republic and the EU". The group agitated on the territory of the EU "against the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine", Fiala told reporters. The group's activities had also reached as far as the European Parliament, Fiala said, without giving further details.

Russian money for EU election campaign
The Czech daily "Denik N" reported that the news site had published statements by politicians calling on the EU to stop its aid to Ukraine. Some European politicians who worked with the news site had been paid with Russian money, which in some cases also covered the costs of their election campaigns for the European elections in June.

The payments concerned politicians from Germany, Belgium, France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland, writes the newspaper, citing a source in the Czech Foreign Ministry. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) was also involved. As reported by Der Spiegel, the money was either handed over in cash at personal meetings in Prague - or transferred using cryptocurrency.

Krah denies payments
According to "Spiegel", "Voice of Europe" includes interviews with the AfD's leading candidate in the European elections, Maximilian Krah, as well as the AfD's second-placed candidate Petr Bystron. According to "Spiegel", Krah explained that he had given two interviews to "Voice of Europe", one of them in Prague. He had "of course not received any money for this, neither for myself nor for the party".

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala

(Bild: AP)

The operators of "Voice of Europe" have been placed on the Czech government's national sanctions list against Russia, as announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague. The website is part of a Russian influence operation aimed at calling into question the territorial integrity, sovereignty and freedom of Ukraine.

According to the report, one of the people behind the website is the oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, who was charged with high treason in Ukraine but ended up in Russia as part of a prisoner exchange in September 2022. Medvedchuk, who is considered a confidant of Vladimir Putin, was also personally placed on the sanctions list according to the ministry.

Viktor Medvedchuk is considered a close confidant of Vladimir Putin.

(Bild: twitter.com/@ZelenskyyUa)

Website not accessible
The Czech Foreign Ministry emphasized that the decision contributes to the protection of democratic processes ahead of the European Parliament elections in June. The company operating the website "voiceofeurope.com", which is also available in German, is registered in Prague. It is also active on social networks such as Facebook and on the X platform, where it has more than 180,000 followers. After it became known that the propaganda network had been taken down, the website was unavailable on Wednesday evening, possibly because the servers were overloaded.

Inclusion on the national sanctions list enables the financial authorities to freeze the property of those affected. The sanctioned persons are no longer allowed to enter the Czech Republic. "The government has never shut down websites and will not do so this time either, but the state bodies will enforce compliance with the sanctions," explained Fiala. This will make further operations from Prague impossible.