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World|politics|June 9, 2016 / 05:07 PM
Czech Republic accuses Russia of trying to 'divide and conquer' Europe

AKIPRESS.COM - Lubomir Zaoralek Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to “divide and conquer” the EU by supporting rightwing populist politicians across the bloc, Financial Times reports referring to the Czech Republic’s foreign minister, Lubomír Zaorálek. 

EU leaders are facing growing threats to the bloc’s political unity, with Britain voting this month on whether to leave and rising public anger at Brussels. Against this backdrop, far-right parties have been making gains in a number of countries.

Such nationalist and Eurosceptic movements play into Putin’s strategy of weakening the continent, Zaorálek has said.

“It is regularly discussed. We have no doubt Russia is finding ways to finance this,” Zaorálek went on. “Russia is using our weakness… We must find a way to respond.”

“This rightwing populism is very dangerous because it could really destroy the European mainstream. The long-term Russian strategy is divide and conquer,” he added.

Critics of Vladimir Putin have long suspected that the Kremlin supports Eurosceptic parties in order to weaken the EU. Zaorálek, who declined to provide evidence of funding streams, said Putin’s administration was supporting Hungary’s rightwing Jobbik party and France’s far-right National Front.

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Zaorálek’s remarks. Moscow has denied past allegations of direct financial assistance for far-right European parties and politicians.

The National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, stated in 2014 that it had received a loan from a Russian bank. No evidence has been found to support longstanding accusations that Jobbik relies on Russian financing.

Nationalism has been rising across the EU this year – a far-right candidate reached the run-off stage in last month’s Austrian presidential election and the neo-Nazi People’s party won 14 seats in Slovakia’s parliament in March. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right bloc has lost support to the rightwing Alternative for Germany.

The Czech Republic, which was ruled by a Moscow-controlled communist regime until 1989, has no prominent far-right political movements. But Czech President Miloš Zeman has criticized the EU’s sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea and has been accused of holding pro-Putin views.

Zaorálek warned that Britain’s June 23 vote on its EU membership also risked weakening European integration and playing into Putin’s hands.

“I am very afraid of this tendency towards further fragmentation,” said Zaorálek. “We must do what we can do to avert the danger of repetition from the 1930s … The European Union is something like a guarantee to not repeat the experience of isolation and loneliness. We must keep this union together.”

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