Another method of infiltrating the country’s political life by the Russian security services was devised and implemented in Cyprus. In 2018, a new party, the ‘United Movement of Cypriot Hunters’, was registered in Cyprus, which genuinely represented Cypriot hunters. Soon, its name was changed to “United Movement of Cypriot Hunters – Active Citizens”. From 2023, the party suddenly began to liaise very closely with the Co-ordinating Council of Russian Compatriots. In June 2023, the party’s chairman, Nicolas Prodromou, held a formal meeting with Alina Radchenko, head of the ‘Russian House’ in Cyprus. The two sides discussed various forms of joint activity, in particular participation in a joint demonstration in July 2023 against the introduction of sex education in Cypriot schools. 
And by January 2024, Dmitry Apraksin, chairman of the KSO, was heading the list of candidates for the European Parliament from the ‘Hunters’ Party – Active Citizens’. One can only speculate as to what benefits the ‘Hunters’ Party’ gained from this alliance. Bribing any fringe parties – left-wing, right-wing, radical, etc. – is a standard modus operandi of Russian agents worldwide. What makes this case unusual is that a candidate’s place in the election was bought for Apraksin by a party of which he was not a member. 
In a pre-election article published on the Facebook page of the Cyprus branch of the KSOOR, Apraksin does not even mention which party he is standing for. Apparently, his handlers rightly decided that this would undermine the seriousness of the situation. However, the article describes in more than clear terms the goals Apraksin intends to pursue in the European Parliament – the lifting of EU sanctions against Russia. The war in Ukraine (the reason for the sanctions) is not mentioned at all, whilst the entire line of argument is rather amusing – Europe and America are in economic crisis and are therefore trying to survive at the expense of funds stolen from Russia (that is, frozen as a result of the sanctions).
Here are some of the most telling quotes:
‘…without Russian resources, the EU economy becomes uncompetitive and gradually deteriorates’;
‘The sanctions are having a far more destructive impact on the West than on the East! What on earth is going on!? What are they playing at over there!? Are they all daft? Why don’t they lift these ineffective sanctions so that everything can go back to the way it was?’;
‘…the real sector of the American economy is collapsing’;
‘…the American economy needs money, lots of money, but it is no longer possible to print it. The question arises: “What is to be done?”. The answer is as simple as all genius ideas – “take it”;’
And the final conclusion, surprisingly candid:
‘…legislation in the European Union is debated and adopted by the European Parliament. It is therefore extremely important to have members who objectively understand the essence of the processes taking place, who can speak out effectively to defend the interests of EU citizens, and who can make the right choice regarding the “right” side of history.’
The implication is that Apraksin, standing on the right side of history, will, on behalf of Cyprus, fight for the lifting of European sanctions against Russia and, thereby, for the prosperity of the European economy.
The text is strikingly naïve, entirely false and it is unclear who it is intended for. That said, although Apraksin’s chances of victory were slim, they did exist. The Cyprus Hunters’ Party is a fringe party, not represented in parliament, with only a few tens of thousands of supporters. However, if the votes of Russian supporters of Putin holding Cypriot citizenship were added to its electorate, Moscow’s calculations might have paid off. But here, the Russian Embassy, one must assume, fell into the trap of its own propaganda. The calculation was apparently that 50–60,000 people out of Cyprus’s 120,000-strong Russian community hold Cypriot citizenship and would be able to push Apraksin into parliament, precisely because he is Russian and pro-Putin. 
Three months before the European Parliament elections, in March 2024, the Russian presidential election took place, and the Russian ambassador to Cyprus, FSB Lieutenant-General Marat Zyazikov, reported that the event had been an outstanding success. According to official figures, a total of 53,000 people voted at the two polling stations in Cyprus. Putin received 44,844 votes, accounting for 84 per cent of all ballots cast. This is almost 10 per cent higher than the average across Russia as a whole and slightly lower than in Belarus (87.5 per cent). At the same time, 36,870 people voted early using portable ballot boxes that nobody had seen. In other words, at least 36,000 ballot papers were simply stuffed into the boxes. And that is in addition to other fraudulent tricks. 
Following the election, Zyazikov said in an interview with *Rossiyskaya Gazeta* correspondent Alexander Gasuk (who had been deported from Cyprus shortly beforehand for espionage):
‘I consider it of fundamental importance to emphasise that the exceptionally high voter turnout demonstrated by our compatriots here represents not so much a formal process as a unity—unique for a European Union member state—of true patriots of their homeland in the cause of choosing the best future for it...’. 
He would have been better off not saying that. The fact is that the European Parliament elections were genuine, and Apraksin received a mere 103 votes in them. 
Thus, Zyazikov’s patriotic propaganda was shattered to smithereens, and the entire campaign he had organised for the Russian presidential election was discredited. If 44,000 people voted for Putin in the Russian presidential election, whilst only 103 voted for Putin’s protégé in the European Parliament elections—which were known to be fair—then the scale of the fraud in the former election becomes obvious.
No one forced Zyazikov to speak when he declared the solidarity of Cyprus’s 120,000-strong Russian community with Putin and his regime. And no one forced him to authorise the obviously doomed operation to get Apraksin into the European Parliament. Surely he, of all people, could easily have predicted the outcome…