Leaked documents show connections between PVV and Russia

Leaked documents posted online by Ukrainian hackers show that the Kremlin has very successfully been trying to develop ties with the PVV since 2013. The documents also show that PVV leader Geert Wilders has been trying to hide his far-right populist party’s connections with Russia, Follow the Money reports.

PVV members have participated in Russian propaganda events, and their visits were organized by the far-right Duma member Leonid Slutsky. According to FTM, Slutsky is a central figure in the Kremlin’s efforts to recruit Western politicians to its cause so that they can fight sanctions against Russia and the idea of a sovereign Ukraine in their own countries.

For example, Slutsky organized PVV MEP Andre Elissen’s visit to Moscow in 2017 to “observe” the Russian elections. In 2018, Geert Wilders himself visited the Russian capital, a trip also organized by Slutsky. At the time, Wilders claimed that his visit was to “keep the dialogue open” after Russia annexed Crimea and the downing of flight MH17. Wilders did not comment publicly about the visit afterward.

The documents also show that the PVV has tried to conceal its political ties with the Kremlin. In an email from 2016, for example, Wilders explicitly demanded that the general public not see the Russian guests present at a meeting of European sister parties.

According to FTM, the leaked documents show that the PVV is one of several political parties that Slutsky and his Russian Peace Foundation have been influencing, bribing, and inviting to Russia on an all-expenses paid basis for at least ten years.

According to Jakub Kelnsky, a researcher at the expertise center on hybrid security threats in Helsinki, the relationship between the PVV and Russia exposed in these documents is a textbook example of the Kremlin’s strategy to influence Western politicians. “You invite them to election observation missions, to events about traditional values, anti-Brussels, anti-EU, or anti-NATO. Then you’ll probably give them some stage time because some will be flattered. And you try to get them to visit Moscow.”

Five years after Wilders’ trip to Moscow, the PVV’s position on Russia has remained the same, according to FTM’s analysis of the party’s voting behavior. The party condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but it maintains its opposition to sanctions on Moscow and arms supplies to Kyiv. It is also firmly against Ukraine becoming a member of NATO. Early last year, just after the invasion, the PVV was the only party to vote against an investigation into the financing of political parties from abroad.