EU Parliament calls for investigation into possible Russian bribery of MPs – Politico

The EU Parliament parties demand an investigation into the disclosure of a pro-Russian network of influence on European politicians headed by former MP Viktor Medvedchuk.

The Voice of America writes about the Russian influence network in Europe. The network was reportedly exposed by Czech counterintelligence.

They acted through the pro-Russian website Voice of Europe. It was also reported that European politicians who spread Russian propaganda were bribed with Russian money. The amounts involved were millions of Czech crowns.

It was noted that the disclosure of the pro-Russian network was the result of several months of work by the SBU and representatives of a number of European countries.

After that, as Politico wrote, on March 29, Dutch Green Party MP Bas Eickhout called for an investigation into possible bribery of MEPs in the European Parliament.

Valerie Heyer, president of the liberal Renew group, who is also French President Emmanuel Macron's main candidate in the EU elections, called for "urgent debate" in the parliament in a letter to its president, Roberta Mecola.

She emphasized that if current members of the European Parliament or candidates in the upcoming European elections in 10 weeks' time have taken money from or been corrupted by the Russian government or their proxies, they "must be exposed."

As a reminder, on March 27, the Czech Republic imposed sanctions against former Ukrainian MP Viktor Medvedchuk and his associate Artem Marchevsky, who was the general producer of the blocked 112 Ukraine TV channel.

According to the Czech authorities, Medvedchuk ran a number of influential networks from Russia and is personally connected to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

In particular, Medvedchuk used the Voice of Europe company, which is also subject to Czech sanctions, to spread disinformation in the country.