The letter sent to a broad list of EU lawmakers stated, “Assistance with finding suitable accommodation can be provided, and personalized invitations to the St. Petersburg Economic Forum will follow in due course.” Kartheiser’s outreach is controversial due to restrictions on cooperation between the European Parliament and its Russian counterpart. The European Parliament officially suspended dialogue with Russian parliamentary bodies in 2014, and Russian and Belarusian officials have been barred from the European Parliament since shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. There have been 20 rounds of EU sanctions against Russia.
Undeterred, Kartheiser traveled to Moscow last June despite facing expulsion from the ECR group, defending his privately funded St Petersburg trip, citing its relevance as “undisputable.”
Petras Auštrevičius, a Lithuanian lawmaker with the Renew Europe group, described the recruitment push as “an open attempt to recruit” MEPs “for working for Russia as informants, influencers, and more.”
In response to emailed questions, Kartheiser wrote, “More and more high-level European politicians call openly for a renewed dialogue with Russia on ministerial level, in Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Croatia, etc. So it is only a question of time until EU policy will change.” However, he declined to disclose which lawmakers, if any, had expressed interest in joining his trip by a May 6 deadline, stating, “I have a strict line of conduct. I do not communicate any names, numbers, or political affiliation. Indeed, participants might face negative consequences (as it happened to me) so I remain silent.”
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