Dutch senator Tiny Kox, accused of links to the Russian secret service, denounces an absurd claim
SP Senator Tiny Kox has vehemently denied accusations that he was in the pocket of the Russian secret service while working in Strasbourg, France. He sees these accusations as an attempt to harm the Council of Europe, whose Parliamentary Assembly he heads, and to divert attention from the war in Ukraine. The Council of Europe excluded Russia from participation due to its invasion of Ukraine.
According to the investigative collective The Dossier Center, led by Russian dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Russian spy pointed the finger at Kox, appointing him as representing Russia’s interests in Strasbourg. This emerged in an analysis of documents by Russian spy Valeri Levitsky, who worked under the guise of the consul general in Strasbourg, France, where the Council of Europe is located.
Levitsky was able to manipulate a series of presidents of the Council of Europe parliament into placing them under Russian control, according to The Dossier Center. If the Kremlin wanted something, Kox “could sort it out,” Levitski said. Kox was elected president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in January. The treaty organization protects democracy and human rights in Europe. His rival candidate was Mariia Mezentseva from Ukraine, member of the EPP/CD group in the Assembly.
Kox was unable to take the allegations seriously, saying they must “come from a Russian troll factory”. Levitski was a fixture in Strasbourg, but Kox remembers nothing more than meeting him informally more than casual encounters. Additionally, Kox said he would be the last person to be considered for recruitment by Moscow after his strict reporting on the unfair Russian elections. He thinks Levitsky simply wrote his own fantasies to demonstrate his zeal to his superiors in Russia.
Under Kox’s leadership, Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe last spring because of its invasion of Ukraine. But the SP member has previously tried to keep Russia on board, according to The Dossier Center. When Russia was suspended in 2014, he reportedly argued for restoring the country’s voting rights. He also secretly defended other Russian interests, according to investigators. That was reason enough for Moscow to do its best to have Kox named president, they said.
The PS deputy indeed pleaded in favor of the readmission of the Russian parliamentarians suspended from 2014, he acknowledged. His view at the time was that parliamentarians from a member state should be welcome if their ministers are allowed to attend. But there were reasons for him to take the lead last spring to kick Russia out altogether, he said.
Kox also dismissed the idea that Russia orchestrated its election victory earlier this year to take the presidency. Kox was elected by more than a two-thirds majority. “So Russia should have a very long arm.”
He feels neither aggrieved nor weakened by the report. “The group leaders here also said today: ‘We are of course behind you. We have chosen you and you are doing a good job.'”
His party is not worried either. “We have taken note of the suspicions. The story is incorrect and baseless,” the PS said.
Kox called it “unpleasant” that the Dossier Center researchers also cited many of his predecessors who they said were under Moscow’s control. The charges against elderly former presidents, like CDA member Rene van der Linden, are sad, he said.
The Dossier Center is an online publication that says it is a non-commercial project by Russian opposition activist Khodorkovsky, who lives in London. The Dossier Center accuses the Kremlin of currently being an organized crime operation and says it wants “the rule of law and civil society” to be established in Russia.