At the initiative of Renew Europe Group, MEPs held a debate on countering the anti-European and anti-Ukrainian propaganda of Putin’s European cronies during last week’s European Parliament plenary session. Recent allegations suggest that the Kremlin has covertly spent more than €300m since 2014 to influence politicians in more than 24 countries. These allegations, combined with the behaviour of some politicians on the far-right and left, highlight that Europe faces an internal threat to the European way of life that must be exposed and defeated.

Renew Europe President Stéphane Séjourné MEP said:

"Putin's party has directly threatened to strike European cities and yet, in Europe, there are politicians who continue to support them. The European far-left and far-right continue to repeat the Kremlin's language, as Ukrainian children are abducted and women raped. We should all be behind Ukraine and it is a disgrace that some still choose Putin. Why is Silvio Berlusconi still a member of the EPP after his statements on Ukraine? Why can so many Bulgarian leaders with pro-Russian proposals still call themselves Socialists?"

Renew Europe called for a number of measures to ensure there are consequences for the friends of Putin in Europe:

"Let us not remain silent in the face of those who work in concert with our enemies! We must act. We need an international investigation into the 300 million euros that the Russian state spends on influence. We must cut off Serbia's membership funds; if it has chosen sides, let it take the consequences. We also propose a blacklist of Russian political parties that are complicit in war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. No European political party can have a link with them."

Photo credit: Philippe Stirnweiss, European Parliament 2022