Nathan Gill, the former head of the Welsh branch of the right-wing populist Reform UK party and an ex-member of the European Parliament, has pleaded guilty on eight counts of receiving bribes from representatives of the Russian state and has been sentenced to 10.5 years in prison, The Independent reports.
Gill has been taking money from Russian figures since at least July 2019 — in exchange for making regular pro-Russian statements in the European Parliament and for publishing pro-Russian opinion pieces for media outlets. Gill occupied a seat in the European Parliament from 2014 to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in 2020 (he was a Brexit Party member at the time).
Gill was arrested at Manchester airport in 2021. He claimed he was headed for Russia to participate in an academic conference and to observe Russia’s parliamentary elections. In his seized phone, law enforcement officers discovered correspondence with Oleh Voloshyn, who at the time was a member of the Ukrainian Opposition Platform – For Life party, run by long-time Putin associate Viktor Medvedchuk. According to the prosecution, the WhatsApp exchanges between Gill and Voloshyn mentioned Christmas presents and monetary incentives. In particular, they discussed paying Gill 5,000 pounds for an interview with Medvedchuk-aligned Ukrainian outlet 112 Ukraine. The topics were to include the case of Medvedchuk, who was being prosecuted for state treason at the time. The WhatsApp conversation also raised the prospect of inviting Brexit party members to Medvedchuk’s talks about the hostilities in Donbas.