The International Agency for Current Affairs (IACA) lobby group has been funding European politicians since at least 2016 to push for the lifting of European Union sanctions against Russia following the annexation of Crimea.
This is stated in the investigation of journalists of the Center for Research on Corruption and Organized Crime (CRCOC).
In 2016-2017, hackers calling themselves "Cyberjunta" published e-mails of Russian media technologist Sargis Mirzakhanyan, who worked as an assistant to deputies of the Russian State Duma. Journalists analyzed this correspondence.
There they found a draft of the lifting of sanctions against Russia for Cyprus, which describes the restrictions as "fundamentally contrary to the norms of international law" and also emphasizes the economic losses for Cyprus due to the loss of business with Russia. It turned out to be almost identical to the document that the Cypriot parliamentary faction AKEL signed a few months later.
In addition to Cyprus, Mirzakhanyanʼs group promoted anti-sanctions initiatives for Italy, Greece, Latvia, Austria and PACE.
According to the correspondence, Paolo Tozato from the Italian right-wing "League of the North" and Johannes Hübner from the Austrian Freedom Party were to submit resolutions to their parliaments on the lifting of sanctions against Russia. Each project had a budget of €20,000, and another €15,000 for each "in case of a successful vote". Tozato and Hübner eventually presented the respective projects in their respective parliaments.
In 2016, Mirzakhanyanʼs "International Agency for Current Politics" worked with the Italian deputy Stefano Waldeganberi from the regional parliament of Veneto — it was the first region in the EU to pass a resolution on lifting sanctions against the Russian Federation. Then their own resolutions on the recognition of Crimea by Russia were adopted in Liguria and Lombardy. Stefano Waldeganberi also worked as an observer in Crimea during the presidential elections of the Russian Federation in 2018 and the parliamentary elections in 2021.
Mirzakhanyanʼs organization invited European politicians to the Yalta International Economic Forum, which was held annually from 2016 to 2019. The correspondence contains a list of nine politicians from Austria, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic and Poland who were invited to Yalta and their fees totaling €21,500. Presumably, these are not travel expenses — they were discussed separately.
The "International Agency for Current Politics" invited European figures to observe the elections in Russia in September 2017 through the "Russian Peace Fund" of State Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky. In 2017, at least €68,000 was spent on this, including travel and accommodation.
Among the observers were three members of the European Parliament: Jaromir Kolichok from the Czech Republic, Dominique Bildet from France and Andre Elisen from the Netherlands, as well as a member of the House of Representatives of Belgium Aldo Carcaci, a member of the National Council of Slovakia Marek Krajci, a member of the Peopleʼs Assembly of Bulgaria Rumen Gechov and a member of the Riksdag of Sweden Pavel Gamov. Neither responded to requests for comment.
- In June 2014, the European Union introduced sanctions against Russia due to the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea. They include a ban on the import of products from the peninsula into the EU, a ban on infrastructural or financial investments and tourist services in Crimea.