Europe Takes Aim at Putin's Secret Weapon
Russian President Vladimir Putin is pictured in Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia on May 9, 2024. Putin has traditionally sought to use populist European parties to sow discord across the continent.
The European Union is mulling a plan to ban Russian financing for political parties and think tanks ahead of pivotal June elections, a step that would go some way to addressing the Kremlin’s historic use of populist individuals and parties to sow discord within the bloc.
The Financial Times reported this week—citing a confidential draft—that the proposal is part of the EU’s 14th sanctions package on Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The European Commission—the bloc’s executive body—is recommending that member states approve the package, Bloomberg reported.
One European diplomatic official—who did not wish to be named as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue—confirmed to Newsweek that the proposal is under discussion.
“That would be logical,” they said of the draft measure. “Their financing is clearly hostile, to promote anti-EU and anti-NATO ideas.”
Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin by email to request comment.
The Financial Times report quoted the draft proposal, which warned: “Propaganda and disinformation campaigns are capable of undermining the foundations of democratic societies and are an integral part of the arsenal of modern hybrid attacks.”
Banning funding for such efforts, the draft said, would protect Europeans from “malign interference.” The proposal also suggested banning four media outlets from operating in the EU: the Prague-based Voice of Europe, and Russian outlets RIA Novosti, Izvestija and Rossiiskaja Gazeta.
The EU is bracing for European Parliament elections in June, in which more than 400 million people will be eligible to cast votes to select 720 representatives to fill the seats of the legislative body based in Strasbourg, France.
Right-wing and Euroskeptic populist parties are expected to perform strongly in the contest, surging on a wave of anti-establishment discontent across the continent spurred by issues including cost-of-living crises, inflation, anxieties over migration and the war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has traditionally sought to fund and support such parties. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party in France, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Germany, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Italian Lega party and others have been accused of turning to Russia for financial and political assistance.
Far-right European figures, including Le Pen, have also visited Russia and met with Putin, even after his 2014 seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and the fomentation of separatist rebellion in the east of the country.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in April described Europe’s far-right parties as “Putin’s proxies.”
At least two EU states have launched investigations into suspected Russian influence networks in recent months.
In March, Czech authorities said they had uncovered a pro-Moscow network seeking to influence public opinion in Europe. The probe focused on the Voice of Europe news website, which Prague believes was financed by Russia with the help of pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who is now living in exile in Russia having been exchanged by Kyiv for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
And in April, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said his government had launched an investigation into Russian interference in the European Parliament elections. The goal of such interference “is to help elect as many pro-Russian candidates as possible to the European Parliament and to strengthen a certain pro-Russian narrative in this institution.”
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