Having largely adopted the AfD’s political programme on refugees and domestic policy, the federal government now wants to overtake it from the right in foreign policy.
The Czech government announced on March 27 that it had uncovered a Moscow-financed propaganda network that sought to influence European politics and turn public opinion against aiding Ukraine. Prague named Viktor Medvedchuk, a Kremlin-linked former Ukrainian oligarch, and Artem Marchevskyi, a media manager who used to work at one of Medvedchuk's TV channels, as the people behind the operation. According to the Czech outlet Denik N and Germany's Spiegel, hundreds of thousands of euros went into the hands of politicians from Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Hungary, partially in cash and partially in cryptocurrency.