Investigation: The links between lawyers in Ireland and Putin's soft-power agency

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : The EU said Pravfond "represents a unique structure of 'soft power' which plays an important supporting role in implementing the Russian government politics of division".
56% : In the view of the EU and the intelligence services of its member states, Pravfond does much more than this in some countries.
56% : However, they stressed Pravfond is just one of a number of ways Russia is attempting to promote its aims in EU countries.
56% : "It is important to understand that Russia does not genuinely care about Russian-speaking people abroad; rather, it uses them as tools for its influence operations - in other words, as a means of non-military attacks," Tuul of the Estonian intelligence service told the OCCRP project.
51% : The investigative project, which was co-ordinated by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an independent network of journalists, reveals for the first time the activity of Pravfond across dozens of countries, activity that has continued despite the imposition of EU sanctions in 2023.
49% : [ EU and Britain go ahead with new Russia sanctions without waiting for WashingtonOpens in new window ]
47% : Things became more difficult again in June 2023 when the EU imposed specific sanctions targeting Pravfond and its then director, Alexander Udaltsov.
46% : In 2012, Pravfond joined this growing network of GONGOs - government-organised non-governmental organisations - when it was established by the Russian ministry for foreign affairs.
42% : According to an internal Pravfond record of complaints from fund recipients in various countries, on April 12th, 2022 Donnery told Pravfond that due to EU sanctions, local banks were refusing to release funds to her which had come from Pravfond.
39% : In 2020, Donnery described her relationship with Pravfond in an interview with Russian World, an organisation that was later also sanctioned by the EU as a tool of Russian soft power.
39% : After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it became more difficult for Russia to conduct operations in the EU.
39% : "However, they are forced to refrain from public statements and actions [in] condemnation of the anti-Russian course, since otherwise they risk [being] banned by local authorities," the document stated.

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