Czech Republic exposes Russian influence network targeting the EU elections
29 March, 2024 BIS logo. Photo credits: BIS The Czech Republic exposed a Russian-funded influence network that planned to influence the upcoming EU elections.
The Czech Radio reported on this. The Czech civilian counterintelligence service, the Informational Security Service (Bezpecnostni informacni sluzba), has uncovered some of the participants inside the country. According to Prime Minister Petr Fiala, the suspects were found to have been financed by Moscow.
Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Fiala.
Photo from the network
He also noted that the Russian influence network could have affected the security of the Czech Republic, but its goals had been primarily related to a more global task.
They are also focused on the European Parliament. All of this only demonstrates the ongoing attempts of the Russian Federation to interfere or influence democratic processes in Europe," the Prime Minister said.
According to the BIS press service, the operation began last spring and was aimed at exposing those who planned to interfere in the politics of other countries. They also noted that Moscow enjoyed great influence in the EU.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala thanked counterintelligence and said that Czech sanctions had targeted two influential people who had financed the pro-Russian news site Voice of Europe.
BIS headquarters in Prague. Photo from the network
The first is Ukrainian citizen and pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who financed the website. The second was Artem Marchevsky, an Israeli citizen who managed the online publication.
As these individuals were included in the sanctions list, their accounts in the country were frozen and their website was blocked. Czech counterintelligence also noted that some European politicians from Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Hungary had received bribes on behalf of the Voice of Europe online publication. Among those involved was the German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Militarnyi previously reported that an American employee of the U.S.
Strategic Command had spread the classified information about the Russian-Ukrainian war to unauthorized persons on an online dating platform.