By Tengo Gogotishvili | 2024-04-04

RIGA -- The European Parliament came under pressure last week to investigate a Russia-financed network that wielded influence across Europe and involved European politicians.

The Czech Republic on March 27 said its intelligence services discovered the network had been spreading Russian propaganda through the Prague-based Voice of Europe online newspaper, which has since been "shut down" but still has a social media presence.

Voice of Europe also allegedly paid politicians from at least six member states to influence the political debate and public opinion, according to local media reports.

The names of the suspected politicians have not been reported, likely due to the ongoing investigation, Eunews reported.

A Czech daily claimed they came from Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland.

French member of the European Parliament (MEP) Valerie Hayer, who heads the centrist Renew Europe Group, wrote to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola to demand "a full and transparent internal investigation."

"If sitting MEPs or candidates in the upcoming European elections have taken money from the Russian government or their proxies, they must be exposed and action taken," she said.

"This is how [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is trying to get away with his war in Ukraine," said Terry Reintke, one of the lead candidates for the Greens in the European elections in June.

"The politicians who have received money from Russia should be severely punished, both politically and legally," she added in a statement.

A spokesperson for the parliament said it was "currently looking into the findings of the Czech authorities regarding outlet 'Voice of Europe' in coordination with its institutional partners."

The spokesperson added that the parliament already prohibits access to the institution for media that are on European Union (EU) sanctions lists, the spokesperson added.

'Illegal entrepreneurship'

While the European Parliament investigates the Voice of Europe scandal, Russian propaganda is finding its way into Europe in other ways.

In Latvia's Latgale province, which borders Russia and Belarus, the authorities in March arrested a man "for illegal entrepreneurship."

The unnamed man, an unregistered electrician born in 1975, faces three years in prison if convicted of programming his customers' TVs to receive Russian channels prohibited in Latvia.

The National Electronic Mass Media Council of Latvia (NEPLP) sent a four-page list of various Latvian laws and EU regulations to Kontur on request.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, "NEPLP was the first [national media regulator] to restrict access to several television programs, such as RTR Rossiya, Rossiya24, etc… NEPLP also communicated with the regulators of the Baltic States, and similar decisions were also made in Lithuania and in Estonia," it said in English.

"Of course, the police aren't going from house to house," said Re:Baltica chief Evita Puriņa, who studies the influence of Russian propaganda in Latvia. "But they do find violations sometimes."

"Many such cases have occurred in recent years, especially near the Russian and Belarusian borders," she told Kontur.

In 2023, authorities initiated six criminal and 60 administrative cases in Latvia for such violations.

The matter probably will not end with the electrician, whose customers may be fined for violating the prohibition -- €700 for each of the 181 confirmed TVs.

Similar messages

The EU has no uniform rules regarding allowing or restricting broadcasts from third countries; each member state has latitude to make its own decisions.

"At the beginning of 2022, we, too, started debating a ban on Sputnik, RT, and other Russian media," said Lucie Sykorova, a Czech journalist and chair of the supervisory board of the European Centre for Press & Media Freedom.

"But the politicians and lawyers could not agree on what disinformation is," she said. "Eventually, the discussions stopped."

"Our laws are probably the strictest in the entire EU," said Puriņa of Latvia. "Our neighbors Lithuania and Estonia have similar rules. But we have a reason for [them]."

Russia's immediate neighbors, which for the past three decades have been trying to shore up their independence, are at greatest risk of aggression.

Another example is Georgia, which since 1989 has repeatedly suffered from Moscow's imperial ambitions.

Georgia, unlike the Baltic states, has never stopped a single Russian media company from broadcasting in Georgia -- not after the occupation of Abkhazia in 1993, the occupation of South Ossetia in 2008 or the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Lana Beridze, spokeswoman for Georgia's Communications Commission, did not respond to Kontur's request to clarify the rules for banning any particular media outlet.

"The regulator, which is supposed to be independent, is actually an instrument of the authorities," said Lia Chakhunashvili, executive director of the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics.

Instead, it "targets critical media," she told Kontur.

Chakhunashvili cited the TV channel Mtavari Arkhi, which received a stiff fine in 2021 for a video clip depicting Putin as a composite of leaders of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

The 111,903 GEL ($41,700) fine set a national record.

After analyzing more than 10,000 comments made by prominent Georgians in public spaces (mass media and social networks), the Media Development Foundation published a scathing report in March.

Members of Georgian Dream frequently echo marginal, pro-Russian groups, it said.

Foundation director Tamar Kintsurashvili highlighted several of their shared themes in an interview with Kontur.

"Both the government and pro-Russian groups avoid mentioning the Kremlin's aggression," she said. "Together they spread the image of the West as the instigator of the war [in Ukraine] and the Maidan [anti-Kremlin uprising] in Ukraine."

Divided by language 'into two societies': analysts

Blocking websites is a separate story from blocking TV broadcasts. Access is restricted only for websites that threaten national security or violate commercial and other regulations, said Latvia's NEPLP.

Accordingly, the websites of pro-Kremlin media outlets or Russian government bodies may not be accessed in Latvia.

However, nothing prevents someone from watching all of the banned TV channels on YouTube, a loophole that preserves the influence of hostile disinformation, according to observers.

Puriņa cites the latest survey data, which confirm an unpleasant reality for her.

"Seventy percent of citizens who prefer the Latvian language said that Latvia should increase or maintain its current level of assistance to Ukraine. Only 20% of the country's Russian-speaking residents [who represent roughly one third of the population] agreed with them. ... Thus, the language we use to receive information divides us into two societies."

"Unlike the Baltic countries, in our country the ban on Russian media broadcasts is outside the purview of the regulatory commission," Tamta Muradashvili, a specialist on media law, told Kontur. "That decision must be made ... by parliament and the cabinet. .... But [it] was never raised."