Russia’s operation to sway EU opinion

12 mins read

March 29, 2024 7:06 am CET

START YOUR DAY WITH THESE HEART-WARMING PICTURES … of French President Emmanuel Macron and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, holding hands and frolicking in the Amazon Rainforest. The presidents showered each other with affection — and papered over the cracks on the war in Ukraine and the contentious EU-Mercosur trade pact during Macron’s three-day trip, writes our reporter on the ground Giorgio Leali.

GOOD MORNING and happy Friday, I’m Nick Vinocur. It feels like déjà vu all over again as the European Parliament — once again — is the target of a foreign influence campaign revealed by intelligence services. Here’s everything we know so far …

KREMLIN PROXY PAID EU LAWMAKERS

ANOTHER RUSSIAN INFLUENCE NETWORK: With less than three months to go until EU voters head to the polls, Belgian and Czech intelligence services have exposed a Russian operation geared at swaying public opinion in favor of the Kremlin and undermining support for the Union — including by paying sitting members of the European Parliament.

Cross-border sting: In comments Thursday, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Moscow’s proxies had not just approached but also paid EU lawmakers to spout Russian propaganda in the EU. A “close collaboration” between Belgian and Czech security services had helped bring down what De Croo called a “Russian influence operation” run via the Voice of Europe news site in Czechia. Write-up by Pieter Haeck here.

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Interesting timing: The European Parliament’s website was down for most of Thursday afternoon and evening — though a spokesperson told my colleague Antoaneta Roussi the outage was due to a “strictly technical problem linked to planned maintenance.”

No names: De Croo didn’t name the lawmakers who’ve allegedly taken Russia’s money. Neither has the office of European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, whose spokesperson told Playbook: “The president is aware of the allegations being made and is looking into specific allegations.”

Told ya so: “As recently as the last European Council,” the Metsola statement reads, “the President has been vocal in her warnings to member states as to malign actors trying to influence the decision-making process in the European Union in the run-up to the June elections.”

Rings a bell: The claim that MEPs were paid to speak up for the Kremlin is feeding speculation about who might have taken the cash — a setup that brings to mind the Qatargate corruption scandal that rocked the European Parliament less than two years ago.

Russia’s faves: A quick glance at Voice of Europe’s YouTube page throws up a parade of EU lawmakers, many of them belonging to far-right, Euroskeptic parties, who line up to bash the Green Deal, predict the Union’s imminent collapse or attack Ukraine. There’s currently no suggestion that those appearing on the network accepted cash.

Everyone’s welcome: Some of the videos are filmed inside the Parliament from a professional-looking set, suggesting Voice of Europe — whose website is down, but maintains channels on X, YouTube and Facebook — had full access.

Now read this: Voice of Europe has its roots in the Netherlands, reports Dutch daily NRC. And an entrepreneur linked to the site at the time “worked with” far-right leader Thierry Baudet in 2016 “to bring about the Ukraine referendum,” the paper reports, referring to a non-binding vote in which Dutch voters opposed a political association agreement between Ukraine and the EU.

EU COMMISSIONER WARNS ‘MORE IS TO COME’: Speaking to Playbook from New York, European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová called the revelations “very troubling.”

Tip of the iceberg: “We could see more soon as the operation is under way in Poland … This confirms what we have suspected: the Kremlin is using dodgy outlets pretending to be media [and] using money to buy covert influence,” said Jourová, who’s been on a “democracy tour” around the EU for the past month, meeting with officials including from intelligence agencies about Russia’s operations in Europe.

EU ELECTION

JORDAN BARDELLA IN THE HOT SEAT: The 28-year-old lead National Rally candidate sat down with my colleagues in Paris for a freewheeling chat that ranged from animal rights to his preference for Donald Trump over Joe Biden in the U.S. presidential election. The interview is part of a series with different candidates.

Slouching toward MAGA: “Between Biden and Trump, my heart leans toward Trump, but I’m not American,” Bardella said.

Leaving NATO: Bardella’s comments on Trump and Biden came in response to questions regarding his stance on France’s role in NATO, as he argued that the future of the alliance hinged on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, my colleague Victor Goury-Laffont reports. Bardella said National Rally is still in favor of leaving NATO’s integrated command — but only after the war in Ukraine was over.

Hadn’t thought of that: “The proposal we’ve always advocated … did not factor in war,” Bardella remarked. The far-right leader indicated that the National Rally would only maintain its position on NATO in the next presidential election, slated for 2027, if the conflict in Ukraine had ended.

