All posts tagged: Intelligence services

Brussels watchdog moves to ban Alternative for Germany’s EU party – POLITICO

Brussels watchdog moves to ban Alternative for Germany’s EU party – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

The ESN political group doesn’t face sanctions, and the only effect that AfD MEPs would feel would be the lack of a political party to provide support in future EU elections or to coordinate policy with like-minded factions. The ESN party and ESN group were founded by Alternative for Germany in the wake of the 2024 EU election, and include Bulgaria’s Revival, France’s Reconquest (led by Éric Zemmour), Poland’s Confederation, Czechia’s SPD, Hungary’s Our Homeland Movement, the Netherlands’ Forum for Democracy, and Slovakia’s Republic Movement. In 2026 it is slated to receive over €2 million in subsidies from the European Parliament. The watchdog — the Authority for European Political Parties and Foundations — said it had found evidence that “cast doubt on the compliance” of the ESN party with EU values, the director of the authority, Pascal Schonard, wrote in a letter. The missive was addressed to the Council of the EU — comprising representatives of national governments — and was seen by POLITICO on Wednesday. The watchdog’s process was launched on Friday. The watchdog monitors whether …

Putin’s message finds a home on French TV  – POLITICO

Putin’s message finds a home on French TV  – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

French operation In a memoir published last year, Fedorova mentions her “deeply personal” bond with Ukraine, where both her parents were born when it was still part of the Soviet Union. She grew up partly in Austria, where her widowed mother — whom she describes as a former journalist-turned-entrepreneur — emigrated with her seven children to escape the chaos that followed the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Fedorova said she had first considered a career in diplomacy and studied international relations before deciding to turn to journalism. Her international background and language skills — Russian, German, English and some French, which she studied in Paris for several months — landed her a job with RT, where she rose quickly through the ranks. Aged 37 at the time of RT France’s launch, Fedorova had spent much of her career inside the RT group, working in Moscow and Berlin before being tapped to lead the French operation. Encouraged by Simonyan, she became the outlet’s president and editorial director, building its newsroom, overseeing operations and shaping the channel’s …

Russia batters Kyiv with massive missile and drone attack – POLITICO

Russia batters Kyiv with massive missile and drone attack – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Russia’s military pummeled Kyiv overnight with large-scale drone and missile attack that killed at least two people and injured scores of others, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday. Moscow’s forces used some 600 drones and 30 missiles, including at least one Oreshnik, a powerful hypersonic ballistic missile that is capable of carrying nuclear weapons, Ukraine’s air force said. “The largest number of missiles was directed at the capital — at ordinary residential buildings, at schools,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X. “The Russian strike effectively destroyed the Chornobyl Museum, damaged the National Art Museum and the building housing the office of Germany’s ARD,” Zelenskyy said. Ukrainian intelligence services had warned of an attack using Oreshnik missiles on Friday, Zelenskyy said in another post. “The use of such weapons … also sets a global precedent for other potential aggressors,” he warned. The attack on Kyiv came after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of carrying out an attack on student dormitory in Luhansk, in occupied eastern Ukraine, in which 18 people died. Putin …

Finnish spy chief warns Europe may never break free from foreign tech – POLITICO

Finnish spy chief warns Europe may never break free from foreign tech – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Cloud services featured in the Finnish agency’s recent annual report, which said their adoption can obscure the digital independence of states. Martelius said that there had been discussion in Finland about putting election information in a cloud service, but given that the Finnish election system functions “extremely well,” the idea was eventually dropped. “The kind of information that is critical for securing national security, like for instance, election-related data, is one thing which definitely should not be handled by any foreign firm,” he said. On European innovation, Martelius said Finland has excellent R&D in the areas of quantum and space, but, like other parts of Europe, it lacks sufficient capital. The intelligence chief, who took up the post in 2024, questioned whether Europe could even develop European cloud services as efficient as those from U.S. hyperscalers or win the war against Russia without foreign technology. “Currently not,” he said. “But it’s also a question of how much does Europe want to win the war by itself and how much does it want to rely still …

Germany’s spy agency picks French AI firm over Palantir – POLITICO

Germany’s spy agency picks French AI firm over Palantir – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

“By choosing ArgonOS, the BfV is sending a clear signal for European digital sovereignty,” Marc Henrichmann, chair of the parliamentary oversight committee for the German intelligence services, told POLITICO. “Whether ArgonOS can keep up in the long run will have to be demonstrated by its operational use. Performance must remain the primary criterion, not just the origin.” The decision comes amid a broader German debate over Palantir’s role in the country’s security infrastructure. Some German police forces already use the company’s software, and the German interior ministry is considering using it for federal forces. Critics have warned of risks to data protection, fundamental rights and dependence on a U.S. provider. Palantir CEO Alex Karp recently pushed back against German skepticism, arguing in an interview with BILD — which, like POLITICO, is part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network — that his company’s software is already used on “every serious battlefield in the world.” He said he understood countries’ desire for independent systems, but questioned whether Germany could afford to reject Palantir’s technology. ArgonOS cannot …

