Thursday

1st Jun 2023

Exclusive

EU to clean house of Russia lobbyists

  • Russian president Vladimir Putin (c) (Photo: kremlin.ru)
Listen to article

Brussels is to wave goodbye to Russian lobbyists under new sanctions, ending a 20-year era of influence peddling in Europe.

The Russia PR ban is included in the small print of more drastic EU measures, including an oil embargo, due to enter into force later this month.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"It shall be prohibited to provide, directly or indirectly .... management consulting or public relations services to: the government of Russia; or legal persons, entities or bodies established in Russia", according to a European Commission proposal dated 4 May and seen by EUobserver.

This covers "advisory, guidance, and operational assistance services provided to [Russian] businesses for business policy and strategy".

It also covers "advisory, guidance, and operational services related to improving the image of the [Russian] clients and their relations with the general public and other institutions".

It's hard to pin an exact figure on how much Russian lobbying is worth in Brussels alone.

It's just €3.5 million a year, according to self-declared pro-Russian entities in the EU Commission's 2022 transparency register.

Six Russian state firms alone spent €2.35 million in 2019 to 2020, according to civil society group Transparency International EU.

Pro-Kremlin lobbying was in its golden age some 15 years ago when Russian president Vladimir Putin was still a smiling face in the pro-Western G8 club.

G-Plus, the top pro-Russian lobby firm in Brussels back then, was raking in several million euros a year by itself and some EU Commission officials were trading in their €120,000 a year EU jobs to earn as much as €480,000 a year in its ranks.

Lobby wars in Europe reached fever pitch when Putin invaded Georgia in 2008.

The Kremlin changed tactics after invading Ukraine in 2014, when it began spending hundreds of millions of euros a year on TV and online propaganda instead.

But even so, it was "shocking" for some campaigners that paid pro-Russian influencers were still able to meet EU policymakers as things stood.

"I think this [the proposed Russia PR prohibition] is recognition that lobbying from Russia has been a danger," Vitor Teixeira from Transparency International EU said.

"It's the end of an era for Russian lobbying in Brussels," he said. "I don't think there's any going back from here because now there's a recognition of the danger it can pose," he added.

It [the PR ban] was "happening 20 years too late, [but] it's a huge and important step to stop these agents of influence for Putin running around and infiltrating our institutions", said Bill Browder, a British human-rights campaigner who has battled Russian lobbyists in Brussels, London, and Washington.

"It would be key that EU proposals ban all lobbyists … from representing the interests of repressive regimes such as Russia," Vicky Cann from pro-transparency group Corporate Europe Observatory said.

Exemption for lawyers

Russia also works with several law firms in the EU capital and in the EU courts in Luxembourg.

Legal services were pointedly excluded from the EU Commission proposal, even though it extended the PR ban to accountancy and other service sectors.

The draft EU sanctions protected "the exercise of the right of defence in judicial proceedings and the right to an effective legal remedy".

"The exemption for law is logical," Andreas Geiger, a partner in the Alber & Geiger law firm in the EU capital, said.

"You can't revoke the right to legal defence in a democracy. Also for sanctions," he said.

But some law firms blurred the line between legal work and broader advocacy in a way that might make it hard for the EU to enforce its crackdown on Russian interests, he indicated.

How come "going to court against [EU] sanctions is fine but telling the Commission and [EU] council the same stuff is not?," Geiger said. "What about lawyers doing lobbying? Impossible to differentiate," he said.

Lobbyists and lawyers start split from Moscow

Some consultancies, such as Brunswick or Kreab, were already refusing Russian clients well before the invasion in late February. Law firm Covington represented the Ukrainian government on a pro-bono basis in its case against Russia at the Hague this week.

EU parliament revokes Russian lobbyist badges

After months of stalled negotiations to remove Russian lobbyists from the EU's joint-transparency register, the European Parliament has decided to go solo and unilaterally bar them from its premises.

MEPs boycott awards over controversial sponsorship

Two MEPs have withdrawn their nominations from the MEPs Awards over the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis's participation as a sponsor — currently involved in an alleged bribery scandal in Greece.

Latest News

  1. Europe's TV union wooing Lavrov for splashy interview
  2. ECB: eurozone home prices could see 'disorderly' fall
  3. Adapting to Southern Europe's 'new normal' — from droughts to floods
  4. Want to stop forced migration from West Africa? Start by banning bottom trawling
  5. Germany unsure if Orbán fit to be 'EU president'
  6. EU Parliament chief given report on MEP abuse 30 weeks before sanction
  7. EU clashes over protection of workers exposed to asbestos
  8. EU to blacklist nine Russians over jailing of dissident

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us