"Qatargate and pro-Russian Armenian lobby - just the tip of the iceberg"
British media on corruption in EP

POLITICS  25 February 2023 - 13:10

The British website EU Today published an article on the corruption scandal "Qatargate", in which the pro-Armenian MEP Eva Kaili and the "grey cardinal" of the Armenian Friendship Group in the European Parliament, billionaire Kaspar Karampetyan, were involved. 

The author of the article is Gary Cartwright, editor-publisher of London EU Today.

Caliber.Az reprints the article.

The Qatargate scandal that recently rocked Brussels and saw the incarceration of European Parliament vice-President Eva Kaili, currently facing charges related to her alleged relationships with third-countries (and somewhat large amounts of cash), has raised serious questions over lobbying practices inside the institution.

Seasoned observers – particularly those of us who have worked inside the Parliament – are neither surprised nor shocked by this story, there are after all “a million stories in the naked city”!

Outside the context of Qatargate however other torches are being turned towards Kaili and her association with a lobbying group operating within the European Parliament whilst being strongly suspected – and I use the word “suspected” advisedly – of being controlled by a foreign power.

I refer to the EU-Armenia Friendship Group, which is closely associated to the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD), the largest Armenian lobby organisation in Europe.

Panzeri’s connection with convicted fraudster and money launderer and fugitive Mukhtar Ablyazov.

The importance of former MEP and now human rights campaigner Pier Antonio Panzeri in the case against Eva Kaili cannot be overstated. Politico has reported that he “will receive a reduced sentence in exchange for information — including on bribes he says he made.”

Panzeri has himself been connected, through a controversial human rights NGO – Open Dialog Foundation (ODF) – along with the man described as “the world’s biggest fraudster,” Mukhtar Ablyazov.

Ablyazov has outstanding convictions in the UK and Kazakhstan, and also faces extradition warrants from Russia and Ukraine.

It is widely reported that ODF was established by Ablyazov in order to present himself and other members of his syndicate as “persecuted” political oppositionists: most of ODF’s “clients” are wanted on corruption and/or money laundering charges.

Indeed, Bartosz Kramek, board member of ODF and husband of the NGO’s president, Lyudmyla Kozlovska, has himself been accused of money laundering in the UK in 2019, and in Poland in 2021.

A photograph believed to have been taken during a visit by Ablyazov to the European Parliament and the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in 2017 shows Ablyazov and Panzeri, along with ODF’s Ms. Kozlovska.

An article covering the visit on the ODF website has in recent days been taken down – but Google neither forgives nor forgets!

Two years later Panzeri was to establish his own Human Rights NGO in Brussels – ‘Fight Impunity’.

On his board sat former Greek EU commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, who controversially held meetings with at least two European Commission vice-presidents whilst being paid by Panzeri, and during the two-year “cooling off” period following his term in office and during which he was prohibited from carrying out lobbying activities relating to his remit in the Commission, in Avramopoulos’ case, EU home affairs.

According to Italian newspaper La Stampa Fight Impunity paid him €60,000 for his work between February 2021 and February 2022 during which time he held meetings with nine EU commissioners. His cooling-off period ended on December 1st 2021.

Fight Impunity also allegedly transferred five-figure sums to Italian trade unionist Luca Visentini, who was then running for the presidency of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

The issue of “fake NGOs” has been a cause of concern in the Brussels “bubble” for some time. Indeed, Fight Impunity is not the only suspicious human rights NGO to be associated with Qatargate: Niccolò Figà-Talamanca secretary-general of ‘No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ)’ was also arrested as part of the police investigation into Kaili et al, but has subsequently been released.

Interestingly, NPWJ shares the same Brussels address as Fight Impunity, and both have received sizeable from the New York based ‘Human Rights Foundation,’ (HRF), which has demanded the return of funds from at least one of the NGOs.

There is no question whatsoever of any impropriety here by HRF.

Panzeri’s revelations, when they are made public in a court of law, promise to be dynamite!

Is Armenian lobbying in the EU manipulated by Moscow?

The Brussels-based EAFJD is headed by its president, Kaspar Karampetian, a diamond dealer who has been accused in the press of dealing in so-called “blood diamonds” and who holds both Armenian and Greek citizenship.

As well as meetings in the European Parliament, EAFJD has lobbied High-Representative Josep Borrell on behalf of Armenian interests and has been involved in organising trips for parliamentarians to Armenian-occupied areas of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenia since 1988, and referred to by Armenians as “Artsakh”. Internationally, the area is recognised by most democratic governments as belonging to Azerbaijan.

In August 2019 German MEP Martin Sonneborn visited Nagorno-Karabakh with his Armenian-born wife on the initiative of EAFJD, and accompanied by Kaspar Karampetian.

The German Foreign Ministry condemned Sonneborn’s visit.

Sonneborn is one of those MEPs who, as EU Today has reported, appear somewhat supportive of Russia. In November 2022 he was one of 58 who voted against a resolution declaring Russia to be a state “sponsor of terrorism” over its war in Ukraine.

Kaili herself has lobbied the European Parliament to abolish the Schengen visa for Azerbaijani diplomats, apparently on the basis of Azerbaijan’s “attempted invasion” of Karabakh, despite the fact that Karabakh is undisputedly (unless one is Armenian, Russian, or Eva Kaili) Azeri territory.

Eva Kaili is also somewhat hostile to Türkiye, who she appears to suggest may invade Armenia. Her somewhat dubious arguments have been picked up and carried by a number of Members of the European Parliament, and whilst there is no evidence as yet that said MEPs have taken Armenian/Russian money for their support in this regard, we can report that EU Today is not the only media outlet currently searching hard and digging deep for such evidence.

Azerbaijan is a major producer of oil and gas, and could easily pick up any shortfall resulting from EU sanctions against Russia. It is also working hard to develop its renewable energy sector, and so therefore one can well understand why the Kremlin might like to create a barrier between Baku and Brussels. Armenia is that barrier.

To this end Russia is reportedly seeking to bring about a regime change in Armenia, bringing down Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and thus preventing him making concessions to Azerbaijan during the peace talks that Moscow wishes to prevent.

Early in January Pashinian refused to allow a military exercise by the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization planned for later this year on Armenian territory saying it would be “inappropriate in the current situation.”

Putin has carefully nurtured and managed the “frozen conflict” in Nagorno-Karabakh for many years, and will not take Prime Minister Pashinian’s words lightly. In fact, Armenia has been actively involved in assisting Russia to circumnavigate western sanctions, and Moscow would have no qualms in helping to avoid any confusion that may exist in Yerevan as to the hierarchy in the relationship.

A regime change followed by the arrival of “little green men” would certainly make the point.

Caliber.Az