MEPs have urged intelligence services to reveal the names of individuals paid by the Kremlin. Valérie Hayer, a representative of French Renaissance party, said the following, “We demand the names, the numbers, who was paid, which party, by which intermediary, for which objective, and how much”. Moreover, Nathalie Loiseau, another member of the Renaissance party, added that the intelligence services must reveal what they know because voters have a right to know whether they will vote for bought or honest candidates.
The statements made by Hayer and Loiseau were supported by green, centre-left, and centre-right members of the EU Parliament from various countries. For example, socialist Raphael Glucksmann asserted, “Putin has found links at the heart of our institution, starting with far-right deputies and national leaders, who call themselves nationalists, pretend to defend their countries, but in reality work for a hostile foreign tyranny”. Furthermore, Glucksmann also criticized Elon Musk and X (formerly known as Twitter) for continuing to spread the content published by Voice of Europe, despite the investigation led by the Czech Republic.
Czech liberal member of the EU Parliament Dita Charanzova called on representatives of other EU states to follow the example of Prague in taking the videos made by Voice of Europe offline. Vera Jourova, the EU values commissioner from the Czech Republic, promised to crack down on online websites and platforms, spreading Russian propaganda and disinformation, but added that corruption or espionage allegations were matters for individual member states of the EU.
It is crucial for intelligence services to provide MEPs with names of Russia-backed politicians so that voters, who have an intention to participate in the EU elections, will be aware of those persons, who are responsible for spreading the Russian propaganda all over the EU.
