“Moscowgate,” another scandal rattles the European Parliament two months before European elections

Brussels – For the past few days, among the benches of the European Parliament, people have been looking around suspiciously and whispering names again, as if in a déjà vu of what happened in December 2022 with the outbreak of Qatargate. It has already been dubbed Moscagate: a web of undue influence from the Kremlin, which allegedly paid some MEPs to promote its propaganda.

It was brought to the surface by the Belgian prime minister, Alexander De Croo, who spoke of “close cooperation” between Belgian and Czech intelligence services to expose the true nature of Voice of Europe, a propaganda tool financed and maneuvered by pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, through which Moscow allegedly interviewed some MEPs for a fee, to discredit some of the policies from Brussels policies. According to what has emerged so far, the online publication’s purpose was to disseminate articles that were primarily critical on the support to Kyiv, but also on the Green Deal and immigration, as well as to put European politicians on the payroll – securing their loyalty – through paid interviews.

Euroskeptic and sovereignist political formations were immediately placed in the dock. According to rumors published by the Dutch newspaper Nrc, members of Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, the Flemish ultra-right of the Vlaams Belang, and the German Alternative fuer Deutschland were implicated. The findings of Belgian and Czech investigators have reportedly already triggered investigations in seven member countries -Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

The European Parliament is waiting for the Belgian services to hand over the names of the MEPs allegedly involved, European Parliament sources confirmed. At that point, the scenario is most likely to be the one already seen in late January for Latvian MEP Tatjana Ždanoka, accused of working for years as an agent for Russian intelligence services. Responsibility for any sanctions over the conduct of MEPs rests with the President: once she has the names, it will be up to Roberta Metsola to give the go-ahead to the European Parliament’s Advisory Committee to investigate the incident, and possibly propose measures against the culprits. Although a House vote is not required to sanction colleagues, EU Parliament sources say a debate on the affair has already been called for at the plenary session in Brussels on April 10-11.