Oleg POSTERNAK
The structures of the European Union (EU), which for years have played the role of arbiter on issues related to democracy and transparency, are increasingly getting involved in corruption scandals themselves, writes the Romanian edition of the American magazine Newsweek - Newsweek România.
On April 30, 2026, videos were distributed on the Internet (see the video below) with former UN International Court of Justice prosecutor Luis Ocampo and his son - Thomas Ocampo, in which they openly discuss their plans to destabilize the South Caucasus.
Thanks to their connections in the European Parliament (EP), Luis Ocampo plans to “remove” the pro-Western Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. This primarily serves the interests of the Kremlin, which is trying to bring Yerevan back into its orbit of influence. At the same time, Ocampo is trying to push the European Commission (EC) to terminate the agreement with the Republic of Azerbaijan, speculating on the topic of “human rights”.
“We must remove (Nikol) Pashinyan…“
The most shocking thing in the video is not so much the fact of behind-the-scenes pressure, but the intervention of senior representatives of the Brussels elite. Ocampo mentions “his man” in Brussels - a former MEP and legal advisor to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (2019-2024) Josep Borrell. “This boy now works for me in the European Parliament”, says the ex-prosecutor in the notorious video.
“In the European Parliament I can address, challenge, ask questions and put pressure on (European Commission President - ed.) Ursula von der Leyen and thus correct European policy…”. “We are increasing the pressure and I intend to do it together with the Armenian lobby in the US“, threatens Luis Ocampo. The ex-prosecutor de facto admits that he is acting not as an impartial international lawyer, but as a participant in a coordinated anti-Azerbaijani campaign.
A video of the former prosecutor's son — Thomas Ocampo has also leaked onto the Internet. In it, he practically reveals the structure of the campaign: who is coordinating it, through which channels it operates and what its goal is. “Today there is a meeting with activists, with businessmen, with people who work on the issue, on the situation with the Armenians from Karabakh…”, says Thomas Ocampo: “At the moment there is great disorder in Armenia… What we need to achieve is to remove Pashinyan“.
Currently in Yerevan, against the backdrop of the upcoming elections, the main opposition is developing between two political camps. We are talking about that of the pro-Western political course of Nikol Pashinyan and that of the pro-Russian bloc in Yerevan, which includes the oligarch Samvel Karapetyan and the ex-president of Armenia (1998-2008) Robert Kocharyan.
Is Brussels dealing with hybrid threats?
From the words of Thomas Ocampo it is clear that his family, through the EU structures, is actually working in the interests of the Kremlin. In this way, Moscow plans to bring its puppets back to power in Armenia and divert Yerevan from its pro-Western path. Therefore, in this scheme, the EU and its structures become an instrument for pushing the Kremlin’s plan.
It is ironic that just a week earlier, on April 21, 2026, the EU Council announced the creation of a new civilian mission in the Republic of Armenia to counter hybrid threats. But after today’s sensational revelations about large-scale corruption in Brussels and the promotion of Russian interests, the main question arises. And it is: can the European Union take on the mission to protect Armenia from hybrid threats if the corresponding threats are already manifesting themselves in the European institutions themselves?
We are talking about a corruption network within the EU structures, whose activities directly contradict the main geopolitical line of Brussels. Since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022, the EU and its member states have provided 200.6 billion euros in aid to Kiev. Against this background, the possible participation of European institutions in schemes from which the Kremlin benefits directly affects trust in Brussels. This is precisely why the case cannot remain just at the level of media noise. The case requires a full-fledged internal investigation, establishing the connections, the individuals involved and their mechanisms for influence.
The author is a political scientist, director of the Center for Political Intelligence
(Kiev, Ukraine)