Brussel - the PVV has sailed a remarkably pro-Russian course while voting in the European parliament. This we can conclude from a look at he votes in that parliament, conducted by this newspaper.
On the 17th of July 2014 there is a first vote over the Ukraine by the newly installed European Parliament. In the resolution, the Russian occupation of the Crimea (illegal according to international law) is denounced. Wilders PVV party does not support that resolution.
It is a pattern that shows every time when in the European parliament Russia and the Russian role in that region is discussed in parliament. In 14 resolutions, the PVV keeps trying to shield Russia from those resolutions by repeatedly voting against them.
In a resolution, which was done by personal vote, about the financing by the Russians of far right political parties in Russia, the PVV votes against the resolution. Cause for this revolution is the fact that the Front National of Marine Le Pen received loans in the millions from Russian banks closely tied to Putin/Kremlin. According to Le Pen she had to because French banks would no longer borrow her any money.
Since the 15th of June 2015, the PVV and the FN have joined forces with other anti-EU parties in the European parliament but that failed at first because there were not enough parties to form a faction.
But the voting behavior of the PVV before and after joining with the FN does not significantly change. Wilders and Le Pen had joined forces before the 2014 European elections.
For the PVV itself, there are no direct links with Russian backers and Geert Wilders denied having any connections to the Putin regime.
In a response, the leader of the EU faction of the PVV Marcel de Graaff claims that his party is not pro-Russian (he calls it complete nonsense) but that they just reject anything that has to do with the EU. Our faction diligently votes against any resolution by the EU in which they intend to interfere in something, according to de Graaff. But he is not really that true to what he said because on November 22 of last year, he and Le Pen created a resolution meant to keep Turkey out of the EU.
Stories about the Russians trying to blow up the EU from intern pressures, with the aid of extreme right anti-EU parties. Russia is doing the same outside of the EU.
Former PVV foreign affairs spokesperson, currently in the Dutch parliament, says that he is annoyed at the amateur like way the PVV works. I think it is a Pavlovian reaction. The PVV is against the Ukraine and the EU and thus pro-Russia. It is amateur hour and irresponsible according to that spokesperson.
In fact, according to Kortenoeven, everything the PVV decides in European parliament has to first be approved by Wilders personally. In 2014 emails were leaked in which Wilders scolded a member of the PVV Dutch parliament contingent because, in Wilders's views, that person was waayyy too critical about Russia
