Yesterday at 20:00
On the eve of the Peace Summit, Russian propaganda intensified its efforts to disrupt the event and discredit Ukraine. Another important focus of the Kremlin’s Russian agents in Europe is the upcoming elections to the European Parliament. Political scientist, chairman of the Center for Analysis and Strategies Igor Chalenko spoke about this on the FREEDOM TV channel.
“Currently, the network of Russian agents in Europe is quite wide, and it is difficult to name countries where it is not present. According to society, it is quite easy to identify it by the activity of certain right-wing radical forces. In a number of countries, such as Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, Germany, France, Spain, etc. Russian unofficial representatives feel quite powerful in various fields – sports, science, culture, etc. In addition, various funds are used,” said the political scientist.
According to him, since 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian agents in the European Union have had problems.
“But already in 2023, under the supervision of the First Deputy Head of the Government of the Russian Federation Sergei Kiriyenko, “work on mistakes” was carried out. Actions were coordinated to strengthen the development of the agent network in the EU. Currently, on the eve of the elections to the European Parliament, we are seeing unprecedented activity of Russian agents in Europe,” the expert noted.
He recalled that according to surveys, thanks to the work of the Russian intelligence network, up to 25% of far-right representatives can enter the European Parliament. Most of them support Russia and may oppose Ukraine.
“There is indeed a lot of support for certain radical views. But one should not think that at the level of the European Union the European Parliament is becoming so radicalized. In addition, even in the right wing there are healthy forces that differ in their opinion about the Russian Federation,” the political scientist stated.
According to him, Russian agents are currently using absolutely any informational reason to distort the situation.
“As a rule, narratives are used that the current policy at the European level, and especially the policy of Brussels and the European Commission, is supposedly completely alien and needs to be changed. And now, supposedly, there will be an advent of right-wing forces that will improve the health of the European Union. However, we understand that there is more election rhetoric here. But once the elections are held, then we will look at the reshuffling of forces. I think that the European People’s Party will retain its leadership, and an absolutely constructive majority in the European Parliament will be built around it,” concluded Igor Chalenko.