Riding high: Recent polling projects National Rally winning around 30 percent of the vote in the European election — roughly 10 points ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance list led by Valérie Hayer.

Jitters: The forecasts have rattled the president, who recently cornered his far-left and far-right opponents with a vote on Ukraine aid, forcing RN to reveal its doubts about France’s Ukraine strategy.

On the AfD: Earlier this year, RN stalwart Marine Le Pen hinted the party could part ways with the Alternative for Germany in the European Parliament over reports its members discussed deporting migrants and foreign-born Germans. “Re-migration is an an indefensible measure,” said Bardella — adding that “this was not the party’s [AfD] position but only that of a few members” and that his aim was to make Identity and Democracy the third-largest group in Parliament.

NOW READ THIS: POLITICO’s Nicolas Camut and Ketrin Jochecová report from Luník IX, an impoverished Roma neighborhood on the outskirts of Slovakia’s second-largest city Košice, which has one of the lowest voter turnouts in European elections. They consider what would convince residents to head to the ballot box.

DEFENSE BONDS

LUKEWARM BACKING FOR DEFENSE BONDS: POLITICO scooped the (unsigned) letter in which Paris pushed for defense bonds ahead of last week’s summit of EU leaders. Now we’ve got a copy with signatures — and there aren’t many.

Five backers: The new letter is dated March 20, and apart from French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné, only five other capitals have signed, Jacopo Barigazzi reports: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Portugal. That’s despite other countries like Poland and Greece earlier expressing support for the idea. “The most eye-catching thing about this letter is who didn’t sign it,” said an EU diplomat.

Spinning the numbers: Five other diplomats gave different reasons for the paltry haul of signatures: it’s unclear how widely distributed it was among member countries; some complained there weren’t enough details; others mentioned bureaucratic issues that delayed approval; while some of those contacted thought it was too soon to raise pressure on Berlin — which opposes the idea.

Defense bonds if necessary, but not necessarily defense bonds: After the summit, Belgium’s Alexander De Croo said the countries opposed to defense bonds were the “classic ones” — taken as a reference to Germany and other frugals like the Nordics and the Netherlands. But two of the diplomats said it’s not all gloom. Despite the language in the final Council text being watered down compared to initial drafts, it still includes a line calling on the Commission to “explore all options” to mobilize funds. That doesn’t mean defense bonds, but doesn’t rule them out either. “I was expecting [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz to fight against it,” said one of the diplomats. Another argued some Nordics like Sweden, which opposes the idea, could switch sides.

Warming up: “Germany and the Netherlands are still solid on their position, but the other frugals are much more fluid,” said a a senior EU official.

See you in June: The real discussion on defense bonds will take place at the June leaders’ summit following the EU election, diplomats said.

**Berlin Playbook, the newest addition to POLITICO’s Playbook family, launched! Täglich informieren wir Sie darüber, was am vor Ihnen liegenden Arbeitstag wirklich zählt. Die aktuellsten Ereignisse aus Kanzleramt, Bundestag und den politischen Zentren der Welt. Mit nur einem Klick anmelden.**

PERSONNEL NEWS

KARIŅŠ OUT: Latvian Foreign Minister Krišjānis Kariņš announced his resignation on Thursday, engulfed by a scandal on taking private jets to official meetings. The move effectively eliminates Kariņš as a challenger to EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis — a party colleague from Latvia — who is angling to return to the Commission, Koen Verhelst reports.

REYNDERS’ CHIEF OF STAFF SET TO BECOME NEW EU AMBASSADOR: It’s not just EU Justice Chief Didier Reynders seeking to work outside Brussels. His chief of staff, Geneviève Tuts, is going to become the EU’s ambassador to Canada, four officials told POLITICO — which came as a surprise move, since Frédéric Bernard, Council chief Charles Michel’s chief of staff, was poised to snatch the job. The posting, signed off on Wednesday and part of a bigger reshuffle with 43 new European ambassadors and 11 deputy ambassadors, will only be made official at a later stage.

PORTUGAL’S VERY EUROPEAN CABINET: Four MEPs made it into the Cabinet unveiled by Portugal’s new center-right Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, Aitor Hernández-Morales writes in to report. EPP group Vice President Paulo Rangel has been tapped as foreign minister … Nuno Melo will take defense … María Graça Carvalho, vice chair of the fisheries committee, will be environment minister … the budget committee’s José Manuel Fernandes will serve as agriculture minister.

