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A Kremlin-backed media outlet — the Prague-based Voice of Europe — funneled hundreds of thousands of euros to far-right politicians, officials say.
PRAGUE — When an associate of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies launched a pro-Kremlin media outlet here in May 2023, Czech counterintelligence officers began keeping careful watch.
For nearly a year, European intelligence officials said, the Czech authorities secretly recorded hours of meetings between several far-right politicians from across Europe and the associate, Artem Marchevsky, who was running the propaganda website, Voice of Europe, including at its offices on a quiet side street in the center of Prague. E.U. and Czech authorities, which have shut down the site, have labeled Voice of Europe a Russian propaganda operation.
Internal Kremlin documents obtained by one of the European intelligence services and reviewed by The Post show for the first time that Voice of Europe was part of an influence campaign established by the Kremlin in close coordination with Viktor Medvedchuk, the Putin ally who until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led a pro-Moscow opposition party in Kyiv.
The Czech probe rapidly expanded into Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and France, European security and intelligence officials said, as investigators concluded that Voice of Europe represented far more than its official veneer as a pro-Russian website interviewing favored European politicians about ending aid to Ukraine.
After the expulsion from Europe of dozens of Russian intelligence officers following the invasion of Ukraine, fronts such as the Voice of Europe became instruments for the Kremlin to regain lost ground, one of the senior European intelligence officials said.
The Czech investigation has led to raids on the home and offices of an aide to a far-right Dutch member of the European Parliament and of Petr Bystron, a leading member of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, and the party’s No. 2 candidate for the European Parliament.
German authorities said in May they have placed Bystron under investigation for alleged corruption and money laundering as part of the probe, and police raided his office in the German parliament as well as properties in Germany and Spain. In one recording, three of the senior European intelligence officials told The Post, Bystron can be heard complaining to a Voice of Europe official about the difficulty of transporting tens of thousands in cash to his vacation home in Mallorca.
PRAGUE — When an associate of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies launched a pro-Kremlin media outlet here in May 2023, Czech counterintelligence officers began keeping careful watch.
For nearly a year, European intelligence officials said, the Czech authorities secretly recorded hours of meetings between several far-right politicians from across Europe and the associate, Artem Marchevsky, who was running the propaganda website, Voice of Europe, including at its offices on a quiet side street in the center of Prague. E.U. and Czech authorities, which have shut down the site, have labeled Voice of Europe a Russian propaganda operation.
Internal Kremlin documents obtained by one of the European intelligence services and reviewed by The Post show for the first time that Voice of Europe was part of an influence campaign established by the Kremlin in close coordination with Viktor Medvedchuk, the Putin ally who until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led a pro-Moscow opposition party in Kyiv.
The Czech probe rapidly expanded into Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and France, European security and intelligence officials said, as investigators concluded that Voice of Europe represented far more than its official veneer as a pro-Russian website interviewing favored European politicians about ending aid to Ukraine.
After the expulsion from Europe of dozens of Russian intelligence officers following the invasion of Ukraine, fronts such as the Voice of Europe became instruments for the Kremlin to regain lost ground, one of the senior European intelligence officials said.
The Czech investigation has led to raids on the home and offices of an aide to a far-right Dutch member of the European Parliament and of Petr Bystron, a leading member of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, and the party’s No. 2 candidate for the European Parliament.
German authorities said in May they have placed Bystron under investigation for alleged corruption and money laundering as part of the probe, and police raided his office in the German parliament as well as properties in Germany and Spain. In one recording, three of the senior European intelligence officials told The Post, Bystron can be heard complaining to a Voice of Europe official about the difficulty of transporting tens of thousands in cash to his vacation home in Mallorca.
