Massive anti-espionage search operation in the offices of the European Parliament

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency quoting “Spiegel” weekly newspaper, during the increasing process of Russia’s influence on European organizations, European inspectors searched the offices of the parliament of this union. The office of Maximilian Kera, former employee and senior candidate of the radical Alternative for Germany party, has also been affected by this action.

According to the information of “Spiegel” weekly and Belgian newspaper. De Tijd, inspectors in Belgium and France started searching the offices of the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg yesterday morning. These measures are related to the story of the pro-Russian news portal “Voice of Europe”, which is said to be at the center of Russian influence operations.

“Timo Lehmann”, reporter Der Spiegel reported on Wednesday how investigators entered the rooms of Marcel de Graaf, the right-wing Dutch populist member of the European Union Parliament in Brussels. According to Spiegel and De Tijd, the office of de Graff’s colleague, Guillaume P, a far-right French lawmaker, was also searched.

In late March , the authorities of the Czech Republic imposed sanctions against the pro-Russian platform “Voice of Europe”. They believe that this Prague-based portal is an influence operation by Moscow. Viktor Medvedev, a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is believed to be behind the attack.

The Czech government believes that “Voice of Europe” did not only promote the interests of the Kremlin. According to intelligence services, the media company is also said to have served to covertly fund Russian-friendly candidates for European elections in several EU countries. Based on this, an amount of over one million euros has been spent in this direction. In a statement, VOA spoke of “wild speculation and absurd accusations”.

In the past, the website has conducted numerous interviews with populist and far-right politicians – including Maximilian Kreh, the top candidate of the far-right party Alternative for Germany for the European elections, and Peter Bysteron, the party’s other representative in the German parliament, ranked second on the list. Dutch representative De Graaf has also appeared on the platform of this website.

All three politicians have denied receiving money from Voice of Europe. Munich’s public prosecutor’s office has now opened an investigation against Bysteron on suspicion of bribery and money laundering, and has searched his apartment and parliamentary office. Investigators suspect he may have received tens of thousands of euros from the pro-Russian network. Bysteron denies all accusations.

A number of intelligence services in the European Union, including Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, were involved in uncovering the hacking operation. The Czech internal intelligence service BIS was responsible for this. In mid-May, the European Union also imposed sanctions on “Voice of Europe” and blocked the platform in all member states.

It is also said that Guillaume P, an employee of the European Parliament, was also involved in another matter in this case. When he was still an employee of Krah, a politician from the far-right Alternative for Germany party, he is said to have helped Polish Janusz N to get a house card, with which he could move around the parliament buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg largely unhindered. .

Meanwhile, Yanush N. He must answer in Warsaw to the accusation of spying for Russia.

T Online news portal reported for the first time, Guillaume P. and Janusz N. also in January 2020 when they met Medvedchuk. Putin’s confidants were present with the politicians of the extreme German party in the Bundestag. At that time, Karah and Bysteron, the politicians of this extreme party, were present in the Kremlin-friendly oligarchic group.

The European Cyber ​​Security Organization recently warned of the expansion of Russia’s hybrid war against the European Union and the West. Especially in the shadow of the war in Ukraine and on the eve of the European elections, he informed and warned about this.

Accordingly, in the European Union, cyber attacks by groups that are often are supported by Russia, has increased significantly in recent months.

“Johan Lepassar”, the head of the European Cyber ​​Security Organization (ENISA), said in a speech The number of politically motivated hacker attacks against European infrastructure doubled from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024. He emphasized: In these attacks, the hands of threatening elements are at work, whose main goal is to cause disruption. The European Parliament will vote and participate in parliamentary elections. This year, these elections will also be held in the United States of America, Great Britain and other countries. Security officials warn that there is a risk of widespread mobilization of malicious campaigns during these elections.

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