# Voice of Europe Voice of Europe was a Prague-registered news website that, according to the Czech government, was a Kremlin-funded vehicle for paying European politicians to repeat pro-Russian positions ahead of the June 2024 European Parliament elections. Czech intelligence said the money came through Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch. The case is the clearest European example of what the [[Tenet Media]] indictment showed in the U.S. the same year: Russia paying people who already agree with it, rather than building fake accounts from scratch. ## Exposure and sanctions - **March 27, 2024.** The Czech government sanctioned Medvedchuk, his associate Artem Marchevskyi and voiceofeurope.com, citing information from the BIS intelligence service. It alleged that Medvedchuk covertly financed the outlet, including "financial support" for European candidates, and that Marchevskyi ran it on his instructions. The official listing named no politicians. - **March 28, 2024.** Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Russia had "approached" members of the European Parliament and paid them to "promote Russian propaganda." On April 12 he added that the cash payments had not taken place in Belgium, but that the interference had and was "subject to prosecution." - **Late March 2024.** Poland's ABW intelligence service searched premises in Warsaw and Tychy in connection with the network. No arrests linked to Voice of Europe have been confirmed. - **May 17, 2024.** The EU suspended Voice of Europe's broadcasting in the Union, together with RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta. ## The politicians The outlet interviewed many hard-right European politicians, and Czech media reported that figures from Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Hungary were involved. The cases on the record as of October 2026: - **Petr Bystron ([[AfD]]).** - What prosecutors did: Munich prosecutors opened a bribery and money-laundering inquiry in 2024, and police searched his premises in May 2024. The European Parliament lifted his immunity for that inquiry on May 6, 2025. - What has been reported: German media reported that prosecutors suspect a cash handover in Prague, allegedly captured by Czech intelligence. Accounts give the amount as €20,000 or "tens of thousands of euros." - Status: no indictment has been confirmed. - His response: Bystron calls the allegations "completely baseless" and a "targeted political manoeuvre." - **Maximilian Krah ([[AfD]]).** He gave interviews to the outlet and has said "there is no specific allegation that I was paid." No Voice of Europe investigation of him has been confirmed. A separate German inquiry concerns alleged China-related payments, which he calls "absurd, fabricated." **Related, but not Voice of Europe:** in November 2025 a British court sentenced former [[Reform UK]] MEP Nathan Gill to ten and a half years in prison for taking bribes from Oleh Voloshyn, an associate of Medvedchuk, to make pro-Russian statements. It is the same Medvedchuk network, and it is the one case so far that has ended in a conviction. ## Why it matters for the KB Voice of Europe ties Russian money to the European far-right parties the American right increasingly treats as allies. The Czech government's allegations are on the record. The individual cases are still allegations except Gill's, and the vault keeps that distinction: officials' statements, prosecutors' actions and the politicians' denials are reported separately, and the absence of charges is stated. ## See Also - [[AfD]] - [[Tenet Media]] - [[RT]] - [[Kremlin Disinformation]] - [[Russian Influence]]