That’s not all: Diplomat Pedro Perestrelo Pinto, formerly of the Portuguese perm rep and currently the consul general to San Francisco, has been selected to serve as Montenegro’s chief of staff.

IN OTHER NEWS

IF YOU READ ONE THING TODAY, MAKE IT THIS: POLITICO’s Eva Hartog writes a moving tribute to Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter imprisoned for a year in Russia on trumped up espionage charges, whom Eva hired for the Moscow Times when she was the chief editor in 2017. “I brought Evan to Moscow. But now there is nothing I can do to get him out,” Eva writes. Worth your time.

GPS JAMS: Airplanes flying over the Baltic region are reporting an increasing number of missing or fake GPS signals, with Russia seen as the most likely culprit behind the blackouts, my colleague Tommaso Lecca reports.

BLINKEN IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Europe from April 1-5. He’ll first visit France to meet with Emmanuel Macron, before traveling to Brussels to participate in the NATO foreign ministers’ gathering. After that, Blinken will travel to Leuven to take part in the Trade and Technology Council.

ISTANBUL VOTES: This Sunday voters in Istanbul will vote in a mayoral election. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has thrown his full weight behind his anointed candidate, Murat Kurum. If Erdoğan’s man wins, it would snuff out the remaining bastion of opposition to his rule; but if opposition politician Ekrem İmamoğlu is victorious, it could prove a stepping stone to national power, writes Elçin Poyrazlar.

FRIDAY FEATURES: This week’s EU Confidential podcast looks at the growing urgency among EU leaders to defeat Vladimir Putin … and in his weekly Declassified humor column, Paul Dallison reckons Trump should get himself a piece of Berlusconi’s Bunga Bunga property portfolio.

**On the lookout for daily coverage of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings on April 17-20? Look no further than Global Playbook, POLITICO’s premier global newsletter reporting on major international gatherings, authored by Suzanne Lynch. Never miss a beat from world events – sign up in one click today.**

AGENDA

— Commissioner for Education Iliana Ivanova visits Beijing for the EU-China High-Level People-to-People Dialogue; meets China’s Education Minister Huai Jinpeng and representatives of the European National Institute for Culture.

BRUSSELS CORNER:

WEATHER: High of 13C, cloudy.

PRISON STRIKE: Spontaneous strikes began Thursday in several prisons around Brussels and Flanders, with staffers complaining about overcrowding leading to more violence against prison officers. Unions have now called an indefinite strike, starting April 1.

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEKEND …

Eat: Renowned Saint-Gilles deli Fernand Obb and other local businesses are hosting a croquette hunt on Easter Sunday. One hundred golden tickets are hidden around 10 landmarks in the city, which you can exchange for pralines, beer and other goodies. Starts at noon. Info here.

Eat some more: POLITICO’s Carlo Martuscelli has this review of Italian stalwart Il Pasticcio.

Craft: If you ever wanted to try Japanese woodworking or create traditional Turkish ceramic art, check out the Ambacht in Beeld Festival at Tour & Taxis. Entrance to see exhibitions and performances is free, but you’ll need tickets for workshops and classes.

Check out some photos: It’s your last chance to see Jacques Sonck’s solo exhibition. The Belgian photographer explores the diversity of Flemish society since the 1970s in black-and-white portraits. Closes Sunday 6 p.m. Details here.

BIRTHDAYS: Former Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem, now mayor of Eindhoven; European Union Agency for Asylum’s Thomas Jézéquel; Carl Haglund, former MEP; European Parliament’s Jure Tanko; Fran Mullaney of Portland; Nana Akufo-Addo, president of Ghana; Former U.K. Prime Minister John Major; Former U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel.

CELEBRATING SATURDAY: MEP Rosa D’Amato; Former MEPs Linea Søgaard-Lidell and Manuel Bompard; European Commission’s Cláudia Silva; Eric S. Rubin, former U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria.

CELEBRATING SUNDAY: Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn; MEP Tomasz Poręba; Former MEPs Christian Allard and Damian Drăghici; France’s former permanent representative to the OECD and POLITICO 28 alum Muriel Pénicaud; Gilead Sciences’ Andrea Zanaglio; Le Temps’ Romain Clivaz; Euronews’ Francoise Champey; Sphera Network’s Quentin Ariès; European Commission’s Daniel Ferrie.

THANKS TO: Suzanne Lynch, Aitor Hernández-Morales, Jacopo Barigazzi, Playbook reporter Šejla Ahmatović and producer Dato Parulava.

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