How the Kremlin buys influence in Europe

“Russia asserts its soft-power approach in Europe through the media, nonprofit organizations, the Orthodox Church and the organizations related to it, but also through the ideas of pan-Slavism or anti-Americanism,” Vladislava Vojtíšková told a 19 September 2016 conference in Prague’s Galerie Lucerna as she presented the research paper, The Bear in Sheep’s Clothing, under which she is signed alongside other authors.

According to the study, Russia’s efforts to exert influence on Europe by way of NGOs take three forms, namely working with government-sponsored expat nongovernmental organizations (including Russkiy Mir, the Fund for Russian Compatriots Abroad, and the Gorchakov Fund), think-tanks mostly active within Russia (such as the Valdai Discussion Club or the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies), and with the support of established European think-tanks. Their sponsors include but are not limited to the Russian government or Gazprom-financed French think tanks – the Institute for of International and Strategic Affairs and the French Institute of International Relations.

Alexej Kelin, a member of the Czech Government Council on Ethnic Minorities, put the debate about the study outcomes in a broader context. He gave a lively account of Vladimir Putin’s coming to power in Russia and described certain aspects of modern-day Russian life. “Russia is turning back, against the tide of history,” Alexej Kelin said. Another panelist, member of the European Parliament Pavel Svoboda highlighted the fact that for the first time, four organizations pooled their resources in formulating and presenting a study, namely the Institute for Christian Democratic Policy, the European Values think-tank, the Wilfried Martens Centre, and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

The paper, The Bear in Sheep’s Clothing, subtitled The Russian-financed Organizations in the EU, was co-written by Vladislava Vojtíšková with Vít Novotný, Hubertus Schmid-Schmidsfelden and Kristina Potapova.