Monday
November 27, 2023
In Flanders, Russia’s Belgian far right is facilitated by Kris Roman. What is far less well known is his decade-long relationship with Russian intelligence.
“It’s a great night with Flemish, Walloons, Dutch and Russians, as well as other Donbass dwellers,” says Sarah Melis. The young woman, known as the organizer of the anti-Covid lockdown protests, was one of the speakers at a “geopolitical pizza party” in Durbuy, a city in eastern Belgium, in mid-October.
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He arrived at the invitation of Kris Roman, one of the best-known Russian propagandists and Putin enthusiast in Belgium. The two met at one of those Covid protests. At the pizza party, Roman was wearing a T-shirt with a symbol of Russian infantry soldiers. and the inscription “Za Donbass” [For Donbass], next to the Z symbol.
“I communicate with everyone and I am obliged to have the same opinion as the organizer or the guests, but the scenario in Ukraine is different from what the media claims,” Melis said. “Ukraine is so innocent across the board. “
The other important guest tonight was Robert Steuckers, one of the founders of the New Right in the late 1970s, a forerunner of what is now called the “alt-right. “Steuckers brought Roman his latest book, titled Russian Pages. Steuckers is in contact with Alexander Dugin, one of the Kremlin’s ideologues.
Behind the scenes, Steuckers co-authored an e-book through the identitarian and anti-globalization organization Feniks, made up of (former) Schild members.
After its invasion of Crimea in 2014, Russia invested heavily to maintain its symbol and foster pro-Russian sentiment, specifically among Europe’s nascent far-right.
Belgium is particularly attractive as a political gateway to Europe: the capital only of Belgium, but also of the EU and NATO. The influence gained in Belgium can bear fruit in the rest of Europe. And in Brussels, spying on foreign powers is said to be commonplace, as are influence operations.
A six-month investigation through Belgian media outlet De Morgen and Ukrainian investigative outlet Texty exposed a vast network of more than 150 Belgian organizations interacting with Russian security services, government ministries or sanctioned organizations.
This is the story of just one of those people.
Kris Roman is a well-known polemicist and self-proclaimed “Reformed racist. “Roman got his first steps on the neo-Nazi far right, something that is not unusual with many of the Kremlin’s trusted figures in Europe.
He once invited David Duke, former KKK grand wizard, to talk to Lebbeke. In 2003, Roman was prosecuted for making anti-Semitic and racist comments.
The story of Roman’s interactions with the Flemish far right is well known; his relationship with Americans connected to the Kremlin regime and his intelligence is less so. Over the past decade, the Belgian citizen has met with a number of Russian war criminals, intelligence officers, propagandists, and government officials.
In 2003, at the time of his conviction for racism, Roman made his first stop in Russia, facilitated by Pavel Tulaev, a far-right neo-pagan activist. Tulaev is one of the founding ideologues of the Russian extreme right. He wrote extensively about “the white world and the white race,” describing Russians as “modern Aryans. ” He and Roman have become close friends, which gave Roman easier access to other members of the Russian far-right.
A few years later, Roman founded his so-called “pan-Eurasian” tank, Euro-Rus, which promoted Russian propaganda and anti-Western rhetoric.
During one of Euro-Russia’s first official visits to Moscow, Roman posted on social media that he met with former Russian Duma member Maksim Mischenko, who organized a series of pro-Kremlin youth marches. In Russia, Roman deepened his ties with supporters of pensioners. KGB and FSB General Alexander Nikitin.
In the 2000s, Roman is photographed having dinner with Nikitin and Sergei Voitinsky, an alleged former KGB intelligence officer and avowed Russian neo-Nazi. “Ex-KGBs don’t exist, just leave out the ‘ex’,” Roman says now.
Voitinsky is an activist member of the fascist paramilitary organization Russian National Unity, a party so extremist that it was banned by the Russian government in 2000. In order to come out with a more moderate symbol in public, Nikitin and Voitinsky created a new organization: PZRK Rus.
Roman then facilitated the stopover of Voitinsky and other far-right Russians in Belgium. In 2010, PZRK Rus represented through Voitinsky at a convention in Antwerp organized through Roman.
In 2014, following Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula, Roman said its pro-Russian activities had intensified. Despite being a fringe activist in his country, Roman began appearing on Russian state television as an “expert” on Europe. It continues to play this role today, offering a false veneer of Europeanness to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Inspired by Russia’s far-right youth movement, Roman also organized pro-Russian marches in Brussels. In 2015, he organized an event and encouraged others to come from Russia to attend, possibly facilitated by the embassy and other Russian propagandists.
The Russian embassy takes a keen interest in Roman’s activities and has even helped publicize his work, organizing events at the Antwerp consulate and even sending Russian officials to events at his home. The Russian consul and embassy have already visited his home and toasted with Roman. .
More recently, 21 members of the Russian embassy and consulate were expelled for espionage.
During his repeated trips to Russia, Roman has become increasingly close to former and current members of Putin’s government and his security services.
In 2019, Roman met Belarusian citizen Valery Derkach. Roman and Derkach signed an “anti-Russian” agreement with the head of a banned pro-Kremlin Ukrainian political party, a retired Belarusian army intelligence colonel and the head of a Ukrainian Orthodox militant group.
