Czechia and Belgium call for new sanctions against Russia for trying to influence EU elections

Belgian and Czech Prime Ministers Alexander De Croo and Petr Fiala have demanded further penalties against Russia in response to its attempts to meddle in European Union elections.

Source: Alexander De Croo on Twitter (X), as reported by European Pravda

Details: The heads of the Belgian and Czech governments stressed that, given the latest revelations, the Russian regime "is trying to influence the upcoming European elections and to strengthen the pro-Russian narrative in the new European Parliament."

They stated that they would bring up the subject of Russian influence during the EU leaders' summit because "we simply cannot allow Russia to get away with such a blatant attack on our democratic institutions and principles."

"In this regard, it is the right time to establish a new EU restrictive measure regime aimed to counter Russian malign activities."

"Equally, we should examine whether the mandates of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and the European Anti-Fraud Office allow for this interference to be prosecuted. If this were not the case, we should not rule out an expansion of these mandates to allow such prosecution in the future," they added. 

In March, Czechia reported the finding of a network planning to expand Russian influence and threaten European security. In this regard, Prague has sanctioned Viktor Medvedchuk, Ukrainian-born propagandist Artem Marchevskyi, and the right-wing pro-Kremlin website Voice of Europe.

In addition, the Belgian Prosecutor's Office is looking into Russia's potential interference in the 2019 European Parliament elections using intelligence data.

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