A British politician on Friday admitted taking bribes to deliver pro-Russia statements in the European Parliament in 2018 and 2019, arrange an event for a close ally of Russia’s president, and make media appearances for pro-Russian news outlets.
The lawmaker, Nathan Gill, represented Wales as a member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2020. He initially represented the right-wing U.K. Independence Party, which campaigned for Brexit under the leadership of Nigel Farage. In early 2019 he joined Mr. Farage’s next political project, the Brexit Party, which later rebranded to become Reform U.K., the party currently leading British opinion polls.
Although he led the party’s 2021 Welsh Parliament election campaign, he is no longer a member of the party and holds no elected office, according to the BBC.
Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police unit which led the investigation, said in a statement that Mr. Gill had been “taking payments to peddle narratives that would have had the effect of being beneficial toward Russian interests.”
It is the latest of a series of criminal cases in Britain to involve pro-Russian influence and espionage, including the conviction of a gang who set a Ukrainian-owned London warehouse on fire and a spy ring that targeted journalists and critics of the Russian government.
Mr. Gill, 52, admitted being bribed on eight occasions to carry out instructions delivered by a Ukrainian national, Oleg Voloshyn, who had been an official in the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych and was a member of a pro-Russian political party at the time.
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