A German politician has been filmed taking large sums of cash from a Kremlin-supporting broadcaster, Czech intelligence has claimed.

Petr Bystron, who is standing for Alternative for Germany (AfD) at European parliamentary elections in June, allegedly received €20,000 (£17,000) in cash from the manager of a Russian propaganda network while sitting in a parked car, recordings indicate.

Mr Bystron, who also sits on the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, has previously denied allegations of taking Russian money as a “defamation campaign”.

The Security Information Service (BIS), the Czech Republic’s domestic intelligence agency, now says Mr Bystron met with Artem Marchevsky, who allegedly managed a Kremlin-backed propaganda front called Voice of Europe, at least three times in the past six months.

6 points
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FCK NZS

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14 points

Don’t know what can 20k euro achieve. Russia must be lacking of money.

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14 points

This may have been one of a series of payments. This is only one that leeked.

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6 points
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Very likely this. Transfers above a certain threshold are automatically looked into to prevent money laundering, so getting a big bunch of cash at once is less convenient than getting several, smaller payments.

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1 point

You think this is going through the bank?

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7 points

Small enough to not get noticed, too little to cover their lifestyle for long, yet too convenient to not take :)

The big paydays usually happen through companies the politician and his ilk are in the board of, which just score very lucrative contracts or orders time after time. Or the politician is hired as a consultant for such companies, collecting fabulous kickbacks. Or the promise of early retirement into “window-looking jobs,” employment where they have a title, high income and zero responsibilities.

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3 points

If your blackmailing someone forcing them to take cash from you can them be used to blackmail the person further. They can press on them more, because they are now collaborators and won’t get any symphony from the public or a jury.

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3 points

To be fair, I doubt the public would give them a symphony either way. Seems like it’d be expensive and require a lot of training.

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5 points

Bro hadn’t heard of Monero.

Seriously though, those Czechs are pretty keen on taking care of shit atm.

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2 points

Not even the corrupt politicians believe in crypto lmao

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47 points

oh look, it’s

another CONSERVATIVE TRAITOR

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26 points

The AfD isnt conservative. They are facist to neo nazi.

Bernd Höcke is best friends with nazis and is allowed to be called a facist

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18 points

Potato potato

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-7 points
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Oh no no no! There is a huge difference between facism and national socialism!! I am german i know a thing or too! National socialism is based in extermination, facism isnt!

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1 point
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It’s too bad politicians don’t have an ethical score/rating, so that the citizenry can consider that when they choose who they vote for.

Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

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