"I hope Ukraine will lose": What MEPs said about Russian propaganda channel

“If it is a war of civilizations, then I hope civilization will be lost in Ukraine,” Marcel de Graaff, a Dutch far-right extremist, said in a television studio at the European Parliament last October.

Another far-right politician has intervened.

“Ukraine should become a demilitarized buffer zone,” argued Maximilian Krah, a far-right politician from Germany, addressing four other participants in the studio. The debate was hosted by Voice of Europe, a broadcaster that Czech and Belgian authorities described in March as a front for Russian propaganda and disinformation.

Czech authorities have imposed sanctions on two Voice of Europe executives. One of them is a longtime friend of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk.

A review of all 50 videos on the Voice of Europe YouTube channel conducted by POLITICO found that 16 members of the European Parliament collaborated with the channel — all from the far right. MEPs and politicians from Central and Eastern European governments gave video interviews to a channel with just 351 YouTube subscribers and just 60,000 views as of last summer.

However, its reach on social media platforms X and Facebook was much greater, and its X account is still active. In a lengthy post on X, the account accused “globalist media” of spreading “wild speculation and absurd allegations” about their Russian connections, which the company said were baseless.

The 13 MEPs that POLITICO managed to contact denied receiving or being offered money.

Since August last year, Voice of Europe has organised four debates and one-on-one meetings with the following MEPs: Krah and Joachim Kuhs from Germany, Patricia Chagnon, Thierry Mariani and Hervé Juvin from France, Marcel de Graaff from the Netherlands, Matteo Gazzini and Francesca Donato from Italy, Miroslav Radačovský and Milan Uhrík from Slovakia, Jaak Madison from Estonia, Hermann Tertsch and Jorge Buxadé from Spain, Ladislav Ilčić from Croatia, Anders Vistisen from Denmark and Tom Vandendriessche from LITICO' video analysis from Belgium, .

While joining online media, some lawmakers rejected the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU, blamed Ukraine for the outbreak of the war, spoke about the scale of corruption in Ukraine and the difficulties Ukraine faces on the front lines, and called for urgent peace talks, opposed the supply of more weapons to Ukraine, while calling on Ukraine to make concessions and warning that the conflict could escalate dangerously. All of these statements contradict the EU’s usual positions and the European Union’s hardline pro-Ukrainian line.

Most MPs said they did not remember who invited them to the debates, how they were contacted, or who interviewed them in person in their parliamentary offices.

Lawmakers have raised concerns in recent months about the extent of Russian influence within EU institutions just months before European elections in June.

“The risk for the upcoming European elections is that bad actors like foreign actors and Russia will try to sneak into people’s online spaces if they are careless,” said Jiore Craig, senior fellow for digital integrity at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, an NGO that deals with disinformation.

Since the revelations, YouTube has removed dozens of videos filmed in Parliament from its site because they violated its deceptive content policies. Although Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo claimed that the MPs were paid by the organization, there is no evidence that these MPs received money for these appearances.

So far, only a Munich court specializing in bribery and corruption has opened an investigation after allegations emerged that one of the leading Alternative for Germany candidates, Petr Bystron, had taken bribes.

A "Kremlin-friendly disinformation machine"

The Voice of Europe channel, founded in the Netherlands in 2016 and already accused of serving Russian interests in 2018, was shut down before returning to broadcasting news with Russian titles in May 2023 and being renamed and launched on X in June.

A common statement from MPs was that urgent peace talks are needed to end the bloodshed between Ukrainians and Russians.

“This is a copy-paste of the pro-Kremlin disinformation machine,” said Jakub Kalenský of the European Competence Center for Countering Hybrid Threats. “It is not peace when we have Russian soldiers in Ukraine,” Kalenský continued.

MEP de Graaff, who denied allegations that he was paid by the Voice of Europe, said in the October debate: “The best way for peace is for the Ukrainians to surrender.”

Mariani of the French National Rally accused the EU of causing the events that led to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by signing a trade deal with Ukraine ten years ago. “Some countries simply want to destroy Russia, which is initially impossible and is not in the interests of our countries,” Mariani said.

