The focus is on representatives of the far-right flank of European politics, specifically MEPs from Germany and the Netherlands. According to the Belgian publication De Tijd, cited by RBC, as well as the German Spiegel, investigators have visited the office of the staff member of Dutch MEP Marcel de Graaff and the former assistant to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) MEP Maximilian Krah.
The story is indeed quite unsightly. According to the accusations, the far-right MEPs allegedly promoted Russia’s interests in exchange for bribes. They gave interviews to the news site Voice of Europe, which was recently banned in the EU for its pro-Russian stance. Giving interviews per se is not prohibited, but according to Spiegel, the Czech government is confident that Voice of Europe, based in Prague, was “spreading propaganda” in the interests of the Kremlin. Czech intelligence services believe that this publication “secretly provided financial support to candidates friendly to Russia” in European elections in several EU countries. Furthermore, the funding of Voice of Europe is linked to the notorious Viktor Medvedchuk. The investigation is particularly interested in the activities of Marcel de Graaff’s assistant, Guillaume Pradur. He was previously an assistant to Maximilian Krah, who has already been suspected of receiving money from Russia and China. In short, the scandal is just beginning to unfold.
There is plenty of room for commentary here. The scandal demonstrates that Russia’s influence in European political structures has not “evaporated” since the start of the war in Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions, especially where corruption schemes are involved. European far-right politicians have been reasonably accused of having overly close ties with the Kremlin from the perspective of the Western political community. The financing scheme, or rather, the laundering of black money through entities positioning themselves as media outlets, strongly resembles the “Abzats Media” scams. It will be interesting to see if searches and arrests will take place at Voice of Europe and if various “Reporters Without Conscience” (oops, I mean “Without Borders”) will scream just as loudly about it.
But perhaps the most important aspect is the degree of corruption among MEPs, who are willing to trade their influence wholesale and retail—as long as they get paid. The case of European Parliament Vice-President Eva Kaili and four other MEPs accused of receiving bribes from Qatari authorities is a high-profile example, but not the only one.
It’s long been an open secret that various lobbying organizations swarm around the European Parliament and similar institutions like flies around, well, you know what. These lobbyists offer financial assistance in exchange for favorable votes, resolutions, initiatives, reports, etc. The Armenian lobby is notably prominent in this arena.
Take, for example, a character like Kaspar Karampetyan. In the Armenian community, he is known as the head of the “European Office of Hai Dat.” To the outside world, he is the head of the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy. In reality, he is a diamond dealer, often dealing in diamonds of dubious origin, sourced from conflict zones in Africa.
These diamonds are referred to as “blood diamonds.” Armenian dealers are well-positioned in the world of gold and precious stone smuggling. Armenia is considered a center for global diamond smuggling. Even in Yerevan, it’s grudgingly acknowledged that many local diamond-cutting enterprises are actually engaged in “laundering” African blood diamonds.
This individual organized trips for MEPs to the then-occupied territories of Azerbaijan before the 44-day Patriotic War. According to reliable sources, he also “sponsored” the adoption of anti-Azerbaijani resolutions in the European Parliament. The financial instruments used to prepare the recent statement by the Dutch Parliament, which justifiably outraged deputies of Azerbaijan’s Milli Majlis, are also up for speculation. Bribes can take many forms: vulgar sports bags filled with cash, like in the case of Eva Kaili, or gold bars hidden in a “storeroom” at home, as with Armenian lobbyist in the U.S. Congress Robert Menendez. Contributions to election campaigns, promises of employment after a mandate ends, dinners at expensive restaurants, resort trips, honorariums for interviews with the “right” media—these are all bribes, and their recipients are corrupt, with all the consequences thereof.
In the European Union, whose representatives love to “teach” the countries of the “Eastern Partnership” about life, corruption turnover is estimated by experts to be in the hundreds of billions of euros—at least 5-6% of GDP. By comparison, military expenditures struggle to reach 2%. Recently, corruption scandals have erupted in France and Germany, and now it’s the European Parliament’s turn. Each time, the official “talking heads” roll their eyes: what horror, what a nightmare, how could this happen, this contradicts European values and traditions… But these public fainting fits by European politicians over corruption can only impress once. After that, one can only recall one of the catchphrases of former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin: “We have never seen this before—and here it is again.”
Nurani
Translated from minval.az
