OCCRP: Russian lobbyists close to power paid European politicians to promote initiatives to recognize Crimea as part of Russia

The lobbying group International Agency for Current Politics, associated with the State Duma, paid European politicians to promote initiatives to lift sanctions due to the annexation of Crimea to Russia. this found OCCRP , IRPI , Important Stories and Profil out .

Journalists investigated the leak of letters from assistant to State Duma deputies and Russian media technologist Sargis Mirzakhanyan, published in 2016-2017. In his correspondence they found a draft for lifting sanctions from Cyprus, which was accepted by the AKEL party a few months later .

In 2016, the son of Russian businessman Sergei Kozlov, Dmitry, donated to AKEL 15 thousand euros . Kozlov Jr. is also associated with the Ego o Politis party , known as the "Russian Party". Before its creation, the man wrote to Mirzakhanyan that he met with Sergei Lavrov, and he “gave his blessing.”

Similar projects, according to the leak, were to be introduced by parliamentarians from Italy and Austria - Paolo Tosato and Johannes Hübner. Each was allocated a budget of 20 thousand euros; another 15 thousand euros could be added to this money “in case of successful voting.” As a result, both politicians came up with an initiative to legitimize the annexation of Crimea.

“It turned out to be a bomb! From a media point of view, this will most likely be our loudest news release!” Mirzakhanyan wrote after the adoption of a resolution on the lifting of sanctions against Russia by the Italian region of Veneto. According to journalists, the media technologist talked about this topic with local parliamentarian Stefano Valdegamberi. Later, the decision to recognize the peninsula as Russian was reached in two more regions - Liguria and Lombardy.

As OCCRP notes, European politicians were also paid for visits to the Yalta International Economic Forum. In Mirzakhanyan’s mail they found references to representatives of Austria, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic and Poland, as well as their fees of 21 thousand euros.

In addition, observation of elections in Russia was paid, journalists learned. In 2017, European figures were invited through the Russian Peace Foundation, founded by deputy Leonid Slutsky. The budget for this was at least 68 thousand euros.