News

The head of Czechia’s BIS counter-intelligence service, Michal Koudelka, discussed its recent operation to uncover a Russian influence network with members of the lower house’s Security Committee on Thursday. The secret service broke up a Russian group that it said was paying politicians in European Union countries and attempting to influence European Parliament elections.

After Thursday’s in camera meeting the chair of the Security Committee, Pavel Žáček, said other countries were also looking into the matter, among them Poland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany.

On Wednesday the Czech and Belgian prime ministers sent a letter to EU leaders warning against Kremlin attempts to interfere in the European Parliament elections.

Opposition leader Andrej Babiš says that the European Union’s Pact on Migration and Asylum is the greatest betrayal of Czechia in modern history. Speaking in the lower house on Thursday, the ANO chairman said that Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Interior Minister Vít Rakušan were responsible for Czech acceptance of the agreement, which he called “insane and monstrous”.

Mr. Babiš said the two cabinet members had traded Czech security, culture and way of life for uncontrolled migration, a crime explosion and breakdown of society.

For his part Mr. Rakušan said the opposition were fear-mongering over migration.

After years of talks, the European Parliament recently approved an overhaul of the EU’s migration and asylum rules.

The Czech and Belgian prime ministers have sent a letter to EU leaders about Russian attempts to interfere in the European Parliament elections, EP President Roberta Metsola told journalists on Wednesday ahead of an extraordinary EU summit. Prime ministers Petr Fiala and Alexander De Croo wrote in their letter, which De Croo shared on social media site X, that the attempted Russian interference "involved the transfer of cash, primarily in the Czech Republic."

Czechia calls in the letter for the inclusion of the media company Voice of Europe on European sanctions lists, as well as other individuals and legal entities involved in the Russian-funded influence network uncovered by the Czech counter-intelligence agency BIS in March. "We simply cannot allow Russia to get away with such a blatant attack on our democratic institutions and principles. We must arm ourselves against this both at the national and European level," the two prime ministers wrote.

The Czech daily Deník N and the German weekly Der Spiegel reported that money has been flowing from Russia via Voice of Europe to right-wing European politicians, including German MP Petr Bystron, the number two European candidate for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský is considering buying out Royal Mail, the British national postal service, Reuters and the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. Křetínský's investment company confirmed to Reuters that it tried to buy International Distributions Services (IDS), Royal Mail's parent company, earlier this month, but the offer was rejected. The Czech investor already owns 27 percent of IDS through his company VESA Equity Investment, but in recent months, he has been working informally with advisors on a possible takeover of the entire company, the news agencies said.