7 takeaways from Olly Robbins’ evidence on the Peter Mandelson vetting saga – POLITICO

7 takeaways from Olly Robbins’ evidence on the Peter Mandelson vetting saga – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

This is particularly wounding for Starmer because Doyle, like Mandelson, has since been embroiled in a scandal over his past association with a pedophile. (Mandelson resigned over the depth of his friendship with the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in September, while Doyle campaigned in 2017 for a friend who had been charged with child sex offenses, and was later convicted.) It was in March 2025, when Robbins was making large numbers of career civil servants redundant in a restructure. He told MPs he was “under strict instruction” from No. 10’s private office not to discuss the offer with then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy. “I felt quite uncomfortable about it and I kept giving advice that I thought this would be very hard for the office, and was hard for me personally to defend,” he added. “I don’t know what the origin of the suggestion was, and I don’t know who exactly was behind it or how serious it was,” he went on. David Lammy speaks to reporters before a “Meeting in Defence of Democracy,” a …

Italy’s Meloni travels to Middle East in bid to ensure access to oil and gas – POLITICO

Italy’s Meloni travels to Middle East in bid to ensure access to oil and gas – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

In an interview with TG1, Meloni said she had chosen to travel to the Gulf “as a gesture of solidarity” with regional allies. But she admitted the trip also had the pragmatic goal of securing Rome’s access to the region’s oil. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which some 20 percent of the oil and natural gas that powers the global economy runs, is having a major impact on Italy. The Arab Gulf states supply the country with around 15 percent of the oil it consumes, and as prices have steadily risen during the last month Meloni’s government has allocated nearly €900 million to slash fuel taxes. The regional visit reflects Rome’s unwillingness to wait for Brussels to come up with a response to the bloc-wide energy crisis. Meloni on Friday said she would move independently to “to guarantee Italy has access to the energy supply it needs.” Source link

Hungary’s Szijjártó admits he liaised with Moscow as EU discussed Russia sanctions – POLITICO

Hungary’s Szijjártó admits he liaised with Moscow as EU discussed Russia sanctions – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

But Szijjártó, who has been foreign minister in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government since 2014, played down the accusations — and alleged that his phone was being tapped. He explained that he has regularly coordinated with several foreign ministers from non-EU countries “on sanctions-related matters.” “Nice work! They proved that I say the same publicly as I do on the phone,” he added about the investigative journalists, saying that it’s been “long” known that foreign intelligence services intercept his phone calls. “For four years we have been saying that the sanctions policy is a failure, causing more harm to the EU than to Russia,” Szijjártó said, adding that “Hungary will never agree to sanction individuals or companies that are important for our energy security or for achieving peace.” Hungary’s international spokesperson Zoltán Kóvacs told POLITICO on Monday that the foreign minister’s contacts with Russia’s Lavrov were common diplomatic practice, and that he did not exchange sensitive information. “He’s not talking about those elements, actually, that do not belong to the Russians; they talk about public …

Tensions surge in final stretch of Hungarian election – POLITICO

Tensions surge in final stretch of Hungarian election – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

“Independent and critical outlets operate alongside a much larger pro-government media sector,” the report read. Kovács dismissed the OSCE’s concerns, calling its warnings of government influence over the media a “political opinion” and casting doubt on the credibility of its findings. As the campaign intensifies and polls continue to suggest that the opposition Tisza Party could win, analysts warn that both Tisza and the ruling Fidesz may clash after election night and challenge the result. Veteran election observer Péter Kramer, who has over 16 years of experience observing elections on behalf of the EU, warned the growing presence of parallel missions could muddy the waters. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were disingenuous observers,” he said, noting that politically aligned groups increasingly deploy missions to shape the narrative after the vote. “It’s an international trend.” An organization closely linked to Fidesz, the Civic Cooperation Forum, has called on U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which promotes global conflict resolution, to deploy an election observation mission ahead of the April 12 vote. Meanwhile, a conservative …

Orbán’s spies were hunting me, says Hungarian journalist accused of espionage – POLITICO

Orbán’s spies were hunting me, says Hungarian journalist accused of espionage – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

“That’s when they grabbed all the material they had on me, edited it, spun it around and published it as a sort of kompromat,” Panyi said, referring to a Russian term for compromising material. Szijjártó has acknowledged speaking with Russian counterparts before and after EU meetings, following reporting by The Washington Post that he gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reports on what was discussed, and the possible solutions proposed, during EU meetings. On Thursday, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás announced that the government had filed a criminal complaint against Panyi, accusing him of espionage and collusion with Ukrainian intelligence services. The complaint alleges he shared sensitive information about Szijjártó but does not disclose specific details or evidence. Prosecutors now have to decide whether to launch an investigation or not. The Hungarian Parliament and the Dunabe river in July 2021. | Gergely Besenyei/AFP via Getty Images Orbán and Szijjártó have maintained close relations with the Kremlin — including making multiple trips to meet top-level officials in Moscow — even after the EU …