The EU has decided on sanctions against the Russian portal and three other Russian media outlets. Voice of Europe is suspected of spreading Russian propaganda and bribing European politicians.
The states of the European Union (EU) have decided on sanctions against the Voice of Europe platform and three Russian media outlets. This means they will be blocked throughout the EU, as the countries announced.
Voice of Europe – based in Prague – is suspected of spreading Russian propaganda in the EU and paying money to European politicians. In addition to Voice of Europe, the Russian state news agency Ria Novosti and the newspapers Izvestia and Rossiskaya Gazeta are also affected by the broadcasting ban.
According to the EU countries, the media and their employees are still allowed to carry out research and interviews in the EU. Interviews with the AfD politician Petr Bystron and his party colleague Maximilian Krah were published on the Voice of Europe portal.
Voice of Europe is said to have paid money to politicians
The Czech newspaper “Denik N” reported at the beginning of April that money may have flowed in the Bystron case. The AfD member of the Bundestag has rejected this several times. Krah also denies having accepted money from the Voice of Europe environment.
As a result of this and other reporting, the public prosecutor’s office in Munich initiated so-called preliminary investigations in the Bystron case in order to check whether there was an initial suspicion of criminal behavior involving bribery of members of parliament.
Among other things, several objects were searched on Thursday – including Bystron’s parliamentary office in the German Bundestag. The German parliament had previously lifted his immunity. According to information from the dpa news agency, the investigations that have now been initiated concern the allegations in connection with Voice of Europe.
Measure not part of the planned 14. sanctions package
Since Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine began around two years ago, EU member states have already revoked the licenses of a number of media outlets. These include, for example, Sputnik, Russia Today and Rossiya.
This is intended to prevent Russian war propaganda and disinformation from being spread in the EU. According to EU diplomats, the sanctions against the media are part of a planned 14th EU sanctions package against Russia. This will continue to be negotiated.
With the package, Russia is threatened for the first time with harsh EU sanctions against its billion-dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) business. According to diplomats, the European Commission wants to ban ports like the one in Zeebrugge, Belgium, from being used to ship Russian LNG to third countries. This should then lead to Russia being able to sell less liquefied natural gas due to a lack of transport capacity and invest less money in its war of aggression.