Derkach, the leader of an ultranationalist Russian expatriate group, Rus United, once worked as a researcher for a Belarusian state-controlled think tank during the rule of Belarusian president and dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
A 2021 investigation through the Ukrainian NGO Information Resistance connected Derkach to Russian intelligence and a planned Russian hybrid influence operation aimed at selling the ideals of the “Russian world” in Belarus and across the EU. In particular, Derkach’s organization invites members of the far-flung European right to stop in Belarus.
His organization has official representations in Latvia, Germany and, interestingly, Belgium. Federal tax records show a nonprofit company, “Rus Edinaya Belgie-Belgium,” registered in Roman’s call at his home in Dendermonde.
When asked about the company, Roman stated that he had created it “on the behalf” of Derkach, but said it was dormant. The company is not in liquidation. ” We call it an inactive foundation. . . It exists, but not paintings because I don’t know what’s going on in Belarus,” he said. “I don’t know what he has to do with that today. “
The founding documents of the company, which appears to be controlled by a user suspected of having links to the intelligence services, specify that its aim is to “promote the cultural, religious and ethical values of the Russian world in the countries of the European Union” and to disseminate “Russian culture and social image” in the EU.
This isn’t the only shady company registered in Roman’s name. In 2017, Roman “officially” appointed head of the representative office of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) in Belgium. According to Roman, he was invited to this position through Erwan Castel, a French mercenary who has been fighting for Russia in the Donbass region since 2015. From there he began direct negotiations with the occupying forces in Donetsk.
Based in his former home in Dendermonde, decorated with Russian flags and icons of Putin and Stalin, Roman now claims to lead an identified political organization in Russian-occupied Donetsk in Belgium.
In its official founding documents, the Donetsk Representation claims to announce “help in communication between the Belgian people and the Donetsk People’s Republic” and to represent “the interests and wishes of the citizens of the Donetsk People’s Republic. “Belgium has never identified the DPR as an independent country or a component of Russia.
“There is a representation of Catalonia in Brussels. There was a representation of the PLO in Brussels. We’re not the first to do this,” says Roman. “By law, you can represent whatever you want. I can identify a representation of Mars on Earth in Belgium. . . Legally, Belgium has identified the foundation. Belgium has legally recognized the representation. “
The Belgian government never took any steps to shut down its representation, as is the case with similar representations in France and the Czech Republic.
Essentially, the base provides a propaganda design in Belgium for other people connected with the Russian professional forces. All of the nonprofit’s founders are from the Russian-occupied regions of Donetsk Oblast, and most are related to Russian security or armed Russian proxies. .
Andrei Bedilo, a former Soviet KGB border guard, is one of the most prominent names in the founding documents. He took an active part in the armed insurgency in Donbass in 2014. Most recently he is an adviser to the head of the Central Executive Committee of the apparatus. in the Russian-occupied Donbass.
Bedilo is a decorated member of the Russian professional forces and a member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. An avid singer, he poses in military uniform, doing a song praising Russian troops in Donbass, sporting a Z logo.
Elena Lukan, originally from Donbass, and her husband also appear in the founding documents. She works within the government apparatus of the DPR occupation forces, with special emphasis on “ideological work” and “information activities. ” She is also a candidate for the United Russia party in Donbass.
Roman claims that the Russian professional government in the DPR presented him with documents about the foundations. His “boss,” he says, is Natalia Nikonorova, former DPR Foreign Minister and current Russian senator. She sanctioned most Western countries, adding the EU, even before the war began. Roman helps keep in touch with the now senior Russian official.
At events, Roman reads aloud Nikonorova’s official statements to visitors and is most likely in normal contact with the minister, especially now that the Donetsk government contemplates the fate of its now redundant presence abroad. Roman refuses to talk about the source of his income. According to sources close to De Morgen, Roman is claiming Belgian social security.
It is clear whether the diplomatic post in Dendermonde is still active. Roman has moved to Wallonia, where she believes she is more receptive to the pro-Russian message. He says he runs a new think tank, the Center for Euro-Russian Studies, from his new home in Durbuy. This organisation is indexed in the Belgian Official Gazette.
Roman says he continues to interact with Flemish right-wing youth organizations and seeks to announce his pro-Russian perspectives to the emerging French-speaking right. October’s pizza night is proof of that.
Since 2019, Roman is especially less visual in Belgium and appears in the Russian media, where he remains in the news. In July, the Belgian citizen tried unsuccessfully to cross the Russian border from Finland.
For unknown reasons, Roman was deported to Belgium after a brief detention in Finland earlier this year. Russian media speculated that this was due to the fact that it was considered a risk to US President Joe Biden’s stopover in Finland, in preparation for the neutral country’s once-accession to NATO.
A month later, at the end of August, Roman traveled with militants to stop with Russian troops in Donbas. According to their social media posts, they were carrying medical equipment. In October, he was arrested again, this time in Turkey, on his way. to Russia.
While it seeks to establish a conclusive link between Roman’s activities and the Russian security services, the breadth and intensity of his ties to politically exposed Russians paint a picture of almost rampant Russian influence.
Despite sanctions and Russia’s proxy war in Ukraine, Roman has played a key role in deepening far-right ties with the Kremlin in Belgium, facilitating reciprocal visits through pro-Russian figures inside and outside the country.
This survey was first published in De Morgen
Dylan Carter is a freelance investigative journalist based in Brussels. In the past he worked in Ukraine and helped identify one of Ukraine’s largest English-language media outlets, The Kyiv Independent.
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