French MP Juvin argued on another panel discussion that the more weapons the West gives Ukraine, the more Putin will have to push towards the West, and Krah suggested that Ukraine should give up its eastern territories and that any thought of Kiev joining the EU is “just propaganda.”

In three of the panel discussions it was Dutch MP de Graaff who requested use of the VoxBox studio and in the fourth it was Krah, according to two people familiar with the reservations, who were granted anonymity to speak freely about the matter.

However, not all MEPs took a particularly pro-Russian stance. Far-right Spanish lawmaker Tertsch said Putin would face several “obstacles” in the upcoming peace talks, adding that it was “very easy” to understand why countries in Central and Eastern Europe do not trust the Russian leader. When asked by POLITICO, Tertsch said: “I am probably the most notorious anti-Putinist in Spanish politics.”

Similarly, Croatian MEP Milić said during a panel discussion that he did not share Putin’s values ​​and later described himself as “quite anti-Russian.” Estonian MEP Jaak Madison told POLITICO that he told the network’s interviewer: “Russia is our enemy and we should give weapons to Ukraine.” “They didn’t try to convince me that I was wrong,” he said.

Whose voice?

Although Voice of Europe presented itself as a media company, it remained unclear who the editors and journalists working for the company were.

"I don't ask every journalist for their CV before accepting an interview," said Mariani when asked who invited him to the debate.

Chagnon, his far-right colleague, also said she couldn’t remember the name of every journalist, including one with “a strong accent” and working for Voice of Europe. However, she asked Chris Tomlinson, the moderator, to send her his ID before meeting him for another debate.

Tomlinson, who previously worked as a journalist at the far-right American blog Breitbart and wrote for the Brussels-based magazine European Conservative, declined multiple requests from POLITICO, writing only: “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re claiming.”

MEP Vandendriessche said he knew the name of Voice of Europe from the previous legislative period before 2019, when he worked as a press spokesman. He said he is now the victim of a disinformation campaign that claims to be promoted by a Russian disinformation campaign. “How can I be promoted if I gave an interview that has several hundred views?

Joachim Kuhs, the far-right German MEP, did not mention Tomlinson by name, but said he did not know the interview would be for the Voice of Europe and said he had been under the impression it would be for European conservatives. Kuhs employs de Graaff’s wife, Gabriëlle Popken, as an assistant in the European Parliament, an arrangement he described as “not unusual.”

“I don’t know who the voice of Europe is,” said Slovak MEP Radačovský, who gave a one-on-one interview and called for peace while on the doorstep in Brussels. Asked under what conditions peace should be achieved, Radačovský said he was working for the common good of all humanity and walked away.

MEP Uhrík wrote in an email that it was not his job to reveal who questioned him: “My job as part of my political work is to answer relevant questions for the public, not to ask who is asking them.”

Another participant in last October's debate, a consultant named Henri Malosse, presented a three-point "peace plan" for Ukraine that he said originated with Medvedchuk, now expelled from the Czech Republic for his work for the Voice of Europe and sanctioned.

Asked why he brought up Medvedchuk's alleged peace plan for Ukraine during one of the debates, Malosse said: "The journalist told me that he has drafted a peace plan, so I think it's something interesting." "I didn't evaluate this plan, I just mentioned it," he said.

He also couldn't remember who the journalists were, other than a "young man and a young lady."

Malosse, owner of a legal entity specializing in business consulting in France, also said he was still blacklisted by Russia — information that POLITICO could not confirm.

According to a statement from the Czech secret service, the content of Voice of Europe was “directly controlled and financed by the Russian Federation”. Money from Moscow was also used to pay several political representatives for the dissemination of Russian propaganda… One of the goals was to influence the elections for the European Parliament”.

Disinformation expert Kalenský said that the cumulative effect of disinformation campaigns is what makes them dangerous over time, comparing them to the erosion of a stone: “If just a single drop fell once, it wouldn’t make a difference, but it’s the cumulative effect. “From so many drops falling over so many years, it creates a hole in the stone.”

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